Minister won't put number limit on asylum seekers the Netherlands will take in

Minister Eddy van Hijum does not want to set a number of asylum seekers that the government will allow in the coming years, even after urging from many parties in parliament. That is not very practical for this type of migration because it is “less controllable” than, for example, labor or study migration, the Minister said in a parliamentary debate on demographic developments.

A state committee that considered the changing composition of the population in the coming decades advised the government to establish a bandwidth for each type of migration within which the number of new residents should remain. A large majority in parliament wants the Cabinet to embrace this advice, but Van Hijum has reservations about it.

In the case of labor and study migration, he can imagine that it would be useful to define how large approximately the influx may be. But in the case of asylum migration, this is more difficult, because these numbers also depend on developments in other countries. Van Hijum pointed out that, for example, the war in Ukraine and the conflict in Syria triggered large refugee flows.

The Cabinet previously promised to aim for “moderate” population growth in the coming years, to 19 to 20 million people in 2050. According to Van Hijum, this would require an annual migration balance of 40,000 to 60,000 people. With this, the Minister already provided a bandwidth for the total annual migration. Van Hijum will announce before the summer how he can further meet parliament’s wish.