Aldermen, religious leaders criticze asylum policy; Refugees struggle to find work
The Dutch government’s asylum policy makes it impossible for people to integrate into Dutch society, a group of aldermen and mayors wrote in an opinion piece in Vrij Nederland on the same day that the Telegraaf reported on a Statistics Netherlands (CBS) report showing that very few refugees are able to work and meet their integration obligations at the same time. Religious leaders are also very critical of the right-wing government’s approach.
CBS studied the effect of the new integration system introduced in 2021, which was intended to ensure that refugees combine their integration courses with paid work. In practice, very few refugees can manage that, the CBS found. A year after their asylum application was approved, giving them refugee status and residency in the Netherlands, only a quarter of men and ten percent of women had a job. And these were mostly part-time jobs, often in the hospitality industry.
Regioplan surveyed refugees working on their integration courses. Many had to quit jobs they had because the integration process took too much time and resources. For example, it happens that refugees had to quit their jobs because the course hours were the same as their working hours. Others are expected to volunteer as part of the course, while they would have preferred to just go to their paid job.
“It is difficult to find a balance between the two,” a Syrian man who previously worked at DHL told the researchers. Refugees have 2.5 years to complete their integration course. They are entitled to social assistance while they do it. “At some point, you have to make a choice,” the Syrian man said. He chose to focus on integration and find work later, rather than risk deportation.
And then the Schoof I Cabinet’s “strictest asylum policy ever” comes on top of that. The right-wing government’s plans make it “almost impossible for newcomers to find their place in society and to make a contribution,” almost 90 aldermen and mayors wrote in an opinion piece in Vrij Nederland. They expressed serious concerns about the “unacceptable” package of emergency asylum measures, which includes scrapping permanent residency permits for refugees, shortening the duration of temporary permits, severely restricting family reunification, border controls, cells for asylum seekers whose applications were rejected, and declaring parts of Syria safe.
“The possibilities for newcomers to contribute are being undermined and the deportation of our fellow villagers and city residents is imminent. This is unacceptable to us,” the aldermen wrote. “If municipalities have to cooperate in the deportation of people whom we have just helped to integrate or obtain a home, a job, or an education, our professional pride is being put to the test.”
They asked the government to abandon “bold, unconstitutional, and unfeasible plans,” and instead give municipalities and provinces more money to “properly arrange housing, integration, education, and care for newcomers.”
Over 1,100 religious leaders - pastors, imams, rabbis, and preachers - have also signed a petition against the asylum policy. “This is not my country. That’s what I thought when I read these words in the coalition agreement,” initiator Jan de Beer told Trouw. “We don’t want to help refugees, that’s the message from the government. And they are ‘appropriately proud’ of that. That’s so cold.”
De Beer stressed that in 2023, the Netherlands sheltered only 0.04 percent of all asylum seekers worldwide. “We have enough organizational capacity to handle such percentages. So it is a matter of unwillingness,” he said. The religious leaders expressed “great concerns” about the asylum policy and asked the government to instead focus on “justice and mercy.”
