Over 300,000 migrants in the Netherlands want to work but can’t find jobs, report finds

Around 331,000 migrants in the Netherlands are able and willing to work but remain unemployed, according to a report published Thursday by the Migration Advisory Council (Adviesraad Migratie), a key advisory body to the Dutch government.

The report describes this group as “unused labor potential,” comparable in size to a city larger than Eindhoven. “The migrant misses out on connection to society, employers miss out on staff, and the Dutch treasury loses out on tax revenue,” Monique Kremer, chair of the advisory council, told NRC.

Migrants from both Turkey and Morocco each account for at least 50,000 people in the unused labor force, making them the largest groups affected, according to the report. Migrants from Syria follow with approximately 30,000. In relative terms, the problem is most acute among Syrian migrants: more than half are unemployed despite wanting to work. Among Syrians under 45, the figure rises to over 60 percent.

The council’s analysis compared migrants with Dutch people of the same gender and age group who were born in the Netherlands to Dutch-born parents. The study includes labor migrants, asylum seekers, highly skilled workers from outside the EU, and individuals who arrived through family reunification.

Of the 1.7 million migrants aged 25 to 65 in the Netherlands, 68 percent were employed in 2022. Among native Dutch without a migration background, that figure was nearly 86 percent. The gap between these groups reportedly defines the "unused labor potential". In effect, nearly one in five migrants who could be working is not.

Women are disproportionately affected, with more than 23 percent unemployed, compared to just over 15 percent of men. “Women who come to the Netherlands to join a partner are often invisible to institutions,” Kremer told NRC.

Among asylum migrants and family reunification migrants, unemployment is particularly high. Three out of five so-called "nareizigers" (family reunification migrants) reportedly do not work, and two out of five asylum migrants are also sidelined. Together with displaced Ukrainians, these groups account for nearly half of the "wasted labor potential". The issue is minimal among labor migrants.

The council strongly recommends expanding Dutch language education. “Especially among asylum and family migrants, the waste of talent would decrease sharply if they spoke Dutch perfectly,” the report states.

Fatih Aktaş, a political scientist at Hogeschool Utrecht and OpenEmbassy who studies migrant labor participation, told NRC language access is a fundamental barrier. “In asylum centers, you get little or no Dutch lessons,” said Aktaş, himself a refugee from Turkey. Asylum seekers can only start language courses after receiving residency status, and even then, the quality of these courses varies greatly between municipalities. “Often, it’s too low,” he said.

Migrants also face rejection based on the perceived value of their foreign qualifications. Employers continue to prioritize degrees from Dutch institutions, even when migrants have extensive academic credentials. The report concludes that the more migrants study in the Netherlands, the smaller the talent waste.

“About 300 Turkish academics came to the Netherlands after the failed 2016 coup and Erdogan’s crackdown,” Aktaş told NRC. “About 100 earned doctorates here.” But even highly educated migrants reportedly struggle to find work in their field. Aktaş cited the case of a Turkish cardiologist now working in car sales — “he’s swapped the anatomy of the human body for the anatomy of cars.”

Countries like Germany and Belgium are more proactive, according to Aktaş, offering foreign-trained medical professionals pathways to employment through supplementary training. “UMC Groningen started something similar two years ago, but it’s late and limited,” he told NRC. “As a refugee, you want to give back to Dutch society as soon as possible — by working and paying taxes.”

The advisory council plans to conduct follow-up studies to examine the root causes in more detail. Council member Paul de Beer said they will look at three areas: the worker, including language skills; the employer, including possible discrimination in hiring; and mismatches in how workers and employers search for each other — often confined to their own networks.