Feb 1, 2024 at 12:27 Update: 30 minutes ago
Not only Ukrainians, but also other newcomers are increasingly finding their way to a paid job in the Netherlands. The UWV granted two thousand work permits to asylum seekers in 2023. That is more than three times more than a year earlier.
Asylum seekers are allowed to enter the labor market if they have been registered in the Netherlands for more than six months. Employers must then apply for a special permit from the UWV to employ an asylum seeker.
The number of these granted work permits (TWVs) shot through the roof in 2023, according to the UWV: from six hundred to two thousand.
According to the UWV, there are two causes for the increase. Firstly, the tightness on the labor market: employers are eager for more staff. But that does not explain the entire tripling of the number of permits in one year.
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Elvis’ lawsuit opened eyes
The second reason for the increase is the lawsuit by asylum seeker Elvis about the number of weeks he was allowed to work. “Due to the attention paid to this case, it became more known to employers that some of the asylum seekers are allowed to work at all,” says a spokesperson for the UWV.
Elvis disagreed with the maximum of 24 weeks that he was allowed to work as an asylum seeker. The court in Arnhem ruled in his favor in April on the basis of the European Reception Directive, which states that asylum seekers must have access to the labor market.
The UWV announced in May that it would take the case to the highest court because it was a major ruling. It decided on November 29 that asylum seekers have the right to work 52 weeks a year.
On the day the highest court made the ruling, the UWV had already granted eighteen hundred permits to asylum seekers in 2023. Much more than in previous years. “The increase is therefore not due to the expiration of the 24-week requirement, but due to the attention paid to this,” says the UWV spokesperson.
Drop on a hot plate
“It is great for the employers and employees concerned that they have found each other,” says a spokesperson for employers’ organization AWVN. “It gives some relief to employers.”
But adding two thousand employees in one year is not enough to address the systematic shortages in the labor market, the AWVN sees. “In the coming decades we will still have far too few people for the work that is available.”
In addition, there are other obstacles for asylum seekers to get to work, according to the Council for Refugees. For example, the queues for registration with the Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND) are “enormous”, the NGO told NU.nl. The service is struggling with understaffing. But without registration with the IND, no BSN number. And without a BSN number, there is no bank account to receive a salary.
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Arnhem pays for language lessons
There is still a lot of uncertainty among employers and asylum seekers about how the two parties can work together. Refugee Connect, an organization that helps employers and asylum seekers come together, receives many questions from both groups, but also from the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) and municipalities. “Everyone is searching,” says a spokesperson for Refugee Connect.
The municipality of Arnhem is responding to this by expanding existing counters so that asylum seekers can also go there for paid work. The municipality also pays for language support in the workplace for newcomers.
“We notice that asylum seekers are eager to get started,” says the spokesperson for Arnhem councilor Paul Smeulders (Asylum and Integration). “Employers are also enthusiastic. We are looking at where we can help.”
2024-02-01 11:27:00
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