Netherlands | Immigration | Election update—Dutch governing agreement with focus on migration finalised

Netherlands | Election update—Dutch Governing Agreement with Focus on Migration Finalised

Summary

Following the cabinet formation negotiations after the elections in November 2023, the four participating parties have reached an agreement to establish a cabinet with a focus on stricter migration policy. The next step in the process involves nominating the new prime minister and starting the cabinet formation process.

The detail

Close to six months after the elections, on 15 May 2024 the leaders of the participating parties PVV, NSC, BBB, and VVD have finalized a governing agreement for the Netherlands. The agreement outlines the policy areas where the parties have agreed to work together. A key focus of the prolonged coalition negotiations was asylum and migration policy.

The newly released governing agreement aims to implement the ‘strictest asylum regime and broadest package to control migration,’ including pursuing an opt-out from EU asylum and migration policy and broadening the work permit requirement.

Labour migration

The governing agreement sets out measures and objectives that focus on tightening the current highly skilled and labour migration policy. Some key objectives outlined in the governing agreement are:

• Introducing a stricter qualification requirement for highly skilled migrants.
• Introducing a work permit requirement for labour migrants from outside the EU, except for highly skilled migrants. The Dutch Labor Inspectorate (NLA) will also enforce this group more strictly.
• Restriction of free movement within the EU, for example for labour migrants or nationals of new EU member states (in case of EU expansion).
• Employers of labour migrants being held responsible for public order disruption and costs caused by labour migrants without regular housing.
• Employers being responsible for teaching the Dutch language to long term labour migrants.
• Increasing the residence requirement for naturalisation from 5 years to 10 years. In addition, the language requirement for naturalisation will in principle be increased to B1 for all applicants.
• Reviewing and widening grounds for withdrawal of citizenship.

In the relevant measures, the agreement makes a distinction between highly skilled and highly qualified migration on the one hand, and low- to mid-skilled ‘labour’ migration on the other. While both groups have been specified in the agreement as being subject to updated policies, a majority of the measures are aimed towards labour migration in particular. However, which exact policies will be amended and how this will affect employee groups and businesses remains to be seen. This is also taking into account that the governing agreement also specifies that the availability of talent and strengthening of the ‘knowledge economy’ should be prioritised in the interest of the Dutch economy.

The next step will be for the Dutch parliament to debate the governing agreement and, if passed, the coalition formation will proceed to the next phase. This will entail nominating a formateur, who will become prime minister and who will be tasked with forming a cabinet.

Vialto Partners will continue to monitor developments and the impact on global mobility.

Contact us

For a deeper discussion on the above, please reach out to your Vialto Partners point of contact, or alternatively:

Sharan Kundi
Partner

Raj Mann
Director

Hugo Vijge
Director

Marijan Vrhovac
Senior Associate

Further information on Vialto Partners can be found here: www.vialtopartners.com

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