Reducing the foreign workforce in the Netherlands would hit the economy

Government measures to reduce the number of foreign workers will have a significant impact on employment and force some companies to partially relocate overseas, according to the latest edition of the Netherlands Employment Report 2019. Netherlands Innovation Monitor.

Companies facing restrictions on hiring people from the EU and elsewhere will try to replace them with Dutch workers and energy efficiency measures and However, about 25% of respondents said they would be forced to move production elsewhere, and another 25% said they might have to scale back production.

The monitor said companies that rely on low-skilled workers are more likely to focus on robotization and recruit Dutch workers, while companies that employ high-skilled foreigners are more likely to move some of their production elsewhere.

About half of Dutch companies have at least one foreign employee.

The new government plans to introduce tougher new rules to restrict entry to non-EU citizens holding highly skilled migrant visas and cap the number of international students.

Employers in industries with large international workforces have warned that the new rules will hit their businesses and could force them to move some operations overseas, including Boskalis and ASML.

Economists and the head of the government’s labour inspectorate have called on the Dutch economy to rethink its demand for low-skilled foreign labour.

The agriculture, logistics and meat industries, in particular, have been criticized for their small contribution to the economy but their reliance on low-cost workers.

Gerdien Meijerink, CPB researcher Tell Parool In April, the government’s economic policies had a bigger impact on the number of migrant workers than thought. “When you talk about immigration, you can’t separate it from economic policy,” he said. “Even now, the discussion about restricting immigration focuses mainly on legal measures and border controls.”