Asylum seekers who have been granted a residency permit are finding it easier to get paid jobs, according to new figures from statistics agency CBS.
Of the group of asylum seekers between the ages of 18 and 65 who were given residency status in 2024, 13% found paid work within three months compared to just 1% in 2014, the figures show.
One in five of the refugees with a 2014 residency permit had a job within three years but this had risen to one in three of the 2021 permit holders.
Asylum seekers are allowed to look for a job once they are six months into the process. Those who have been given residency status face no such restrictions.
Of the people who were given residency status in 2024, almost half started in temporary jobs via jobs agencies. After 10 years, some 69% of residency holders were in jobs with permanent contracts.
The CBS does not explain the rise in working residency holders. Measures such as giving employers a subsidy to employ refugees long term, initiated by The Hague local council, may have helped, the NRC suggested.
The government is also planning to give asylum seekers the right to find work after three months instead of six.
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