De politieke economie van arbeidsmigratie in Nederland

The political economy of labour migration in the Netherlands As a result of EU expansion since 2004, the number of labour migrants in the Netherlands has increased substantially. Partly because of this, labour migration has become an important topic in the political and social debate in recent years. In the initial period after 2004, the focus of the debate was on potential negative economic effects such as labour market displacement and pressure on social security and public finances. Due to the absence of these effects and the increased tightness of the labour market, the unequal distribution of the social costs and benefits of labour migration has become a more central issue in recent years. Policymakers and advisory bodies are considering policy instruments to influence the inflow of labour migrants. For non-EU labour migrants, ‘direct labour migration policies’ such as residence and work permits can be used. For intra-EU labour migrants, the government can use ‘indirect labour migration policy’. This involves policy instruments from adjacent policy areas which aim to influence the demand for labour migrants through changes in the structure of the economy. In the case of policy instruments at the level of municipalities, spill-over effects may play a role. Furthermore, policy instruments to redistribute the social costs and benefits of labour migration are also being considered, for example between employers and citizens. Because of the distributional effects of labour migration, decision-making on labour migration policies will be accompanied by quite significant political and administrative dynamics.