Immigration Laws: October, 1998 - Number #12

Netherlands. The Netherlands received 109,000 immigrants in 1996 and immigration is expected to remain at about 100,000 a year. The Dutch population grows by 40,000 to 50,000 a year, mostly because of immigration.

Most of the population growth is due to foreign immigration. More Dutch emigrate than return, but in 1996, 77,200 foreigners immigrated and 22,400 emigrated--net migration was 4,900 for Turks; 3,200 for Moroccans; and 2,400 for Surinamese. There were more than 5,000 foreigners from 15 countries living in the Netherlands in 1985, and more than 5,000 from 22 countries in 1995.

The number of foreigners has been decreasing because of naturalizations. There were 680,000 foreigners in the Netherlands in 1997, down from 757,000 in 1996--the largest numbers were from Morocco, 136,700 and Turkey, 127,000. There were 82,700 people naturalized in 1996, a new high, up from 36,200 in 1992, when the Dutch first permitted dual nationality.

The 15.6 million residents of the Netherlands include 1.7 million first- or second-generation immigrants, and projections are that 2.5 million Dutch residents will be first- or second-generation immigrants in 2015. The largest groups include 300,000 Surinamese, 260,000 Turks and 220,000 Moroccans. Most of the Surinamese were Dutch citizens who arrived before Suriname became independent in 1975.

The government is worried about the arrival of asylum seekers who cannot be returned to their country of citizenship. In 1996, some 22,857 foreigners applied for asylum in the Netherlands, including 4,400 Iraqis and 3,000 Afghanis. They cannot be returned because of conditions in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 1997, 34,000 foreigners applied for asylum, and some project 50,000 to 60,000 in 1998 and 1999.

There are an estimated to be 40,000 to 80,000 foreigners illegally present in the four biggest Dutch cities: Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht and the Hague. Most are from Suriname, Antilles and North Africa, and many arrived legally on tourist visas to visit relatives who have settled in the Netherlands. Their illegal status prevents many from working, and some turn to criminal activities--if caught, they may destroy their papers to make their removal difficult.

Amsterdam is a city of about 720,000, with 360,000 housing units--95 percent of the housing is rented, reflecting the Socialist housing policy. About 405,000, or 56 percent, of Amsterdam's residents are Dutch; the major groups of foreigners include 70,000 Surinamese, 50,000 Moroccans, and 32,000 Turks. Amsterdam is projected to grow slowly to about 800,000 in 2015, when over half of the residents are projected to be foreigners.

The Amsterdam labor force is 335,000, including 100,000 foreigners. Unemployment was 42,000 in 1998, over 10 percent. Half of the unemployed were foreigners; 22 percent of the foreigners in Amsterdam were unemployed. Integration policy in the 1990s has been toughened--foreigners must now study Dutch, and must be employed or enrolled in vocational training to secure a long-term residence permit.

Flowers. In 1996, The Netherlands had about two million hectares of farm land, including 109,000 hectares devoted to horticulture and 10,200 hectares of flowers and vegetables grown under glass. There are about 126,000 farms in the Netherlands, and a total of 130,000 hired farm workers, but only 20 percent, or 25,000, farms hire any farm workers.

The horticultural sector accounts for about one-third of annual farm sales, and most horticultural operations are small rose or other flower-growing operations. The average size of a greenhouse is one hectare, or 10,000 square meters and a greenhouse of this size normally has four to five workers. Acreage devoted to horticulture has been declining slightly since the 1960s, but the number of hectares under glass has doubled since 1960. At present, the industry is faced with aging growers, increased competition from low-cost producers and the prospect of more stringent environmental regulations.

Horticultural operations are labor intensive--labor accounts for about 30 percent of rose production costs. Most farm workers earn the minimum wage of f2400 a month, which results in an after-tax or net pay of f1600 to f1700 a month, or about $900 a month. Horticultural operations covered by a union contract between regional employer associations such as the WLTO and unions pay f100 a month more than the minimum, or f2500 to f3200 a month for a 38-hour work week. (The WLTO is one of six regional employer associations; WLTO represents employers in collective bargaining and lobbying with government. The WLTO was formed in 1991, as a result of the merger of separate Catholic and Protestant employer organizations.)

Payroll taxes and benefits add 40 percent to these monthly wages. In negotiations that began in March 1998, growers are trying to reduce wages by about f100 a month, back to the minimum wage, citing low prices and increased world competition. Most of the hired farm workers are local Dutch residents, but it is common for some of the hired workers to be settled immigrants--especially Turks or Moroccans. The major farm labor issues seem to be: (1) availability of workers for hire; and (2) compatibility. Hired workers typically work alongside the grower.

A modern 1.5-hectare rose operation in September 1998 employed eight workers, including two Moroccans. Major renovations in 1990 added: (1) rose sorting and packing machinery--roses are hung on a machine that sizes them and cuts stems, and then bundles them in groups of ten, with the bundles placed in plastic boxes filled with water until they are sold; and (2) water recovery systems. Roses are planted in plastic bags of mulch laid in troughs, with a drip irrigation system delivering water to each plant. Excess water is collected in the tray underneath the mulch, and returned to a recycling facility on the farm. Most newer greenhouses include lighting systems that increase photosynthesis in the winter months, when rose prices are highest.

Most roses are sold through the Bloemenveiling Aalsmeer, owned by 5,000 growers. At 750,000 square meters, it is the size of 125 football fields and is one of the largest buildings in the world. Most flowers and potted plants are brought to the auction by commercial delivery services. They are packed in plastic boxes on wheeled carts, each with two or three shelves holding, for example, 45 plastic boxes each containing 20 bundles of roses. Selling involves moving these carts along a slow-moving track past buyers seated facing the auction clocks. As each cart moves by, the price begins high, and the first buyer to push his button is the buyer of that cart. Carts then exit the sales floor, and buyer lots are assembled for trucking to distributors and retailers. Roses cut and packed on one day are sold the next, in transit the third day and on sale the fourth day.

Typical prices are about f0.50 or $0.25 a rose stem, with total production costs of f0.35 a stem. Auction costs are five to six percent. There is little contracting in the Dutch flower industry, perhaps reflecting the small size of most growers and retailers, as well as the dominance of the auction--flowers from, for example, Kenya that are sold in Europe are auctioned in Holland.

Asparagus. The 1,200 Dutch growers who produce white asparagus hire 8,000 to 10,000 seasonal workers for the harvest in May and June. Most of the asparagus is grown under plastic, dug up, and sold fresh to Dutch and German consumers. The average farm is small, with perhaps two acres of white asparagus, but most farmers aim to hire four or five workers an hectare.

Most harvest workers are Dutch, but the efforts of at least a few farmers to hire Polish workers generated controversy in the mid-1990s, and highlighted differences between German and Dutch treatment of Polish "tourist workers." Since the early 1980s, Poles in the Netherlands as tourists have been employed in the bulb-growing industry in the province of North Holland. In 1990, their employment was highlighted when the Employment Service threatened to stop unemployment insurance payments for unemployed Dutch workers if they did not accept seasonal farm jobs.

In 1992-93, the focus shifted to labor shortages for the asparagus and strawberry harvests in Limburg. When the media spotlighted the hiring of Poles without work permits, 600 work permits were made available in 1993, with a warning that employers had to get serious about finding Dutch workers. Seasonal workers, those employed less than two months, account for about five percent of the workers.

In 1994, the Minister of Social Affairs, which has responsibility under the Wet Arbeid Vreemdelingen (Foreign Labour Act) to issue work permits to non-EU foreigners, refused to issue work permits for seasonal Poles in the Limburg area, promised intensified enforcement against illegal workers, and advised farmers to make use of a special project, ASA, to find seasonal workers. The employers countered that they wanted Poles. The Limburg employers group LLTB sued the government to get work permits for Poles, and won. However, they in turned were sued by a union, Voedingsbond FNV, which charged that employers were underpaying workers.

The ASA project, a government-financed effort to place unemployed Dutch workers in seasonal farm jobs, was deemed a disaster, with every hour of farm work provided costing the government f50, or about $30.

In 1995, the government again denied permits for Poles and farmers sued, but this time they lost--no permits were issued to Poles. The union, Voedingsbond FNV, announced that it would pay strike benefits to Dutch workers who refused "sub-wage" jobs harvesting asparagus. In 1996, there were no disputes, although workers were recruited in Ireland and Portugal.

Under Dutch and EU law, Dutch employers wanting to hire non-EU workers must request workers with the ES, and accept referrals from anywhere in the EU, providing any workers recruited with in-bound transportation and accommodations. In 1986, court rulings held that employers and seasonal workers had to pay social insurance contributions, but ad hoc decisions have permitted some seasonal farm workers to remain outside the system. Unemployed Dutch workers were also allowed to earn up to f600 a month in agriculture and still draw UI benefits.

Belgium. In September 1998, the interior minister of Belgium resigned and deportations of rejected asylum seekers were suspended after police killed a rejected asylum seeker being returned to Nigeria by holding her head in a pillow to keep her from screaming; the interior minister is in charge of the police. The 20-minute ordeal was videotaped by a third policemen.

About 4,000 foreigners whose asylum applications were rejected were deported from Belgium in 1997; 300 were escorted out of the country by police. The center-left Belgian government announced reforms that include greater outside control on conditions within refugee detention centers; the creation of a special post of commissioner for refugee issues; and allowing a committee more say in which asylum seekers could stay.

In 1991, there were about 142,000 Moroccans and 85,000 Turks in Belgium; the result of guest worker recruitment in the 1960s and 1970s. They accounted for 75 percent of the non-EU foreigners in Belgium, and 2.3 percent of the Belgian population. The number of Moroccan male migrants peaked at 3,500 in 1964, and was 2,500 in 1973, while the number of Turkish male migrants peaked at 2,900 in 1973.

There are several major differences between Moroccan and Turkish migrants in Belgium. Turks were recruited in the 1960s to work in mines in southern Belgium, and many returned as expected, while Moroccan migrants included more Berbers from the Rif area who knew some French and who were not inclined to return. Moroccan immigrants are concentrated in Brussels. Migration from Turkey continues because Turkish men tend to marry women from their homeland, who then move to Belgium. Turks tend to maintain contact with Turkey, are more oriented to Islam and Turkish women in Belgium are less "liberated" than Moroccan women.

Three major indicators of the degree of integration--links to the country of origin, the role of women and the role of religion--suggest that Moroccans are more integrated into Belgian society than Turks. The Turks, concentrated in small towns, maintained their "Turkishness," while Moroccans in Brussels saw their children quickly embrace the new culture.

"Danish Racist Row shows No Sign of Ending," Nordic Business Report, September 28, 1998. Barry James, "Crisis Erupts in Belgium Over Death of Deportee," International Herald Tribune, September 26, 1998. Eugene Robinson, "Immigration Tests A European Society," Washington Post, July 5, 1998.