Dutch examine produces map breakdown of how immigrants from completely different international locations both contribute to financial system or turn out to be a burden on tax payers
A study has mapped how much migration from different countries both brings into the Netherlands and costs taxpayers in the country.
Migrants arriving from countries including the UK, US and Japan brought in more money than they took out, the study found.
Meanwhile migrants arriving from countries including Sudan, Morocco, Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, the majority of whom are asylum seekers, were said to have cost the Dutch taxpayer the most.
The Germany-based Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) published the discussion paper by Dutch economists Jan van de Beek, Joop Hartog, Gerrit Kreffer and Hans Roodenburg last week.
The study states that the net fiscal impact of the immigrant population ‘differs dramatically’ depending on their reasons for coming to the Netherlands.
‘Labour migrants who enter before age 60 make a positive net contribution to the government budget, more than €100,000 per immigrant when they arrive between ages 20 and 50,’ the report says.
It adds that those people motivated to come for family or education reasons, as well as asylum seekers, ‘bring negative net contributions’ in terms of their financial input, irrespective of arrival age.
The report, based on 2016 data, estimates that asylum seekers cost the Dutch state €400,000 (£330,000) over the course of their lifetimes.
The Netherlands is temporarily introducing border controls to combat irregular migration and cross-border crime
The burden on the taxpayer is not due to government spending on these groups, it determined, but from their lower tax and social security contributions.
Immigrants from North America, the majority of whom were moving to the Netherlands because of work, contributed on average €210,000, the study found.
It comes as the Dutch government is considering capping the population at 20million people by 2050, Dutch News reports.
The cabinet ‘supports the need to work towards that scenario and to get a grip on migration,’ immigration minister Marjolein Faber and social affairs minister Eddy van Hijum said in a briefing to MPs late last year.
The government also introduced new border controls aimed at addressing ‘irregular migration and human trafficking’ from December 9.
The controls on borders, all of which are with fellow countries in the EU’s Schengen border-free zone, are set to last six months.
They are part of a broader clampdown on migration proposed by anti-Muslim nationalist Geert Wilders’ PVV party, the biggest in the coalition.
The Dutch population grew by nearly 40,000 between in the first six months of 2024, according to figures by CBS, the country’s national statistics agency.
This is one-third less than during the year prior and was reflective to low numbers of immigrants, an increase in emigration and more deaths, the agency said.
Minister of Asylum and Migration of the Netherlands, Marjolein Faber (C), at the launch of border controls in Eijsden, The Netherlands
Border controls are part of a broader clampdown on migration proposed by anti-Muslim nationalist Geert Wilders’ PVV party, the biggest in the coalition
The Dutch population will be kept to under 20million with limits put in place to ‘get a grip on migration’ under targets being considered by the country’s government under Dutch PM Dick Schoof (pictured)
About 138,000 people moved to the Netherlands in the first six months of 2024, while 92,000 left, meaning there was a net increase in immigration of 46,000 – which is roughly 25 per cent less than during the same period in 2023.
The government’s demographic development commission said last year that a moderate growth would be the best option to ensure economic prosperity as its population of 18 million ages, but Faber and van Hijum warned that this would still have negative consequences for public services.
The hard-right government had chosen the ‘toughest ever package of measures to limit asylum’ and will opt for a ‘more selective and targeted policy for all other forms of migration, including labour and education-related movement’, the ministers said.
Faber and van Hijum also requested more research into ways to control immigration, which they said was ‘clearly necessary’.
There have been repeated warnings by statisticians and economists, who said that the Netherlands needs foreign workers to combat its workforce gaps.
The government’s advisory body on migration previously said that the country would need about three million additional immigrants to work and pay taxes by 2040 – but the council said that this was not a realistic option.
Instead, current residents in the Netherlands would have to work more hours or retire later.
