{"id":11235,"date":"2026-05-26T20:14:36","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T18:14:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/empact.nu\/from-low-skilled-labor-to-skilled-workers-labor-migration-requires-a-different-conversation\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T20:14:50","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T18:14:50","slug":"from-low-skilled-labor-to-skilled-workers-labor-migration-requires-a-different-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/empact.nu\/en\/insights\/from-low-skilled-labor-to-skilled-workers-labor-migration-requires-a-different-conversation\/","title":{"rendered":"From low-skilled labor to skilled workers: labor migration requires a different conversation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One in ten workers in the Netherlands is a migrant worker. They are on the production lines, building our houses and soon laying the power grid that will carry the energy transition. At the same time, the same reports have been coming in for years: exploitation, poor housing, people on temporary contracts year after year. Labor migration is not an afterthought of the Dutch economy. It keeps entire sectors afloat, and it partly determines whether we meet our climate goals in time. That is precisely why it deserves a better conversation than it is getting now, one that includes both sides. <\/p>\n\n

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An economy that runs on people from outside<\/h2>\n\n

The number of migrant workers has quadrupled since 2006, and estimates range from a few hundred thousand to over a million. They work in horticulture, logistics, construction, engineering. Take them away and everything goes haywire. <\/p>\n\n

That dependency will not diminish for the time being. The aging population continues and the labor market will remain tight for at least another fifteen years. On top of that come the major challenges: housing construction, and especially energy transition. Currently, more than twenty thousand companies are already on the waiting list for a connection to the grid, partly because there are too few technicians. The question of who will do the work and whether we will make the transition in time appear to be one and the same question. <\/p>\n\n

The bill is skewed<\/h2>\n\n

Against that contribution is a less pretty picture. The Labor Inspectorate has been reporting the same things for years: underpayment, long and changing workdays, housing that is sometimes just not right. Plenty of fine words, but practice is slow to change. <\/p>\n\n

The reason it is so persistent is because of dependency. Many migrant workers get their jobs, housing, transportation and health insurance through the same party. Those who raise the alarm not only put their jobs at risk, but also their roof over their heads. That keeps people quiet, and a small part of the market knows how to take advantage of that. <\/p>\n\n

Labor migration delivers much to the Netherlands. But the burdens too often fall on those least able to fend for themselves. <\/p>\n\n

The government is trying to correct that. On January 1, 2027, the Law on the Admission of the Supply of Labor (WTTA) will come into effect: employment agencies will then only be allowed to supply people if they have been authorized by the ministry, and companies will only be allowed to hire through authorized agencies. This is a solid step against excesses. But an admission system clears up abuses, it does not yet set the stage for better regulated, skilled labor migration. That requires more than enforcement. <\/p>\n\n

The question is not whether, but how<\/h2>\n\n

That we need migrant workers is certain. The question is how we manage their deployment, and that is where the friction lies. For years we have treated labor migration like a faucet: open when tight, close when surplus, as flexible as possible. That model is starting to squeak. Labor migrants mainly do the low-skilled work, while the Netherlands likes to call itself a knowledge economy. And according to CBS, more than half of EU labor migrants leave again within five years. All the accumulated knowledge and experience goes right out the door. <\/p>\n\n

For the energy transition, this is a problem of a different order. Upgrading the power grid and making the built environment more sustainable is not work for loose hands that will be gone next season. It requires mechanics, installers and technicians who master the craft and stay long enough to get better at it. You can’t build a transition that takes decades on labor that you hire and sell quarterly. So anyone who takes the climate challenge seriously must also take the labor demand seriously. <\/p>\n\n

The obvious movement: from volatile, low-skilled labor migration to targeted skilled migration that is well regulated. Not aiming for the highest number, but for the right people, for the right work, under conditions that make sense. It is also the direction the Advisory Council on Migration<\/a> recommends: look at where people work and under what conditions, not just at the numbers. A skilled professional who stays longer and is able to develop costs a little at first, but pays for itself. For the company, and for the Netherlands. <\/p>\n\n

How one sector is doing things differently<\/h2>\n\n

Practice shows that it can be done. OTTO Work Force, one of Europe’s largest international labor intermediaries and an Empact client, consciously chooses that route. In the Delta Plan “Preventing the Netherlands from getting stuck,”<\/a> the company makes this concrete: a temporary skilled worker regulation for sectors such as energy and care, with clear limits. A quota per sector, five-year maximum stay, ethical recruitment, certified housing and assisted return. <\/p>\n\n

According to OTTO, labor migration only works as a circular force for the energy transition when job guarantees, decent housing and fair pay form the basis, both here and in the country of origin. That word, circular, gets to the heart of the matter. People come temporarily, trained and protected, and return with knowledge and experience. So the way you organize labor migration becomes itself a building block of the transition. <\/p>\n\n

Empact has been guiding OTTO in its ESG transformation<\/a> for a few years now, with an emphasis on the social themes. Such a trajectory provides insight and data, and a sector that claims to be leading can only show that with figures that are correct. That same underpinning provides grip to address risks in its own chain, something that is also becoming increasingly important in due diligence<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n

Time to choose<\/h2>\n\n

Labor migration is not going away. The question is how we organize it. The old model, running on volume and the lowest price, produces abuses and vulnerable chains, and it leaves the energy transition without the skilled workers to execute it. Targeted, skilled skilled migration treats people as skilled workers rather than change, and makes the sustainable transition feasible at the same time. The social and the ecological merge here: a fairer labor market is also a prerequisite for a greener Netherlands. This requires government direction, but also the courage of employers. The frameworks are in place. What is missing is the conviction that a fairer system is also a stronger system in the long run. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One in ten workers in the Netherlands is a migrant worker. They are on the production lines, building our houses and soon laying the power grid that will carry the energy transition. At the same time, the same reports have been coming in for years: exploitation, poor housing, people on temporary contracts year after year. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":11233,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[257],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empact.nu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empact.nu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empact.nu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empact.nu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empact.nu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11235"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/empact.nu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11236,"href":"https:\/\/empact.nu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11235\/revisions\/11236"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empact.nu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empact.nu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empact.nu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empact.nu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}