WRR, a government advisory group, says that the Netherlands should hire people from developing nations like Indonesia and Nigeria to keep the economy from going down.
The Dutch economy depends on labor from Eastern Europe and goods created in China, but the aging population in those nations will make goods harder to get and workers more expensive, it said.
The WRR’s most recent proposals claimed that “closer trade and labor relations with countries with a growing working population” will “offer chances to Dutch businesses and stimulate emerging economies.”
More than half of the Dutch population is 50 or older, and several sectors are having trouble finding workers. One in ten workers in the Netherlands comes from another country.
Gijsbert Werner, a researcher at WRR, told the AD that “our prosperity depends on having enough workers from other countries.” “We need people.” Who else will build the 100,000 homes we need every year? Most of the things we buy also come from other nations, and companies here use semi-finished goods from other countries.
Researchers estimate that in the next 20 years, a lot of the items will come from India, Vietnam, and the Philippines. However, the working population will also diminish there. The WRR said that production will subsequently relocate to African countries like Nigeria, where 40% of the working population is under 14.
Big expenditures will need to be made in healthcare, education, and political stability to make sure these countries become actual trading partners. If these things don’t happen, we will miss out on an opportunity and the country will be in trouble. Werner stated, “So investing in Africa is good for both sides.”
The WRR says that the future government should start making labor migration agreements with nations in Southeast Asia and Africa, even while politicians are trying to reduce the amount of foreign workers coming to the Netherlands.
He remarked, “Many foreign workers come from other EU countries, and we can’t set conditions because people can move freely.”
“But we can when they come from outside the EU.” For example, we can limit how long they can stay here. But that means the government needs to speed up a good strategy for labor migration that includes guidelines about where workers will live and how they will get back home.
Politicians and economists have advocated for a change in Dutch economic strategy and a move away from low-wage industries like logistics and the meat industry, which depend on cheap foreign workers.
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