Not just low-skilled work

"I certainly have fifty vacancies that I cannot fill because Eastern Europeans cannot live in our region," says Nico Geerlings, director of Flexible Human Services in Noordwijkerhout. His employment agency focuses on labor migrants "And," he likes to add. "It's not just about low-skilled work."

The entrepreneur is disappointed with the situation and has therefore joined the Taskforce Huisvesting Arbeidsmigranten (THA). This organization has written to all fourteen municipalities of the Holland Rijnland cooperation, hoping that politicians will address the housing problem. So far without much success, and the Noordwijkerhout resident is annoyed about that.

His disappointment is partly due to the fact that agreements have not been kept. In 2014, the municipalities of Holland Rijnland agreed with the business community to create 4250 living spaces for labor migrants by 2018. The number has remained at around a thousand, some of which are also replacements for beds in a place where the municipality did not want to tolerate this. In Geerlings' eyes, that's not really progressing.

That immediately creates a problem for him, because native Dutch people do not fill the vacancies either. "Unemployment is simply low." For example, he went to Servicepunt Werk to get 'people out of the filing cabinet'. But the agency that is supposed to help residents of the Duin- en Bollenstreek find a job did not find any suitable employees. So he is dependent on labor migrants.

'The economy is picking up and there is no house to be found,' says Dennis van der Voort of THA. 'There is plenty of work in the region and we can also find plenty of foreign employees. But if there is no accommodation for them, they will not come here.'

And that costs money, he calculates. Because not only does the government miss out on money (around 1800 euros per worker per year), but so does the economy in general. A seasonal worker contributes around 2000 euros to the economy per stay, and a migrant who stays in the Netherlands for a few years contributes an average of 20,000 euros, according to figures from SEO Economic Research.

So municipalities must act quickly, the task force believes. A minimum of 1500 beds are needed in the Leiden region in the very short term to meet the current demand. These must first be housed in larger (temporary) complexes. If a migrant wishes to stay in the Netherlands, they must be able to find a regular home through the usual housing allocation system.

Municipalities must take into account that a large proportion of Eastern Europeans want to continue living in the region, according to research presented yesterday by the Social and Cultural Planning Office. More than three-quarters of Poles intend to stay in the Netherlands.

Housing construction is therefore necessary, according to Van der Voort. He believes it is important that Eastern Europeans do not displace native Dutch people. In the short term, more locations in the region need to be designated for large temporary housing complexes, such as in Noordwijkerhout where 140 migrants live in the Trampoline, and in Katwijkerbroek where about 60 foreigners reside.

Willem Weggeman of Homeflex set up the complex in Katwijk. Under the leadership of the former mayor Jos Wienen, the municipality has proved to be very proactive, he says. "Katwijk really wanted to help us. I have also spoken with other municipalities, such as Leiden, and it is all a lot more difficult there. My call to the municipalities in the Leiden region is therefore: follow the example of Katwijk."