Over the past year, 14 thousand highly skilled migrants from outside the EU came to the Netherlands, reports Statistics Netherlands. This compares with 26 thousand three years earlier, in 2022. The people concerned are relatively highly educated labour immigrants, such as software developers, doctors in training and researchers.
The sharpest decline was amongst highly skilled migrants from India. The number of people of Turkish, Russian, Chinese and South African nationality also fell.
Urgent signal
“The latest fall in the number of highly skilled migrants sends an urgent signal,” says UNL spokesperson Ruben Puylaert. “Stricter rules are putting the Netherlands’ reputation as an attractive knowledge economy under pressure.”
The government is working on a national talent strategy. “We’ve been pushing for this together with the business community,” says Puylaert. “It will help us attract as well as retain international talent. Highly skilled migrants are essential for research and innovation in the Netherlands.”
Education minister Rianne Letschert aims to allocate 154 million euros to attract international talent. The intention is to focus on sectors facing labour shortages in the Netherlands. Higher education institutions will also once again be allowed to recruit talent from abroad. The government will publish a letter outlining the plans before the summer.