Dutch employers aren't interested in immigrants

According to a survey conducted by Motivaction among employers in middle-sized companies in 2004 immigrant workers were considered very problematic. 54% did not want any head covering among workers, 46% thought that immigrants spoke bad Dutch and 31% said they had experienced more problems with immigrants than with ethnic Dutch.

A new survey repeats these results. The percentage of employers who employ immigrants (Turks, Moroccans, Surinamese and Antillians) stayed constant at 59%.

41% of the managers surveyed did not give a clear reason why they are so hesitant to employ immigrants. 26% did not receive many applications from immigrants, 17% do not have many immigrant workers available in their area and 12% said immigrant workers did not fulfill the requirements.

According to Motivaction the reason is simply prejudice. 43% of the employers agree. According to Ait Moha, project manager by Motivaction, "Often employers think that Moroccans take off 6 weeks during summer vacation to go to Morocco and thereafter report in sick from Morocco for three weeks. Young people don't do that any more. Also they often think that immigrants (new Dutch) aren't fully fluent in the language. But young people that were born here and grew up here speak Dutch their whole lives."

According to Div, a company sponsored by the gov't to encourage diversity, the total number of immigrants is going to grow. There are now 1.6 million immigrants and by 2020 there are supposed to be 2.4 million. Companies who want to attract these immigrants as clients should therefore try to attract them first as employees.

Source: Management Team (Dutch)

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