Multi-level governance of attracting high-skilled migrants
in Amsterdam
Author: Eline van den Berg Student ID: 10125272/6385885 Supervisor: dhr. dr. J.M.J. Doomernik
Date: 06/03/2017 Master thesis Political Science: International Relations
Table of contents 2
Chapter 1. Introduction 3
Chapter 2. Theoretical Framework 7
2.1 Multi-level governance 7
2.2 Push and pull framework 7
Chapter 3. Supranational policy 12
3.1 EU Blue card directive 12
3.2 Comparison with other high-skilled attracting initiatives 13
3.3 Policies compared to the Dutch and European policy. 20
Chapter 4. National policy 21
4.1 History of attracting high-skilled migrants in the Netherlands 21
4.2 High-skilled migrant policies in the Netherlands 22
4.2.1 The orientation year for graduates 23
4.2.2 The 30% tax ruling 24
4.2.3 The high-skilled migrant status 25
Chapter 5. Sub-national policy 26
5.1 Policy of Amsterdam 26
Chapter 6 Why they move? 31
6.1 Disagreement with the governance of origin country 31
6.2 Work/life balance 32
6.3 Personal experience 33
6.4 Career opportunities 34
6.5 Geography 35
Chapter 7. Result of policy at the individual level 36
7.1 Influence of supranational policy at the individual level 36
7.2 Influence of national policy at the individual level 37
7.3 Influence of local policy at the individual level 42
Chapter 8. Conclusion 46
Chapter 9. Discussion 52
Literature 55
Appendix 1 61
Chapter 1. Introduction
The battle of the brains is still going on in 2017. In the US, they developed the H-1B visa program to attract the brightest students and laborers. Since 2009 the European Union developed a similar policy in order to attract high-skilled migrants, which was implemented in 2011: the EU blue card (Moşneaga in Zierler, 2012: 29-30). Because the EU blue card is meant for high-skilled migrants outside the EU, national governments also have different policies to not only attract them to the EU, but to their country as well (idem.:31). On the local level it is not much different (Plan Amsterdam, 2014). The EU, similar EU countries as well as their local municipalities are battling to attract high-skilled migrants. The question is not whether these policies exist, but rather how these policies affect the location decisions of high-skilled migrants?
In March 2016 the Netherlands changed its national policy towards high-skilled immigrants. Instead of giving higher educated students and scientists only one year after their graduation to find a job, they expanded this period to three years. In the EU the problem arose much earlier: in 2009 the EU became aware that its policy towards high-skilled immigrants was falling behind US policy. EU citizens are free to travel within the EU borders. The Treaty establishing the European Community made it possible to work within another EU country as long as high-skilled migrants complies with a couple of requirements. With the renewed Treaty, the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, this option to work in another EU country has not changed1. Before 2011 however, there
was no policy for attracting high-skilled migrants from outside the EU. Different countries had their own regulation, which meant that if high-skilled migrants would migrate across national borders, they would need to deal with new national regulation. In 2011 the European Commission
promulgated the European Blue Card Directive, which should have made transnational migration for non-EU citizens within the EU easier. Moreover, the directive should have led to an easier way to gain a resident permit for non-EU high-skilled migrants. However, in 2016 not even a third (31 %) of the high-skilled migrants is going to Europe. This is one of the main reasons that the EC proposed in 2016 a replacement of the current blue card directive (European Commission: Eur-Lex, 2017). This is an indication that the blue card directive does not serve it purpose.
Compared to other industrialized economies, the Netherlands was according to Berkhout et al. (part of the SEO Economic research, 2010) third from eleven other countries at attracting high-skilled migrants. They conclude that the Netherlands has the most tolerant high-skilled migrant policy. This means that the requirements for high-skilled migrants are easier to meet and that there are more benefits, like a tax advantage, when they decide to move to the Netherlands. The US and Switzerland, which are the countries who are at the top of the most attractive countries, are 8th and
9th place when it comes to how difficult it is to meet the requirements to be a high-skilled migrant
(Ibid.). Therefore, the research question in this thesis is as follows:
“To what extent affects multi-level (supranational, national and local) high-skilled migrant policy the pull factors of high skilled migrants’ arrival in Amsterdam?”
Concepts
Who is a high-skilled migrant? In this thesis the definition of a high-skilled migrant is someone who has a completed tertiary education or has a salary which is 1.5 times the average salary in the immigration country or has an occupation which is identified as high-skilled (Parsons et al., 2014). There is specifically chosen for the use of high-skilled migrants instead of expatriates, although the definitions of both are adjacent to one another. However, the term expatriate refers to the fact that the choice of moving abroad is a temporary one. Expatriates are employees who are moving intra-company to another country. Because this research would focus on attracting high-skilled migrants, intra-company transfers are not that interesting. These employees cannot decide where they want to move and live, it is up to the location of the company where to work and if the company offers housing then there is not much choice about where to live.
Aim of research
The aim of this thesis is to look at policy effects of different governance levels on the individual level. Depending on the outcome, the EU, national governments and municipalities could change their policy to attract more high-skilled migrants.
Methodology
Considering the fact that high-skilled migrants are the subject of this thesis, it is not a surprise that they are the main respondents. Even though European citizens can work in the Netherlands without the high-skilled migrant visa, EU citizens are not excluded from this research. Not only because it turned out that the high-skilled migrant visa policy was not really a pull or push factor, but also because other policies on the national (30% tax ruling) and especially on the sub-national level were surely a pull factor. These policies also apply to EU citizens. Besides, the high-skilled migrant visa and the EU blue card are both obtainable for EU citizens, although the IND stated that they did not see that often (IND, 2017). In short, EU citizens are included in this research because the same policy applies to both EU and non-EU citizens.
Because it is of interest to gather descriptions of the life-world of the respondents, while
maintaining the interpretation and the meaning of what is said about the pull factors of Amsterdam, there is chosen for structured interviews (Kvale, 1983). Within the face-to-face
semi-structured interview technique, there is more space to respond on the outcomes of questions asked before due to the synchronous communication (Opdenakker, 2006). While this could be an
advantage, it is also a pitfall as the interviewer needs to understand the answer while listening and at the same time ensure that all of the topics are examined and the depth of the questions is protected (ibid.).
Even though this a major disadvantage of face- to-face semi structured interviews, for this thesis it is still the most appropriate form of interviewing. During the first interviews, the standard question determined how the rest of the interview continued. Later, when I became more comfortable with interviewing, the standard questions were just a back-up or to check if everything had been touched upon. To tackle the disadvantage of not knowing what was said, or if I had any further specific questions on what someone had said later on, I recorded most of the interviews. In the end, one of the interviewees did not give their consent for recording the interview because of personal
information about his job. One was done by Skype and three were not recorded because of the place where the interview was held (too much background noise).
Because the subject is high-skilled migrants and they are mostly working during office hours, the interviews were held outside office hours. The length of the interviews was different for all interviews. From slightly over half an hour up to almost two hours; the interview lasted until I collected the right data.
There is another disadvantage of face-to-face interviews, a tendency of giving socially desirable answers. To avoid these kinds of answers, the research question was not to be mentioned at the beginning of an interview or while searching for respondents. However, a lot of (potential) interviewees wanted to see the questions beforehand or asked what the actual topic was. With the answer that it was about why they moved, their story and an opportunity to express their opinion on living in metropolitan Amsterdam, everyone was satisfied. As is described later on, none of the interviewees did mention policy as a pull factor on their own; a lot of times I had to push the interview into this direction.
Beforehand I thought the minimum amount of interviews would be12 and that 15 could be done. I found it very challenging to do as many interviews as I could in these 10 weeks, but I succeeded and did 18 interviews. Most of them were high-skilled migrants: one was considering moving to Amsterdam as a high-skilled migrant, one was considering moving to the Netherlands for an Orientation Year and one was doing an Orientation Year. Keeping in mind that in 2015 there were 12.000 applies under the high-skilled migrant procedure, around 2000 sponsor companies who can hire a high-skilled migrant and around 15.000 international students who applied in the Netherlands (IND, year results 2015), the 18 interviews are not that much. Therefore, the results of this research are not generalizable, but do give an insight into some push and pull (including the focus on policy) factors on the supra-, national-, and sub-national levels.
Analyzing the interviews was not as hard as I predicted. I thought that I needed to deductively analyze and code the answers to find patterns among the different interviews (Harrell & Bradley, 2009). This was an option, but I sort of coded the interviews on the basis of the questions. At the end, where I did not ask the questions I prepared, the coding became more difficult. This became the moment it was more about topics instead of questions. In the end, this was the best choice and it made writing down my results a lot easier.
Chapter 2. Theoretical Framework 2.1 Multi-level governance
High-skilled immigration policy is not only carried out at the national level. Interaction between local, national and supranational policy can cause friction or complement each other (Marks and Hooghe, 2001). Instead of the nation state as the central actor, the sub-national and supranational actors have such an influence that the national control over policy is slipping away. However, the nation state is still seen as the most influential actor, but in a more diverse, complex system. This is seen as multi-level governance type 1 (Ibid.). Type 2 of multi-level governance does not consist of a multi-level governance between the different levels of governance, instead it is identified as
multiple jurisdiction with task-specific competences (Ibid.). In this case, the type 1 multi-level governance is applicable, because the different levels affect each other. Moreover, the European Union is gaining more influence on national policy through minimum harmonization, though the individual countries still have the final decision making powers.
2.2 Push and pull framework
The analysis of migration is traced back into the 18th century. Smith (1776) and Ravenstein (1889)
developed a cost-benefit model, which is part of the neoclassical approach. It comes down to the fact that if there is a labor demand in one country and a labor supply in the other, laborers would maximize their utilities and start migrating to the country with labor demand. Migration slows down when the labor demand in the receiving country decreases, while at the same time the labor demand in the sending state relatively increases. This is a pure economical approach, which does not explain why some laborers would stay behind and some would migrate. However, it was a starting point for extended migration theories (Bauer and Zimmermann, 1998).
The Harris/Todaro model (1970) was one of the results of the extended migration theory. They stated that when there was a chance of finding (in their case from rural to urban areas) work in another region, and there was a chance of unemployment, migration still occurred. It was based on the fact that the expectations of earning more money was an option, while in the neoclassical approach the differentials of earnings were actual there. This also has been the basis for more extended versions (Bhagwati & Srinivasan, 1974, Corden and Findlay, 1975, Fields, 1975, etc.). Albeit the Harris/Todaro model and extended versions are still used in modern migration theory, the lack of intervening obstacles are noticeable.
In 1966 Lee developed a push and pull framework which combines these intervening obstacles with the economical demand and supply theory. This theory creates a framework which explains why people migrate. In this framework the 'push' factors, i.e. negative factors which push people to migrate, and 'pull' factors, i.e. positive factors which attract people to migrate, are determining whether people stay or migrate. There are however intervening factors, like immigration law, distance, etc. (Hagen-Zanker, 2008: 9), which ensures that not everybody is migrating to the most desirable migration destination. The theory states that push and pull factors are complementary, and migration only appears if there is both push factors as well as pull factors. For example, if there is no work opportunity in one country, migration only will appear if there is work opportunity at another country. This not only applies to migration across borders, but also within countries (e.g from rural to urban areas).
The framework in schematic terms is as follows:
Figure 1: © Zombiebased
According to Castles and Miller (1993), pull factors include among others the “demand for labor, availability of land, good economic opportunities and political freedom” (Ibid.:22). This might be sufficient enough to explain the 'brain drain' discourse, were high-skilled laborers leave their country because there are not enough economic opportunities. It does not, however, explain why high-skilled migrants from OECD countries with enough economic opportunities leave their
country. Glennie and Chapell (2010) add professional development and networks as other pull factors. The above mentioned pull factors shall play a part in the reason why high-skilled migrants move to OECD countries, such as the European countries.
Research has shown that there are multiple pull factors for high-skilled migrants to move to the Netherlands. Van Leeuwen (2008) conducted data from companies who are hiring high-skilled migrants. She showed that, according to these referents, career opportunities were 57% of the time the motivation to use the high-skilled migrant scheme. Secondly, with 39%, they mentioned the tendency of the economic market. This is followed by 37% who are mentioning the corporate culture and innovative power. The last important reason why high-skilled migrants move to the Netherlands is because of the procedures for entry and residence (32%). The rest of the answers were tax environment, vacancies, research base, infrastructure, work ethic, political stability, living conditions, housing, schooling, language barriers, arts and culture, social acceptance, environment, salary, family and specific content of the job or the organization.
Finally, the pull factors specifically focused on the metropolitan Amsterdam. Mulder (2011: 4) found out that “the job opportunities in Amsterdam, the image of the city and the social discourse were seen as the most positive features of the city”.
The push and pull framework is frequently used in research, but also heavily criticized. It is a macro theory which focuses on the migration patterns as such, not on the meso (or household) or micro (the individual) level. The human capital theory introduced in 1962 by Sjaastad focuses on the fact that migration is more than moving from one country to another to maximize income. The theory starts with the basics founded by Lee, which is that when people are about to move they rationalize their choice by making a cost-benefit analysis. He adds the fact that there are not only push and pull factors at the country of origin and in the country of arrival, but there are also extra expenses made by migrants. These extra expenses, like transport, food and lodging, are taken into account when prospective migrants consider to move. Besides these money costs, there are also non-money costs. Examples of these non-money costs are opportunity costs, the lost income when somebody is traveling, looking for a job and learning a new job and psychic costs, which is among other things made by leaving people (like friends and family) behind. Opposite are the returns of these costs, increased utilities such as income. He describes these costs as investments. Besides these
investments prospective migrants make to migrate, he explains that these investments in oneself increases returns or as he mentions briefly human capital.
Becker (1975, 1994, 2002) wrote much about the costs men made to gain more human capital. There are a couple of topics he relates to gaining human capital. These topics are education and training, family and economic development. He states that education and training, which also includes on the job training, is one of the most important investments. He concludes, after multiple researches, there is a relation between wages and if they are educated or non-educated people. Although educated people had to invest more, for example tuition fees, books, etc., in the end the returns will be much higher than start working before finishing their education. Education is not only an investment in ones economic capital, but also in social (social relations) and cultural (being part of a social class) capital, such as music, sports, and literature. Family is of importance because the amount of support one gets. If there are more children for example, the children will have to share with all their siblings. When there are fewer children, more is spend per child, which improves their human capital. The economic development of countries is related to the amount of educated citizens. With investing in technology, education and scientific knowledge economies could grow.
At last there are some additions made to the human capital theory by different authors. Sjaastad (1962) himself already indicates that different personal characteristics, like age, gender and
education have some influence in migration. Mincer (1978) adds martial status, others mentions for instance general job skills (Goss and Paul, 1986) and self-selection (Chiswick, 1978).
This thesis attempts to make a synthesis between the human capital theory and the push and pull theory, because other researches clearly show that the push and pull theory is not sufficient enough to explain migration solely on the basis of macro-sociological systems. This synthesis results in the following scheme:
Figure 2: Push and pull framework with human capital theory (own illustration)
Where the left circle represents the country of origin. The square blocks depict the personal characteristics, which can influence the decision of migrating. In this square, human capital is the underlying theory. Certain biological factors like age and gender have an influence at gaining or not gaining more human capital. The intervening obstacles are the same as in Lee's push and pull theory: obstacles every other migrant has to deal with while migrating but that can influence the actual migration. However, the intervening obstacles are harder to overcome when the human capital is lower (see the minus sign at the bottom intervening obstacles) and easier to overcome when the human capital is higher (see the plus sign at the top intervening obstacles). The circles on the right show once again the pull factors, what will likely lead to a positive migration outcome (see the right circle at the top) or if it is probably not happening (see the circle at the bottom). This synthesis theory is useful in this thesis because hypothetically high-skilled migrants have more human capital, thereby the intervening obstacles are easier to overcome theoretically, which should likely result in migration faster.
Chapter 3. Supranational policy 3.1 EU Blue card directive
The European Union (EU) lacked behind Australia, the US and Canada with the attraction of high-skilled migrants. This was a problem because the economic crisis in 2008 led to a decline from more than half a million to less than 250.000 annually. As a response, the EU developed the blue card directive2 in 2009. Because directives need to be converted into national law, the
implementation deadline was in 2011. Ireland, the United Kingdom and Denmark opted this directive out (Kahanec & Zimmermann, 2011). Prior to this deadline, all the European countries had different or even no high-skilled migrant regulation.
While the directive needs to be converted into national law, it does not need to be harmonized. This means that within the EU different countries can still have different policies, as long as they comply EU regulation. Different European member states have indeed different high-skilled immigration policies (Ibid.). However, on the 7th of June 2016 the European Commission opted for a minimum
harmonization of the EU blue card directive (European Commission, 2017). This means that the member states should fulfill at least the minimum requirements of the revised EU blue card directive.
For now the requirements for the EU blue card are a pay check requirement of 4.968 Euros per month, a higher degree with a minimal study length of 3 years, a working contract for at least 1 year, with regulated proficiencies like doctors or lawyers it needs to be proven that it complies with the legal requirements to practice that proficiency and lastly the employer cannot have a penalty for violation of art. 2 from the law labor foreigners (Wet arbeid vreemdelingen, WAV) or failure or insufficient payment of wage tax or national insurance contributions for workers within the last 5 years (IND, 2016).
In the Netherlands, the EU blue card directive is not often used. In 2015 there were only 20 high-skilled migrants who arrived in the Netherlands with an EU blue card (Eurostat, see appendix 1). This is because the national regulation high-skilled migrant status is easier to obtain than the EU blue card. This is because the required salary is lower, so easier to meet at the national level and there is no required education level for obtaining the Dutch visa. For other countries in the EU, however, the EU directive is the only way or easier to obtain than to apply for a national regulation. In Germany for example, the EU blue card is more used (see appendix 1 for numbers) as the salary 2 Directive 2009/50/EC
requirement is lower as an EU blue card holder than via national policy (§19) (Bellini, 2016). One of the advantages of the blue card directive is the fact that after 18 months the EU blue card holder can move to another EU country. However, the EU blue card holder needs to reapply for the blue card in the new EU country. This is especially convenient for migrants coming from outside the EU. Without the EU blue card, these migrants can only move to another EU member state if they are EU citizens, which is only possible after living consecutively in one EU country for at least 5 years (Union Citizenship Directive, Directive 2004/58/EC) or if they are applying for another country's national regulation which will give legal permission to move and work.
Moreover, for an EU blue card application the company does not need to be an approved referent. Also the requirements for a permanent resident, which is an EU citizenship, are lower for EU blue card holders. Normally, non-EU citizens can obtain a permanent residence when they reside for 5 years legally in an EU country, without moving to another. For EU blue card holders can return to their home country for work, voluntary work or study for a maximum length of 18 months in total, whereby only 12 months can be consecutive (Kroes Advocaten, 2016). For non-EU blue card holders this is 12 months maximum outside of Europe, within Europe this maximum is 6 months (IND, 2016). Whereas a non-EU blue card holder needs to live 5 years consecutively in one country3, EU blue card holders have the advantage that all the years lived in EU countries while
obtaining an EU blue card combined count for the 5 years total (Kroes Advocaten, 2016).
3.2 Comparison with other high-skilled attracting initiatives
The traditional immigration countries such as Australia, the US and Canada all have years of experience with (high-skilled) migration policy. Nevertheless, the upcoming industrial countries like China and India are also developing policies towards attracting high-skilled migrants. While the Chinese and Indians are the most migrating groups to the OECD countries, the national policies but also local policies are trying to keep the higher educated in the country. In addition, they focus on the diaspora, to keep in touch and show them the attractiveness of their home country (Wogart and Schüller, 2011). Because these 5 countries are the most active on the high-skilled migration market, they will be further described per country.
Australia
Australia is a country with almost four decades of experience in creating high-skilled migration policy. After World War 2 a one-way (mainly low and semi-skilled) migration pattern from Europe 3 burgerschapsrichtlijn
to Australia emerged. Until the 70s there were minor problems with the migration policy. In the 70s and onward the changing economic situation and the aging of the baby boomers who entered the labor market caused a change in the migration policy. The focus shifted more on family reunion, refugees and naturally high-skilled migration. Since 1996 the Australian policy only focuses on attracting high-skilled migrants, also the temporary ones (Hugo, 2006). Appendix 2 shows that the amount of migrants who are accepted in Australia on the basis of a skill were in 2003/2004 almost the same as the rest of all the other migrant categories. In 2014/2015 there were 190.000 planned visas under the migrant program of which 189.097 were fulfilled: 127.774 alone were the skilled visas, 61.085 family visas and there was a decrease in special eligibility visas (238). In 2014/2015 there were 13.756 humanitarian visas granted. This means that 93.2 % of the total visas granted in Australia were part of the skilled migrant program (Australian Government website, 2017).
Appendix 2 also shows that there are four categories for high-skilled migrants: Employer Nomination Scheme (ENS)/ labor Agreement (LA)/Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme
(RSMS)/STNT, Business Skills, Distinguished talents, and Independent and Skilled Sponsored. The Skilled independents and Skilled Australian Sponsored policy consist of a points test. The Business Skills, ENS and Distinguished Talent are demand driven (Hugo in Kuptsch, and Pang, 2006). In 2015/2016 the STNT and the LA Agreement did not exist anymore and the Independent and Skilled Sponsored are now within the category General Skilled Migration (Australian Government: Department of Immigration and Border Protection, 2017). Here only three are described because the business visa is not really relevant:
Employer sponsored category, which consist two schemes: Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme (RSMS)
Occupations should be an ANZSCO skill level of 1, 2 and 3. This can be found in the Skilled Occupation List (SOL) (ANZACO search, 2017). Other requirements are getting at least the same pay as an Australian in the same occupation, being under 50 years and meeting the language requirements. The difference with the Employer Nomination Scheme is that for the RSMS visa a migrant has to have a regional employer who sponsors him, which is needed to work in regional Australia, and the sponsor can only invite the high-skilled migrant under the Direct Entry Stream.
Employer Nomination Scheme (ENS)
The requirements are: being nominated by an approved Australian employer, younger than 50 years, meeting the skills (a skills assessment and three years’ work experience), qualifications and language requirements, and applying under the stream (the Temporary Residence Transition stream,
the Direct Entry stream or the Agreement stream) under which the high-skilled migrants was nominated. Also, the employee needs to be paid at least the same as an Australian in the same occupation.
General Skilled Migration (GSM) is a points tested skilled migration scheme which consists of three categories:
Skilled Independent category
Here is no sponsorship from an employee required. The occupation needs be on the Skilled Occupation List (SOL) and other skills are assessed by the Australian authorities. Besides these requirements, the Skilled Independent visa is only for invites, who are under 50 years and meet the required language skills.
State and Territory Government Nominated category
The difference with the Skilled Independent category is that here sponsorship is required and the applicants need to be nominated by the state or a territory government.
Skilled Regional category
The difference between the Skilled Regional category and the other two categories is that with this category high-skilled migrants can work in Regional Australia.
Distinguished Talent
This visa is specifically for high-skilled migrants who have an established career in a profession, a sport, the arts or academics/research. These talents would be beneficial to the Australian community and they need to prove that they have no difficulty with getting employment or being independent in their field (Australian Government: Department of Immigration and Border Protection, 2017).
The US
In the US there are different visas which will give high skilled migrants the opportunity to work. H-1B visa
This is the most used visa. In 2016 there were 233,000 H-1B petitions (USCIS, 2016). This visa is specifically for foreign workers with a high specialized knowledge, mainly in the fields of science, engineering and computer programming (Ibid.). A high-skilled migrant applies for a period of three years, this could be extended to six years and extension after six years may be a possibility as well. An advantage of the H1-B is that spouse and children below 21 can accompany without job
requirements. There are 5 requirements to obtain the H-1B visa:
A job which qualifies as a specialized occupation by meeting one of the following criteria:
A bachelor’s degree or higher degree or its equivalent is normally the minimum requirement for the particular position
The degree requirement is common for this position in the industry, or the job is so complex or unique that it can only be performed by someone with at least a bachelor's degree in a field related to the position;
The employer normally requires a degree or its equivalent for the position; or The nature of the specific duties is so specialized and complex that the
knowledge required to perform the duties is usually associated with the attainment of a bachelor's or higher degree.
A job must be in a specialized occupation related to their field of study
They must be paid at least the actual or prevailing wage for their occupation, whichever is higher.
There needs to be an H-1B visa number available at the time of filling the petition, unless the petition is exempt from numerical limits (Ibid.).
The last bullet point refers to the fact that each fiscal year (from October till October) there are only 65.000 H-1B visas available and 20.000 H-1B visas for migrants who have at least a US master's degree. Only workers who are “employed at an institution of higher education (or its affiliated or related nonprofit entities), a nonprofit research organization, or a government research organization are not subject to this numerical cap” (Ibid.). The 65.000 and 20.000 visas are chosen by using a computer generated lottery system.
The O-1 Visa
The O-1 visa requires an “extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business or athletics” and the starting of a business in the US (Ibid.).
The NAFTA TN visa
This is a visa specifically for professionals from Canada and Mexico. This is only valid for temporary entry and for specific occupation fields. The types of professionals who qualify for a NAFTA TN visa are accountants, engineers, lawyers, pharmacists, scientists, and teachers. The requirements for a NAFTA TN status are:
Citizenship of Canada or Mexico A qualifying profession
The position in the United States requires a NAFTA professional
You have a prearranged full-time or part-time job with a U.S. employer, but not self-employment
You have the qualifications to practice in the profession in question.
Canadian citizens are not required to obtain the NAFTA TN visa, but Mexicans are (Ibid.). The EB-1 and EB-2 visa
There are also 2 immigrant visas, which will lead to a permanent residency (green card). The EB-1 & EB-2 visa, which are specifically directed at migrants with “extraordinary ability (EB-1)” or who are “professionals with advanced degrees and individuals with exceptional ability in the sciences, arts or business” (Ibid.)
The US has more applications done by high-skilled migrants than available visa numbers. The US does not have a real coherent strategy for attracting global talent (Kuptsch and Pang, 2006). However, the numbers of applicants and the number of visa numbers show that they do not need a real strategy for attracting global talent, the latter will come even without a strategy.
Canada
Canada has a different sort of immigration policy to attract high-skilled migrants. The first and largest category is:
The Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP)
In 2015 there were 30432 approved requests (IRCC, 2016). The FSWP is based on a point system, with certain answers on the categories language skills, education, experience, age, arranged
employment in Canada and adaptability. Each category has a maximum of points, altogether 100 points. If the score is below 67 points, a migrant does not qualify as a skilled migrant (Canadian Government, 2016).
The Canadian Experience Class (CEC).
This a residence permit for high-skilled migrants with at least 12 months full-time (30+ hours per week) work experience in Canada in the three years before applying. Also, they need to show that they meet the minimum language requirement. Lastly, they need to plan to live outside Quebec (Quebec has their own selection of high-skilled migrants). There were 11251 applicants in 2015.
The Federal Skilled Trades Program
When a high-skilled migrant wants to get a visa under the Federal Skilled Trades Program, then he or she needs to have at least two years of full-time work experience in a skilled trade in the five
years before applying. There is also the job requirement for skilled trade. This is described in the National Occupational Classification (NOC) and there needs to be a full-time employment for at least one year or a qualification certificate by the Canadian government. As with the other visas, here high-skilled migrants need to plan living outside Quebec and meet the minimum language requirement.
The Start-Up Visa
This is developed to attract entrepreneurs to Canada. In 2015 there were 100 Start-Up visas granted. Also, migrants need to prove that they have language knowledge, there is sufficient settlement funds, that the business is supported by a designated organization and that it meets the ownership requirements (Ibid.).
China
In the 1970s China changed the barriers for emigration, as a result of the market oriented focus (Xiang, 2016). This lead to a massive emigration of both high-skilled and semi- and low-skilled citizens. In 1992 the government encouraged high-skilled migrants to return to China, because of a predictable brain-drain. The aim was to give people the opportunity to study abroad and encourage taking the knowledge back home. Funding universities to attract Chinese talent was one of the components. The government changed their policy when they entered the WTO in 2001. With the establishment of new institutions and science parks, they want to create a space were high-skilled and high-educated come together and attract more international high-educated and high-skilled (Zweig in Kuptsch and Pang, 2006).
There are a lot of national policies to attract high-skilled migrants. Three of them are further explained:
The One Hundred Talents Scheme
This was initiated by the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1994. It is developed to attract local and foreign scholars to enhance research in China. It mostly focuses on young talents and on academics with less than five years of experience. But they do need to have an international influence in their field, preferably by publishing articles in academic journals. In return they get a job with a lot of secondary conditions, like the best preschool for children, a RMB 200.000-3000 annually salary and an apartment (University of Science and Technology of China, 2017).
The Yangtze River Scholar Scheme (or Changjian Scholars Program)
the One Hundred Talents Scheme is that an overseas applicant does not need to hold a
professorship, but can hold an assistant professorship, while domestic applicants need to hold at least a professorship (China University of Mining and Technology, 2017).
The One Thousand Talents Scheme.
This scheme is set up particularly for young talents (under 55 years) who are willing to work in China and are high-skilled. This means that they need to have “full professorships or the equivalent in prestigious foreign universities and R&D institutes” or ”senior titles from well-known
international companies or financial institutions” (The Thousand Talents Plan, 2017). High-skilled migrants who meet the requirements can apply for the 'Permanent Residence for Aliens' and/or multiple entry visas (2-5 years). The talents get RMB 1 million Yuan, are entitled to all the insurances and may purchase an apartment. Also there is a tax benefit, which means that different allowances and subsidies are deducted before taxes (Ibid.).
The rest of the policies with different benefits and requirements are:
Financial Assistance Scheme, China's Sons Scheme, Prioritising of Funding Support to Science and Technology Projects by Chinese Returnees, Facilitating Scheme on Returnees Entrepreneurship, Funding Scheme for High Level Overseas Returnees, Scheme of Bringing Wisdom to Science and Innovation in Universities, Ministry of Education (MOE) Spring Sunshine Scheme, MOE New Century Excellent Talents Supporting Scheme, National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) Outstanding Youth Scheme, Overseas Wisdom Scheme, Oceanic System Overseas Returnee Talents Scheme in the 12th Five-Year Programme (Jingjing in Gungwu and Yongnian,
2013).
And even on the sub-national level the Chinese are active in creating policies to attract high-skilled migrants. For example, in 2005 Shanghai developed the Shanghai Pujiang Talent Programme, which is a program that funds returned scholars (Xinhuanet, 2017).
India
In India there is also more an emigration going on than immigration. This is one of the reasons that in 2004 they established a Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA). This ministry actively tracks the Indian diaspora (Chanda and Sreenivasan in Kuptsch and Pang, 2006). However, in January 2016 it was merged with the ministry of External Affairs (Times of India, 2017). This would give an impression that emigration cannot be hard. This is not really true. Although Indian citizens emigrate a lot, there is an increasing amount of Indians who are staying and working in
India. This is because the wages (especially for higher skilled work) are increasing.
India has an employment visa, which is intended for high-skilled migrants. One of the requirements are as follows: “The applicant should be a highly skilled and/or qualified professional being
engaged or appointed by a company/organization/industry/undertaking in India on contract or an employment basis at a senior level, skilled position such as technical expert, senior executive, or in a managerial position etc.” (Indian Government, 2017). On the website of the Bureau of
Immigration (part of the Ministry of Home Affairs) is clearly stated that this does not apply to 'ordinary' jobs. Besides the skillfulness, there is also a salary requirement: a minimum of U.S. $25,000 per year (Bureau of Immigration, 2017).
The Indians had until 1999 a Person of Indian Origin card (PIO card), which changed to an Overseas Citizenship of India card (OCI) in 2005. This is a card for migrants who were (or whose parents or grandparents were) at some point an Indian citizen or who is a spouse of an OCI
cardholder/Indian citizen. This gives among other things the benefit of being eligible (in compliance with the Indian laws and regulations) for work as a doctor, dentist, nurse, pharmacist, advocate, architect or chartered accountant (Indian Embassy, 2017).
3.3 Policies compared to the European policy and Dutch policy.
Australia, the US and Canada are the top 3 countries who attract the most high-skilled migrants for years (Kuptsch, and Pang, 2006). These three countries have more than one regulation when it comes to high-skilled migrants. The EU only has one: the EU blue card. Another difference between these regulations and the EU blue card is how recent the latter is implemented. The EU blue card needed to be implemented in the EU member state national policies in 2011, while Australia, the US and Canada are originally immigration countries and had already policies for different groups of migrants. Compared to the upcoming immigrating countries, China and India, the EU blue card is more universal. In China and India, the policies are mostly created to attract overseas Chinese and Indian people back to their country of origin. It is not developed to attract other high-skilled migrants. Because the EU is a supranational regulation and the above mentioned policies are national regulations, it should also be compared to the Dutch regulations. Firstly, Australia and Canada differ from the Dutch regulation because they handle a point system. The US has more than one regulation, but the most common, the H1-B, differs because high-skilled
migrants need to meet up to five requirements. Lastly the Chinese policies focus mostly on researchers, but include more benefits. The Indian policy is most similar to the Dutch policy: a minimum salary and an employment contract (see paragraph 4.2.3).
Chapter 4. National policy
4.1 History of attracting high-skilled migrants in the Netherlands
After the Second World War the Netherlands attracted mostly low-skilled laborers. This demand was driven after the economic increase and the shortage of Dutch laborers. Since there was no immigration policy, the laborers could just come and go. There was little demand for high-skilled laborers, which led to no high-skilled migration. In 1965 there was a policy change which led to the 'law on foreigners' 4 and a 'temporary residence permit' 5, which made migration to the Netherlands
harder. At the end of the 60s, the Dutch government decided that the Dutch policy was not
applicable for migrants who earned more than the health insurance costs of 13.800 gulden (€6262) annually. When this was applicable, the 'temporary residence permit' was easily given. In 1970 the government actively tried to stop the recruitment of low-skilled laborers. However, businesses – and especially multinationals – where busy with lobbying for an easing regulation regarding high-skilled migrants. The requests for working permits for intra-company transfers and high-high-skilled migrants who were brought into the Netherlands were not convenient. For international concerns, the regulation for hiring high-skilled migrants changed to a salary requirement of at least 2000 gulden (€900) per month, and if the high-skilled migrant was not transferred within the country then a working contract was also a requirement (de Lange, 2007).
The oil crisis in 1973 led to a change in policy to stop the low-skilled laborers. In the 80s the policy restricted migrants, while family reunification became the primary regulation for migrants to enter the Netherlands. Since the 90s the European Union created, with the Treaty on the functioning of the European Union, a Europe where there is free movement of people, capital, goods and services. At the end of the 90s the high-skilled migrant policy was heavily discussed. Where in the 70s and 80s all economic migrants where seen as a threat to the economy, at the end of the 90s it changed for high-skilled migrants. Easing the high-skilled migrant policy was in favor of the Dutch economy. It would improve the competitiveness of Dutch companies and it would also make the Netherlands more attractive as a location for new businesses (Ibid.). In 2000 the easing policy of the 70s restricted, the government defined the term 'international concern' as a concern with at least three offices in different countries and with annual sales of at least €50 million under the exemption (Staatscourant, art. 12, 2001). In 2003 the government eased the criteria of having at least three 4 vreemdelingenwet
offices in different countries, in order to attract foreign concerns without international offices to open an office in the Netherlands and get some key staff in the Netherlands easier. Also, smaller companies who are serving a substantially Dutch interest could ask for an exception to bring their staff key. This too was in order to stimulate the Netherlands as an attractive international business community. At the same time, the employee needed to earn at least €50.000 annually and have a higher education degree (Staatscourant, comments on the articles, art. I part E, 2003). The employee, although appointed temporarily, had free access to the Dutch labor market after three years (de Lange, 2007).
4.2 High-skilled migrants policy in the Netherlands in 2015 and 2016In 2015 there were 12.320
high-skilled migrant applicants, of which 92% were admitted. The data about how well the Netherlands is doing with attracting high-skilled migrants is ambiguous. The Immigration and Naturalization Services (IND) states that between 2008 and 2011 there were 22.430 new high-skilled migrants in the Netherlands. This would mean that the Netherlands is second on the ranking of European countries that accepted the most high-skilled migrants within this period. Only the United Kingdom has accepted more high-skilled migrants (52.950) (IND, 2013). These numbers are based on absolute numbers.
This says nothing about the amount of high-skilled migrants who already lived in the countries and the percentage of all the high-skilled migrants relative to the amount of inhabitants. The European Migration Network (EMN) (2013) did take this into account. According to this study, 1% of the total employed population consisted of employed third-country nationals working in high-skilled occupations in 2011. Based on relative terms, the Netherlands occupies the 11th place.
These numbers are not representative for the number of high-skilled migrants in the Netherlands in 2016, but do show that the Netherlands is not the best at attracting high skilled-migrants when its inhabitants are taken into account. To become the most attractive country for high skilled-migrants, the Netherlands created three different policies. These are the Orientation Year6, the 30% tax ruling,
and the high-skilled migrant status7.
4.2.1 The Orientation Year
The Orientation Year is a regulation which states that highly educated graduates with a higher degree (bachelors or masters) obtained in the Netherlands can for one year search for a job as a high-skilled migrant or start their own business (Nuffic, XXXX). Within the Orientation Year it is possible to work without meeting the requirements of the high-skilled migrant regulation.
Employers do not have to apply for a working permit if they are hiring an employee with an Orientation Year status.
6 Zoekjaar hoogopgeleiden 7 Kennismigrantenregeling
Figure 4: European Migration Network 2013
To stay at the end of an Orientation Year, it is required to apply as a high-skilled migrant or to start an own business. This will result in a start-up visa, which provides the opportunity to grow a business in the Netherlands (Expatcenter, 2016).
The Regulation for Highly Educated is directed at master graduates and PhD graduates. The certificate should be obtained in the Netherlands (listed in CROHO) or abroad if the educational institution is listed in the top 150 of the 'Times Higher Education Supplement' or the 'Jiao Tong Shanghai University'. One of the differences with the Orientation Year was the duration of the application period. For the Orientation Year you needed to apply within one year after graduation, for the Regulation for Highly Educated this was three years. There was a point system, where at least 35 points were needed. Another difference was that working was only an option if the employer had a permit. (Nuffic, XXXX)
In March 2016, the Orientation Year and the regulation for highly educated were combined into the Orientation Year. With this combination, also the duration of the application period for higher educated (graduates) for this regulation increased. Since March, 2016 students and scientific researchers can apply for the orientation year within three years of graduation. Before, it needed be done within one year. One of the reasons this period has been extended is to give graduates the chance to go to their homeland before applying for an orientation year (IND, 2016).
4.2.2 The 30 % tax ruling
The 30 % tax ruling is meant for laborers from outside the Netherlands who are recruited abroad or laborers who are sent abroad to the Netherlands. It is meant to compensate foreign high-skilled laborers for expenses they would otherwise not have. Examples of these expenses are Dutch language courses, (required) medical examination costs, traveling expenses to their home country and certain accommodation costs. To benefit from this regulation, the following requirements need to be met:
employment
a specific expertise that is rare on the Dutch labor market8
a valid decision.9
lived in the 24 months before the first workday more than 150 kilometers from the Dutch 8 If the IND decides that the regulation for high skilled migrant applies, then this criteria is automatically fulfilled.
9The validation is maximum 10 years, if it was given before 1 January 2012. After 1 January 2012 it is maximum 8 years valid.
border. There are exceptions to the 24 month period and PhDs (Belastingdienst, 2016).10
4.2.3. High-skilled migrant status
For high-skilled migrants, there is a high-skilled migrant status which was launched in October 2004 (Berkhout et al. Part of the SEO Economic Research, 2014). High-skilled migrants can only migrate to the Netherlands when the company they are going to work for is an approved referent. The status of referent companies is conceived in order to get quick and efficient immigration procedures. This has as an advantage that it is easier for the company and the IND, but also the employees do not need a working permit anymore (Expatcenter, 2016). The costs of becoming an approved referent was €5183 in 2016; this fee is paid once after that companies can hire as many high-skilled migrants as they want (IND, 2016). The referent fee gets a lot of critique from especially startup companies and middle-small companies. The costs would be too high for this segment, which makes it hard to hire high-skilled migrants. Besides the requirement of being a referent, the high-skilled migrant also needs to meet the conditions of the minimum wage demand. In 2016 it was €3108 for skilled migrants under 30 years and €4240 gross per month for high-skilled migrant above 30 years, without a holiday allowance. When they are a high-high-skilled migrant adjacent to the Orientation Year or within three years after graduating in the Netherlands, or after a position as a scientific researcher, the minimum wage demand is €2228 gross per month. The wage demand already indicates the second specific condition to work in the Netherlands as a high-skilled migrant: there needs to be labor contract with an employer in the Netherlands. Besides these
specific condition, there are also general conditions, like having a valid passport, not being a threat to the public order or national security, a health insurance and a tuberculosis test (if they are from certain countries) (Ibid.).
10 If in this 24 month period of time, laborers who have lived more than 16 months further away than 150 kilometers can also use the 30% tax ruling.
Doctorates can also use the 30 % tax ruling if they within a year after their promotion start working in the Netherlands and, during the PhD research or between the PhD research and the begin date of working within a radius of 150 kilometers of the Netherlands border lived, or if before the start of the PhD research in the last 24 months they lived at least 16 months 150 kilometers away of the Dutch border.
Chapter 5. Sub-national policy 5.1 Policy of Amsterdam
After the economic crisis of the 70's there was a large sub-urbanization and a lack of city innovation in the Netherlands. In the 80's some cities managed to get out of this negative spiral of
non-innovation and underdevelopment of the industry. Amsterdam was one of these cities. As an explanation, high quality and comprehensive education is given. Besides education, also the cluster of business at the Zuid As, the ICT and internet possibilities in the city, the cultural creative
industry and Schiphol airport are named as explanations of why Amsterdam could escape the sub-urbanization and grow as an attractive business city. These five attracting points are supporting and strengthening each other (Plan Amsterdam, 2014). They are nowadays also the explanation of why foreign investors, companies – and as a result – migrants come to Amsterdam.
In the metropolitan area Amsterdam, there was demand for an office, with multiple cooperation partners: the municipalities, the Immigration and Naturalization Services (IND) and tax offices. The municipalities which are represented in the Expatcenter are Amsterdam, Amstelveen, Almere, Diemen, Haarlem, Hilversum, Haarlemmermeer and Velsen. The Expatcenter is an one-stop-shop office where high-skilled migrants can go to get information about moving to Amsterdam but also get their residence permit, the registration for their municipality and their citizen social number. The Expatcenter is created bottom-up, companies who wanted high-skilled laborers and high-skilled migrants themselves found the bureaucracy of resident permits too difficult. With the arrival of the Expatcenter this has been made easier. Even though there are no numbers about the amount of high-skilled migrants in Amsterdam before 2008, the Expatcenter has an applicant increase from a few hundred in 2008 to a couple of thousand per month in 2016 (Molenkamp, 2016).
As already mentioned, the Expatcenter is a bottom-up initiative and initially did not meddled with the policy of attracting high-skilled migrants. Through the years, however, this became more of a
focus. Although there is no real competition11 between other Expatcenters in the Netherlands (Den
Haag, Eindhoven, Enschede, Groningen, Rotterdam, Utrecht and Wageningen), Expatcenters are promoting the city as a great place to start or locate a company and as a good city to live in.
To make Amsterdam an appealing city to locate, the Expatcenter focuses on three pillars: work, life and education. These are the key areas where most bottlenecks were found by high skilled migrants and the companies.
Work
Under the pillar work are multiple policies which should attract high-skilled migrants to
Amsterdam. To implement these policies, there is intensive cooperation between the municipality, universities and the business world: the triple helix. The triple helix came to the conclusion that there should be focus on three policies:
The regulation for independent entrepreneurs12
Through the regulation for independent entrepreneurs, the Netherlands want to attract independent entrepreneurs. The IND grants permits if the entrepreneur meets certain criteria. Firstly, the work an entrepreneur performs needs to be essential to the Dutch economy. Also, the product or services an entrepreneur is offering must have an innovative character for the Netherlands. For this assessment, the IND requests advice from the
National Entrepreneurial Netherlands (Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland, RVO). The RVO acts herein on behalf of the Minister of Economic Affairs. The essential
importance is assessed according to a points system. The points system consists of three components:
Personal experience (education, entrepreneurship, work experience).
Business plan (market analysis, product / service, price, organization, financing). Added value for the Netherlands (innovation, employment creation,
investments).
The other requirements concern the exercise of your business or profession, for example necessary permits. Also, having a sufficient and sustainable income earning as an independent contractor (IND, 2016).
11 Rita Molenkamp of the Expatcenter in Amsterdam mentioned it as healthy competition. When companies or high skilled migrants are better situated at another city (and therefore Expatcenter) they would refer them to that region. However, she stated that they would try to make them stay in Amsterdam.
At this moment, the Expatcenter of metropolitan Amsterdam is lobbying for a change in the regulation for independent entrepreneurs. This regulation is, according to the clients of the Expatcenter and on the basis of the amount of rejections, a very complicated system. They work with a point system, but the three components are experienced as not clear
(Molenkamp, 2016). Warm welcome talent13
In August 2016 the cities Amsterdam, Den Haag, Eindhoven and Groningen partnered with the national Dutch government to create the 'City Deal Warm Welcome Talent'. Through deals between those four cities, the government and companies are working for the growth, innovation and livability of the cities. These development points will lead to productivity growth of these (and surrounding) cities. The city deals aim to 1) create a metropolitan effect, 2) be (inter)nationally appealing, 3) be innovative and 4) be familiar with involvement of various public and private partners. This is done by giving start-ups the space to develop. The campaign 'Make it in the Netherlands' is directly focused at
international entrepreneurial talent. Although the Netherlands is doing quite well, they are ranked 19th in the 'Global Startup Ecosystem Ranking' of 2015 and 4th in the European Union. The Netherlands strives for a top 3 position in Europe's most attractive start-up ecosystems (Staatscourant, 2016).
International Talent Event Amsterdam (ITEA)
This is an event organized by the University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Inholland University of Applied Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam Inbusiness and the Amsterdam Economic Board, in order to connect employers with students and young professionals (IAmsterdam, 2016).
The Expatcenters are in direct contact with high-skilled migrants and the companies who hire them. They have annual meetings with other Expatcenters to see if they experience the same bottlenecks, and if so, they lobby at the national level for policy change. This is done in cooperation with the Ministries of Social Affairs14, Economy, Justice and Security, and Education and Culture. This led
13 Warm welkom talent
14 The reason the ministry of social affairs is part of the ministries where the Expatcenter lobbies is because in the history social affairs has a special bond with immigration. Until the 80s immigration and naturalization fell under the delegation of social affairs instead of under the department of justice and security. Until this day the ministry of social affairs is keeping an eye at the social impact of immigration and naturalization. At the one hand it is in important for the Dutch economy to attract high-skilled migrants, at the other hand they need to keep track that the Dutch higher educated are not pushed away at the labor market and there is no fear this could be a possibility.
to a change in the cost of 'approved referents' 15 for start-ups. This way they promote start-ups and
small and middle businesses to consider high-skilled migrants for expertise which cannot be found in the Netherlands.
Education
Amsterdam has a tradition of higher education, with an increasing number of international students. There are two research universities, the University of Amsterdam and the Vrije Universiteit.
Besides the research universities, there are six universities of applied sciences16. The city council of
Amsterdam has no direct influence on the amount of international students who are attending the universities. For universities themselves it is of interest to attract more students; they need to focus not only at Dutch students, but also at students abroad. This also affects the position of the Dutch universities at the international university rankings, which also leads to an increase of students (UvA, 2016, VU, 2016).
Despite the fact that universities mainly attract international students for their own benefits, the city of Amsterdam benefits as well. International students who graduated in the Netherlands can apply for the Orientation Year, which can lead to a (semi-)permanent stay. Also, the chance of staying in, moving later on to, or visiting Amsterdam is higher when there is a connection with the city
(Ainsaar, 2004).
For younger children there are international schools. These schools are relatively scarce and also more expensive than the public schools. The Expatcenter therefore stimulates parents to sign their kids up at a public school. They also stimulate public schools to create double language classes (Expatcenter, 2016).
Life
The pillar life consists of the most heard bottlenecks, which is related to the quality of life. At three points there were found clear problems. The first is housing, the second is health care and the third is infrastructure and culture.
15 The policy for companies to hire a high-skilled migrant is that the company should registrar once at the IND as an approved referent to hire a high skilled migrant. At this point the cost to registrar is €5000. For most multinationals or other relatively big companies this is most of the time no problem. Start-ups and other middle or small business however are these cost too high.
16 Amsterdam University of applies sciences (HvA), School of Arts (AHK), Europoort Business School (epbs), Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Hogeschool TIO and INHolland University of Applied Sciences.
In Amsterdam, the house market pricing is high. With the highway around the city center of Amsterdam, there is little space to expand. Although Amsterdam is bigger than the city center, based on the house pricing, most high-skilled migrants want to live there. Because there are a lot of problems with not equitable renting of houses, pricing way too high or deferred maintenance that the renters need to pay, there is help for high-skilled migrants at the 'Wijksteunpunt Wonen'. This is an independent non-profit organization, which is funded by the Amsterdam city council
(Wijksteunpuntwonen, 2016).
These are the reasons that the Expatcenter actively stimulates high-skilled migrants to search for houses outside the city center of Amsterdam and show them the positive features of living in other cities in metropolitan Amsterdam, like Zaandam, Almere or Haarlem.
Even though the healthcare system in the Netherlands is one of the best in the world, a lot of high-skilled migrants experience difficulties. These difficulties are for example the lack of English knowledge of Dutch healthcare personnel, but also the required health insurance. These problems lead to a return to their home country where they use their familiar healthcare system. Not only is this a problem for the attractiveness and hence a possible push factor for new high-skilled migrants, it is also bad for the economy if they are leaving their work constantly for visiting a doctor abroad. The Expatcenter is developing a strategy plan to implement English healthcare into the existing one, so that at least the language barrier is solved.
Finally, they are trying to motivate high-skilled migrants to integrate into the Dutch culture. The Expatcenter offers a membership to the 'Amsterdam Salon', which is a networking initiative that tries to blend the culture of Amsterdam with the Amsterdam business and the international residents. Members get an invitation for upcoming events. Also, there is a ‘We Are Public pass’ which offers members discount or free tickets to museums, galleries, theaters and cinemas
(Expatcenter, 2016). Research proves that connecting with the local culture stimulates migrants to stay there. Another way of stimulating high-skilled migrants to stay in the Netherlands is by learning Dutch. The municipality of Amsterdam has a Dutch teaching course open for Dutch citizens who do not speak the Dutch language at a certain level, to ensure that every citizen of Amsterdam is able to speak and understand Dutch at this certain level. However, this language course is since 2015 not available for high-skilled migrants who are eligible for the 30% tax ruling. As written in the chapter of national high-skilled migrant policy, the 30% ruling should provide for language courses among other things. The municipality checks beforehand if this applies to an applicant and if they are eligible, they are being stimulated to follow a course at a private institute
(Gemeente Amsterdam, 2016).
Chapter 6. Why did they move?
Almost all of the interviewees visited the Netherlands at least once before they moved. They all described a personal positive feeling towards Amsterdam and the Netherlands in general. Whenever I asked them if they could explain what that feeling was or to describe it, they could not explain it other than 'just a feeling', 'the people are lovely', 'everybody wants to help'. Although I can imagine that a good feeling towards a city and a country makes people want to move faster, it is for this research a bit too vague. When analyzing the interviews, I could distinguish at least five clear push factors in their country of origin and pull factors in the Netherlands or Amsterdam, which made the interviewees among other things move to the Amsterdam region.
6.1 Disagreement with the governance of origin country
The 17 interviews revealed that there was not one clear reason why people moved from their country of origin to the Netherlands. The push and pull factors however were in each interview clear. Some of them said explicitly that they did not agree with the way their origin country organized their government. The first interviewee, a jobless higher educated nurse and wife of a high-skilled migrant, stated that “there are a lot of problems in Slovakia, with the gypsies and the policy is going down”. Also the second interviewee, a writer and online teacher from the UK, pointed this out. He said that he wanted to contribute in paying taxes in the Netherlands, while he always resented paying taxes in England, because the way society works. He clarified this as a system which includes a lot of bureaucracy. “Whereas here, [in the Netherlands] there is also [bureaucracy], but everything seems to work very well […] and I want to contribute towards that”. Until I started analyzing my interviews, I was not aware that another interviewee said the same but with a different undertone. Interviewee 10, an information security engineer who had lived his entire life in the San Francisco area until he moved, said that “the quality of life in San Francisco was very low”. He meant the many homeless people in San Francisco which gave him a feeling of disparity. He resented the way San Francisco, and the US in general, coped with the problem of these homeless people. He said that “there is so much wealth and they don't want to address the problem. While here [in the Netherlands] [...] it actually helps. They will identify the problem, they
put money through taxes in the social security. [...] Even if you pay taxes [in SF], taxes aren't going to help them. Taxes are going to other areas in the city. Who knows, it isn't really transparent, so there is a lot more transparency where your money goes here”.
A 26-years-old high-skilled migrant (interviewee 12) acknowledged the fact that social welfare is a good thing for a country. He explained that because social welfare, Amsterdam was a really safe place for example. But although he thought it was a good thing for a country, he also believed that it was not for his ambitions. Alongside his job as a software engineer, he made applications for phones and tablets in his spare time. He was hoping for a breakthrough, but because of the social welfare regulations he believed that this was not possible in the Netherlands. “There are a lot of factors which don't let a start-up be successful, like employment care, like this contracting you never can break it, and if you have a start-up you want to fire people on the moment that you do not think you need them. It is cruel to say that but it is a success factor for your start-up”. According to him, this was the reason why no big application or social media platforms were founded in the Netherlands and one of the reasons he wanted to move to the US.
6.2 Work-life balance
I did not realize that the security information engineer criticized the US tax system, because he told about it in a different context.
He actually mentioned this quote because of the difference between the US and the Netherlands according to quality of life. Besides the social care differences between the US and the Netherlands, he also mentioned the work-life balance. He wanted to change his job, because of the high demand of US employment.
Before we met, he went to the US to celebrate Thanksgiving. About this holiday he said the following: “When I went to the Americas, I went on a holiday and [was] still working on the holiday. Because there were American people who were working, but also international people, because not everybody celebrates the US holidays”.
Another US citizen, interviewee 3, said that he moved because of something social. However, his argument implicates also a disturbed work/life balance. After leaving Morocco in his early 20s to study in New York, he worked after his study mostly in the US. However, he told me that when he moved “from Switzerland to Germany [he felt] less stressful and more relaxed”. He stated that he moved because of social reasons: “I needed that in New York. Because it is an individual city, I lived on my own, I worked hard. And after that I said maybe I get balance. And I am talking about
