A new audit by the Netherlands Court of Audit on the Civic Integration Act has found improvements in the position of asylum seekers with a residence permit, but the improvements do not translate into sufficient, appropriate paid work. The Netherlands still struggles to get recognised refugees into sectors suffering high staff shortages, such as construction, healthcare and engineering.
Integration is taking longer than intended, the level achieved is lower and sectors with staff shortages are barely reached. In the absence of urgency and corrective action, civic integration policy remains wishful thinking. Status holders are still unable to find work quickly and the provision of language courses could be improved. The reasons why participation in society is improving only slowly are diverse: lengthy asylum procedures and difficulties in finding a permanent address play a part, as do a shortage of language teachers and lack of childcare. Paid work also remains hard to combine with mandatory language courses.
The act does not yet facilitate rapid and full participation
The current Civic Integration Act came into force in 2022. This new audit, covering the years 2022 to 2024 and involving almost 65,000 status holders, shows that refugees with residence status now receive more municipal assistance than under the previous Civic Integration Act and that more language lessons at B1 level are being offered.
However, the results up to mid 2025 indicate that the policy does not sufficiently contribute to what the law refers to as rapid and full participation in Dutch society. A great deal of potential remains untapped, the Netherlands Court of Audit reported on 28 January 2026, especially in sectors with acute staffing shortages.
Minister does not know whether goals are being met
According to the report, the responsible Minister and State Secretary for Social Affairs and Employment (SZW) are currently cannot say whether civic integration policy is resulting in ‘full participation’. This is because status holders’ work experience and education level are not recorded at the start of the integration process, and there are no targets to measure the policy’s progress on its goals.
Civic integration policy has existed in the Netherlands since 1998. Civic Integration Acts have quickly succeeded each other, often before the impact of the preceding act was known. Consequently, the new policy is designed as a ‘community of practice’, allowing rapid adaptations to implementation problems. The minister makes insufficient use of this flexibility. The integration process begins later than intended, on average only after more than 2 years, owing to the length of asylum procedures. The act aims to have status holders achieve ‘the highest possible language level’. Yet the number of participants following lower level language courses, and therefore with less Likelihood of full participation, is twice as high as expected. Moreover, provision of B2 language classes remains low, and enrolment in the education pathway has met only half the target set for it.
Percentage of status holders employed by sector 2022-2024, measured 1 year after being housed
Flexible contracts, low paid work
Of the status holders who began their civic integration 3 years ago, 28% have had some form of paid work, usually low paid work on flexible contracts, not ‘appropriate’ employment that makes use of qualifications and experience from the country of origin. For example, a nurse is working in the hospitality sector and a university lecturer in computer science is delivering food parcels. To place these people in full time, permanent jobs often requires high level language acquisition and up skilling, which is at odds with the Participation Act’s aim of moving people off benefits as quickly as possible.
In comparison with several other European countries, it takes a long time in the Netherlands for integrators to work at an appropriate level, for instance in healthcare. If refugee healthcare professionals were up skilled more quickly in the Netherlands, the state could save on benefit payments and training costs. The United Kingdom and Germany have taken a different appr`oach. In 2024, 5,800 Syrian refugees were working as doctors in Germany; some had moved to Germany from the Netherlands because there was more opportunity for them to practise their profession there.
Without clear choices, policy remains wishful thinking
The Court of Audit describes the situation as ‘wishful thinking’ because ministers expect status holders to achieve rapid, full time and appropriate paid work while simultaneously attaining the highest possible language skills. Municipalities, which assist in civic integration and purchase language courses, cannot solve this problem for the Minister of SZW. Following the Court’s audit, officials at SZW said they supported permanent exits from the benefits system and intended to introduce targets and keep records. In its concluding remarks, the Court of Audit notes that the bottlenecks are well known. Clear choices are now required. If the aim of civic integration is participation to the best of one’s ability, as the law stipulates, the Court recommends building on status holders’ potential. Otherwise, permanent exits from the benefits system remain unrealistic and labour potential will stay untapped.