The "asylum crisis" is not a crisis
The "asylum crisis" is not a crisis
The irony of persecuting the persecuted
I did not want to write about this month’s political flare-up over asylum in the Netherlands. Drawing attention to the government’s hot-headed rhetoric only helps them pin our societal problems on asylum seekers. Which is obviously wrong, because who more likely created our issues with housing, health care, and education? The people who by definition just arrived? Or, the people who have been in charge for the last twenty years? Hmm. Tough one.
I’m writing about it anyway because it’s been such huge news—and drastic new changes to asylum policy are now on the table.
Over the last few months, the new far-right government pushed to declare a state of emergency. This would have made implementing restrictive new laws against asylum seekers (people who come to the Netherlands to apply for refugee status, which results in a resident permit) a lot easier. This debate got serious: far-right PPV party leader Geert Wilders hinted that the cabinet might fall if the other parties did not agree to declare an emergency. Afterwards, Prime Minister Dick Schoof admitted he also feared a government collapse.
But Wilders was forced to fold, and the cabinet came to a different compromise. The cabinet stands, and there will be no state of emergency.
All of this was done in bad faith. A version of emergency law was used during the pandemic. It is designed for acute situations like that. Or wars. Or floods.
The asylum situation is not acute. The number of asylum seekers showing up in the Netherlands has been relatively consistent for years, and actually went down this month.
I wrote about the current asylum process in the Netherlands in detail here.
Instead of a state of emergency, the parliament will try to pass a package of regular laws that will make life harder for asylum seekers. The purpose of this is to make the Netherlands “less attractive” to potential refugees. (Legally speaking, an asylum seeker becomes a refugee once asylum is granted.)
The new proposed laws include, among other things: border controls (seriously, border controls), reducing the duration of temporary asylum permits from five years to three, and attempting to declare Syria a safe country. The NRC has an overview of the proposed laws here (in Dutch). The combination of Dutch law and EU rules make it hard to predict which of these proposals are possible or even legal. It’s also unclear whether or not these laws will pass, or how long it might take.
Limiting immigration was one of the biggest issues in Wilders’ successful campaign last year. He promised the “toughest regime for admitting refugees and the broadest package to get a grip on migration ever.”
This “get a grip” phrasing has become a tagline. The king even repeated it in his budget day speech in September. As if migration is out of control, and by controlling asylum applications, they can control migration and “get a grip” on the country itself.
That the majority of asylum seekers in the Netherlands come from Syria, Turkey, Eritrea, Yemen, and Iraq somehow never makes it into the political debate. Or that they flee repressive regimes, persecution, and war in their home countries. Or that the crisis in Yemen (an actual crisis!) is one of the most dire humanitarian situations in the world. Or that Eritreans face kidnapping and forced disappearances.
Nor do they mention the fact that anyone granted asylum has gone through a lengthy application process and have proven a legitimate claim to it. Or that eighty-five percent of applicants who apply for asylum in the Netherlands are approved.
Presenting asylum seekers as a group that we need to “get a grip on” obscures the more abstract fact that we, as a small, rich, and stable western nation, have a moral obligation to take in our small percentage of refugees. That’s why the right to asylum is considered a fundamental right in European law.
Refugees are okay when we like where they’re coming from. In 2022 alone 108,000 Ukrainians came to the Netherlands. And Ukrainian refugees have been granted an exception—they aren’t even required to apply for asylum. Now 140,000 Ukrainians live in the Netherlands… about the same number of Syrians. But somehow no one is trying to declare Ukraine a safe country.
The government is doing what right wing governments do—underfunding, and blaming the underserved for the problems that the government itself created.
In this case, they’re making conditions for asylum seekers in the Netherlands impossible in order to make asylum seekers a problem. Municipalities—who have to deal with the presence asylum seekers in practice—predict “chaos” of any of the proposed laws are enacted, like cutting funding for shelters. Along the same lines, the budget for the immigration service was 743 million euros in 2024. It will be slashed to 267 million euros in 2028. Cuts like these will mean longer processing times, more people sleeping on the street outside asylum reception centers, more homelessness, and more people in limbo in our society for longer.
The deliberate perpetuation of the image of a crisis will eventually create an actual crisis. The great irony of it all being that this future asylum crisis will be blamed on people who came to this country to flee persecution.
🔥 Hot Linkjes
Society
A Dutch man—who works as a security guard at Uniqlo Amsterdam—went viral in the UK for using his skills to stop pick pockets. Daily Mail.
Home prices in the Netherlands increased 11.4% since last year. Wow. NL Times.
Politics
“Dutch government averts collapse after Geert Wilders backs down.” Coverage about this week’s post from the Financial Times.
A foreign trade minister for the PVV floated the idea of sending rejected asylum seekers to Uganda. Prime Minister Dick Schoof is all for it. BBC.
Very unsurprising news: The Netherlands will miss its 2030 climate goals if more action is not taken. Reuters.
Arts & Books & Design
After last year’s scandal with singer Joost Klein, the Dutch will participate in next year’s Eurovision Song Contest. AP News.
Ten interesting emerging Dutch designers from Dutch Design Week. Dezeen.
Crime
DW has an interesting report on why the number of prisoners in the Netherlands is going down. The reasons include short sentences, a falling crime rate, and more non-custodial sentencing options.
American Cindy Charles, the head of music at Twitch, was killed in a traffic accident in Amsterdam. She was in town for the Amsterdam Dance Event. Variety. (Het Parool reported that she was on foot and hit by a garbage truck.)
🥳 Leuke Dingetjes
I love FC Centrum, this IG account that shares special spots in the city center of Amsterdam. I keep learning about new places even though I’ve lived here a long time.
📺 Kijk/Lees/Luister List
What I enjoyed watching, reading, and listening to this week.
TV / Movies
My expectations were very low going into The Apprentice. Like, a movie about Donald Trump? Who cares? But the performances alone are astonishing; the way Sebastian Stan slowly morphs into the Trump we know today over the course of the film is masterful. I saw at the Eye Cinema.
Zero Fucks Given, a movie about a flight attendant working for a low cost airline, is excellent, and an incisive critique of market Stalinism. The dipshit title does it a disservice. I watched it on Mubi.
Music / Podcasts
I’ve had this playlist on repeat for days.
“Episode 411: I Paid a Real Assassin to Try and Kill Me” of True Anon is a weird and depressing deep dive how and why Mr. Beast, the biggest YouTube creator, came to be and continues to flourish. The man is the algorithm.
Articles / Books
I very much enjoyed One’s Company by Ashley Hutson, a novel about a woman so obsessed with the old American television show Three’s Company that she builds a perfect replica of the set where she lives her life as the show’s characters.
Ruth Kelly’s gripping new thriller, The Ice Retreat, set in the controversial world of wellness retreats, is now out as eBook.
*all typos in this post are on purpose
I always look forward to your newsletters, and this time, these facts really made an impression. Of course I knew about Ukrainian 'privilege', but I did not know these numbers.
Thanks for writing about this topic! Gives me a chance to explain it/forward it to my non-Dutch speaking contacts.
"Refugees are okay when we like where they’re coming from. In 2022 alone 108,000 Ukrainians came to the Netherlands. And Ukrainian refugees have been granted an exception—they aren’t even required to apply for asylum. Now 140,000 Ukrainians live in the Netherlands… about the same number of Syrians. But somehow no one is trying to declare Ukraine a safe country."
ps. Someone whom I shared with just said: Mona Keijzer tried declaring Ukraine a safe country.
I had forgotten about that. (I try to avoid news about her 😉)