Immigration law and domestic work in the Netherlands
Like the other EU countries being researched in this project, the Netherlands too has experienced dramatic changes in the organization of care during the past few decades. One of the most important changes has been the increase in the number of women taking part in paid labour. This increased participation of women in paid labour has resulted in a loss in the amount of (traditionally predominantly female) unpaid labour being provided within private homes.
Compared to most other countries in the EU, this development occurred relatively late in the Netherlands, but once it occurred, it happened quite quickly. While the number of women employed in the Netherlands has by now increased considerably, the number of women working full-time remains relatively low. In fact, the Netherlands has the highest percentage of part-time workers in the EU, and by far the most of these are women.
A parallel development has been a tendency towards informalizing care for the elderly and the disabled, leading to a more flexible, privately financed and/or market oriented approach and reserving intensive institutional care for those most acutely in need of it. This shift in policies has also resulted in a stronger focus on unpaid care (the so-called mantelzorg). These developments are occurring just as the Dutch population, like that of other EU countries, is rapidly ageing. Thus we see that, in the same period that women have been reducing their commitment to their traditional family obligations, the scope of those obligations has been increasing due to demographic and policy changes.
Next to the above mentioned developments in the Netherlands that have helped create a demand for paid domestic labour in private homes, both political and economic developments in many non-EU countries have resulted in the emigration or even flight of large numbers of people to the EU countries. Some leave with the intention of finding a job as a domestic worker; others come for very different reasons but end up looking for work in this sector for lack of alternative options.
One factor that has helped limit the number of options available to immigrants in the Netherlands has been the relatively abrupt shift in policies towards immigrants in the Netherlands. Up until 1990 the leading paradigm was multiculturalism and immigrants were granted (some) access to the Dutch welfare state as long as they hadn’t been definitively refused status. Since then however Dutch immigration laws have become increasingly restrictive and tolerance for cultural diversity has diminished. Measures have been taken to radically exclude undocumented migrants from regulated labour, while at the same time the number of categories of foreigners with access to social insurance and social benefits (such as welfare or public health insurance) has been reduced. So, while the possibilities for acquiring and maintaining legal status have been reduced, the legal consequences – in terms of labour and social security law – of not having legal status have become more far-reaching.
There is anecdotal evidence that, increasingly, (undocumented) migrant workers – mostly but not exclusively women – are now filling the labour gap that has emerged within Dutch private homes. Other than in many other EU countries, it would appear that this work is primarily being done by live-out workers, often combining a number of part-time jobs, rather than by live-ins working for one sole employer. Up until now, it is practically impossible for migrants from outside of the EU to qualify for a work permit for domestic work in the Netherlands. The only provisions that have been made, are those for people working as an au pair.
The aim of this individual project will be to determine what the impact is of non-regulated status on the lives of live-out domestic workers employed in the Netherlands, and to initiate discussion over whether this type of labour migration to the Netherlands should be regulated, and how.