A robot or a labor migrant?

Perhaps the most labor migrants of all sectors work in the food sector. Crops depend on it. The foreigners, mostly from Central and Eastern Europe, do work that the Dutch don't like.

Trials have been carried out in which many long-term unemployed people in the Westland were put to work in the greenhouses. After 1 month there was none left. Everyone had left. The migrant worker does the work without grumbling, even if he lives in less favorable conditions. The reward is the lowest compensation we know in this country.

They are needed
The agricultural sector desperately needs them. In the south of the Netherlands, the Limburg Agricultural and Horticultural Association (LLTB) sounded the alarm. The (residential) facilities must be improved quickly. Limburg must become more attractive for labor migrants, writes enterprising Limburg in a letter. According to the employers, it will not be possible to solve the shortage of workers without foreign personnel. A task force is urgently required.

However much they are needed, in the residential areas we would rather lose them than be rich. The population is rioting against the 'Poland hotels' and the abuses that occur at recreation parks (the bulging bungalows full of drunken foreigners that ruin the atmosphere). They should just go and live in the empty stables, it is suggested.

It seems that the government does not want to burn its fingers on the migrant worker. It remains frighteningly quiet around the problem of housing. As if the absence of these workers has no disastrous consequences for the economy. This certainly applies to the specific sectors and regions where their share in the number of jobs can be as high as 25%.

Need is increasing
A study by SEO Economic Research shows that 5% of all jobs in our country are filled by workers from Central and Eastern Europe. Together they account for €11 billion of the gross national product. According to the research bureau, which is affiliated with the University of Amsterdam, the need for extra forces from abroad will only increase. Not only because the economy is running at full speed, but also because the Dutch working population will shrink from 2021. With labor migrants, the working population can still be maintained to some extent.

The temporary employment sector plays an important role in the mediation of labor migrants: almost half of them find work through an employment agency. It is this sector that calls on the municipal and provincial authorities to work on special housing, together with temporary employment organizations and housing providers. The vast majority of labor migrants are here temporarily: 66% stay in our country for less than 5 years. This mainly requires short-stay facilities.

No permanent contracts
The fact that there are so many migrants in the agricultural sector is partly due to seasonal work (such as the cultivation of asparagus, vegetables, flower bulbs and soft and top fruit). It is impossible to offer permanent contracts for such harvesting work. At the same time, the agricultural sector is a sector where automation and robotization are moving very fast.

Cerescon from Heeze recently sold the first selective asparagus robot to a French company. It turns out that we don't want to work on the land and in the greenhouse, but we are masters at inventing agricultural machines. Before long, the sector will no longer need the labor migrant. But we are not there yet. Until then, we will have to embrace the migrant worker and give them a decent place in our society.

Johan Geroms

Johan Geeroms is Risk Director at Euler Hermes, the world market leader in credit insurance and corporate debt collection. In his blogs, Geeroms often focuses on developments in the agricultural sector.

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