Immigrants from Morocco, Turkey and other countries considered to be ‘non-western’ are being harder hit by the recession than the native Dutch, according to research by the multicultural development institute Forum and the government’s UWV benefit agency.

‘Immigrants are the first to go, mainly due to the fact so many of them are on temporary contracts,’ Boudewijn Ariaansz of the UWV told the Volkskrant. Some 20% of people with an ethnic minority background have a temporary employment contract, compared with 8% of the white Dutch.
And 25% of the rise in unemployment is due to ethnic minority workers losing their jobs, even though they only account for 10% of the workforce.
Forum director Sadik Harchaoui told the paper the figures are extremely worrying. Some 30% of Dutch Moroccan youths are unemployed as are 25% of girls with a Surinamese background, he said.
Ariaansz, who works for a part of the UWV which specialises in helping ethnic minority university and hbo college graduates find work, said discrimination appeared to be playing a role.
‘I do not believe employers are deliberately shutting out certain workers, but they are more reluctant to take on people with a non-western background due to either preconceptions or a lack of experience with different cultures,’ he told the Volkskrant.