Junior economic affairs minister Mona de Keijzer has become the latest high profile politician to call for more restrictions on immigration.

De Keijzer told television show WNL op Zondag that the Netherlands is now reaching its limits in terms of the size of the population, but declined to put a figure on how many immigrants should be allowed in.

‘You could give a number, but we have signed up to international treaties and it would be complicated,’ she said.

De Keijzer is the second CDA minister to hint at tighter restrictions on immigration, which is emerging as key issue in the campaign for the March 2021 general election.

In January, deputy prime minister Hugo de Jonge said he backed new limits, after figures from the national statistics agency CBS showed the population of the Netherlands had grown by 132,000 last year.

Refugees made up just 6% of the 132,000 total increase in the population last year, the CBS figures show. Most new arrivals are from Poland, followed by Germany and India.

Telegraaf

De Keijzer’s comments came in reaction to a Telegraaf survey carried out by Kantar (formerly TNS Nipo), which showed 65% of the Dutch population back further restrictions on immigration. And that view is shared by 48% of the Dutch with a non-western background, the Telegraaf said.

Nine in 10 people said there is ‘hardly any room’ for more newcomers, a view shared by 77% of people with ethnic minority roots.

And 44% said the borders should be closed, even if this had an impact on economic growth, the Telegraaf reported. Some 33% of people with a degree shared this view.

However, while six in 10 people said refugees should remain in the region where they came from, 44% of people said there should be no restrictions on the number of asylum seekers.

The Telegraaf said 1,700 people were approached to take part in the survey, of whom just over 1,000 responded. In addition, 250 people with an ethnic minority background were questioned.