Living and studying in the Netherlands is expensive. Many students can relate to that. It is no different for international students. What does differ is that students from outside the European Union come up against legal obstacles as soon as they look for a part-time job. For example, they are only allowed to work 16 hours per week and cannot apply for their own work permit.
For the Law Clinic on Human Rights project at Radboud University's faculty of law, Chidimma Nweke, João Vitor Luz Lugon and Kim Celine van der Vegt delved into this problem. They analyzed current rules in the Netherlands, spoke to relevant organizations such as the UWV and the Arbeidsinspectie (Labor Inspectorate), and interviewed students about their experiences working in the Netherlands.
Waiting months for permit
“The biggest problem is the work permit,” Luz Lugon says. “It’s up to the employer to apply for the work permit, and many of them are not willing to deal with the bureaucracy.” The application is easy to do digitally these days, but then it still takes about five weeks before the permit is approved. “And in the meantime, you are not allowed to work without a permit.” This not only makes employers less likely to hire students from outside the EU, but also makes those students more vulnerable when they do get hired.
For one interviewee, a master's student from Albania who worked irregularly as a project leader for an NGO, it took as long as seven months for the employer to apply for the work permit, despite her repeatedly insisting on it. Until then, she worked on a voluntary basis and when she finally got the work permit, she was not compensated for the months she worked without a permit. A Vietnamese master's student in International & European Law "only" had to wait two months for her permit. But her boss at the restaurant was annoyed that she kept asking for the permit and suggested that she should work extra hard to compensate for the time it had taken to apply for the work permit. “If you come to the Netherlands for a one-year master's degree and then can't work for months but have to support yourself, you can quickly find yourself in financial distress.”
The uncertainty about a work permit makes the position of these students more vulnerable, in other areas as well. “Think unpaid overtime, being paid in cash or being paid at irregular times,” Luz Lugon lists. “Also, the student at the restaurant told us that Dutch employees were given priority when signing up for shifts, forcing her to work late shifts and to work on holidays like Christmas and New Year's Eve.”
Apply for permit yourself
Based on the results, Nweke, Luz Lugon and Van der Vegt made a number of recommendations to improve the position of students from outside the European Union. Nweke: "Most importantly, students should be able to apply for their own work permit. Employers find this too much of a burden, making them less likely to hire an international student. Another possibility is to abolish the separate work permit altogether, since the student already provides all relevant documents when registering at the university and arranging a residence permit. In a number of EU countries, including Belgium, France and Austria, it already works that way.”
Until this happens, it would make a big difference if employers were better informed about the digitized, simplified application option. “You can't find much about this online, so employers still have the idea that applying for a work permit is a complicated process,” says Nweke. “Thereby, it would save a lot of time for both the employee and the employer if the work permit is ready earlier.” An arrangement was made for Ukrainian war refugees whereby they could quickly and simply obtain a one-year work permit. “Of course their situations are much more vulnerable and incomparable to the situations of non-EU students. It is good that such an arrangement was made. At the same time it shows that simpler procedures are already available and they could also be used for students.”
Being allowed to work more hours
Furthermore, non-EU students are allowed to work a maximum of 16 hours per week in addition to their studies. “That maximum would have been set to prevent students from having too little time left for their studies, but that maximum number of hours does not apply to Dutch or European Union students,” says Nweke. “A small increase to 20 hours a week could go a long way. “In other EU countries, including Denmark, Malta and Ireland, this maximum is already at 20 hours per week.”
The interviews also revealed that students are not always aware of their rights. “They thought they could be fired quickly and didn't know exactly what obligations an employer had. It would help them a lot to expand access to legal help. An app or website where they can find all the relevant information would be a nice follow-up to this study.”
Photo: Dick van Aalst