The corona crisis has led to disruptions in the demand for and supply of foreign workers in the Netherlands.

Many temporary workers from Eastern Europe have returned to their home countries. Others, who were planning to come to the Netherlands, have decided to abandon their planned trip. The absence of migrant workers is causing particular problems in the agricultural sector, which relies heavily on flex workers and is currently operating at full capacity. In other industries, such as shipbuilding and industrial maintenance, foreign temporary workers have actually been laid off because the risk of infection at their workplaces was deemed too high.

Sharper competition between countries for migrant workers
The question is to what extent shortages of foreign labour can be filled in the short term with domestic labour that is temporarily in short supply due to the corona crisis. At the same time, the corona crisis is intensifying competition among countries in Western Europe for foreign labour, especially in the market for unskilled agricultural labour.