The Dutch government announced that it intends to implement population caps at 20 million people by 2050.
To achieve this goal, the government will need to reduce immigration numbers by 100,000 people.
After being briefed on the matter, immigration minister Marjolein Faber said the cabinet “supports the need to work towards that scenario and to get a grip on migration,” The Telegraph reported.
Some migrants are needed for the country’s population, reports show.
According to a report published earlier this year, the Netherlands’ population needs to grow to retain its “broad prosperity.” Its current population stands at 17.88 million. The report explained that the country needs to grow by more than 20 million over the next 25 years. To reach that number, 68,000 migrants are to be allowed into the Netherlands.
The Telegraph noted that about 170,000 migrants apply for asylum to work in the country annually.
“We have had an extensive discussion in our party and we have all come to the insight that government steering on how the composition of the population develops is very important,” Groenlinks-PvdA leader Frans Timmermans said.
Faber previously said that she is aiming for the “strictest asylum policy ever.”
The plan would involve declaring an “asylum crisis, which will allow me to take measures to combat [it],” she said, as reported by Politico.
Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said, “We cannot continue to bear the large influx of migrants to our country. People are experiencing an asylum crisis.”
According to the country’s national statistics agency, CBS, 4.6% of immigrants have a Dutch background and 17.3% have an Asian background. The majority of migrants from 2022 (257,522) have a European background.
