# Working refugees get up to three extra years to integrate

> The cabinet is relaxing integration (inburgering) rules from 2027 so that refugees with a residence permit who work at least 28 hours a week can take up to three years longer than the current three-year term.

Migration · published 2026-11-05 17:43 · https://nlnow.nl/a/working-refugees-get-up-to-three-extra-years-to-integrate/

Refugees with a residence permit (statushouders) who combine inburgering, the civic integration programme, with a job will get up to three extra years to pass the exam. The cabinet announced the change, which applies from 2027. Now the term is three years.

**Why it matters**

- From 2027, refugees who work or have worked at least 28 hours a week may take up to three extra years, depending on their situation.
- Refugees who do not work must still pass the exam within three years.
- Refugees who cannot start inburgering because they care for young children and no childcare is available can have the term extended by up to one year.

The government says most people in inburgering do not work and receive social assistance. Many refugees want to work, it says, but on working days they are also expected in class. Working at least 28 hours a week is a hard requirement for the extension.

Minister Thierry Aartsen (Work and Participation) said work should become the norm in inburgering. “At work you come into contact with Dutch language and customs all day. Your colleagues are your dictionary,” he said. “The faster people who come here start work, the greater the public support for receiving them.”

The cabinet aims to have 75,000 more newcomers in work within four years. Aartsen and Asylum and Migration Minister Van den Brink launched an approach called Werk en Meedoen Nieuwkomers. It brings more work and language training into asylum reception, agreements with employers to hire more newcomers, and puts work at the centre of the asylum and inburgering system.

The Algemene Rekenkamer, the national audit office, concluded earlier this year that combining paid work with the compulsory language lessons is hard.

Statistics Netherlands (CBS) counted 2,100 first asylum applications in September 2026, down from 2,700 in September 2025. Between September 2025 and September 2026 the monthly count ranged from 1,810 in June 2026 to 2,700 in September 2025.

**First asylum applications are down from 2,700 to 2,100 a month in a year** (people; source: CBS)

- Sep 2025: 2700
- Oct 2025: 2470
- Nov 2025: 2485
- Dec 2025: 2570
- Jan 2026: 2070
- Feb 2026: 1960
- Mar 2026: 1965
- Apr 2026: 2105
- May 2026: 2145
- Jun 2026: 1810
- Jul 2026: 1920
- Aug 2026: 1845
- Sep 2026: 2100

## Background

- **statushouder**: A statushouder is a refugee who has been granted asylum and holds a residence permit in the Netherlands (verblijfsvergunning asiel). The status gives the right to live and work in the country, and it is the starting point for the civic integration programme that newcomers must follow. The term is used in Dutch policy and news to refer to this group specifically.
- **inburgering**: Inburgering is the civic integration programme that many newcomers to the Netherlands must complete, including refugees with a residence permit. It consists of Dutch language courses and lessons on Dutch society, and it ends with the inburgeringsexamen (civic integration exam). The programme has a legal deadline, and the rules on how long people have to pass the exam are set by the government.

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