Introduction

In May 2004, Ireland, Sweden and the United Kingdom opened up their labour markets to citizens of the new member states in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). In the summer of 2006, Greece, Portugal and Spain also allowed workers from the new accession countries access to their labour markets. The Netherlands followed in May 2007. For Bulgaria and Romania, which joined the EU in January 2007, a transition period is in force. Workers from these two countries still need a work permit in order to work in the Netherlands. The Netherlands could be described as a ‘third phase’ country, in that it did not allow CEE migrants immediate access to its labour market. However, it is incorrect to imply that there was no labour migration from CEE countries to the Netherlands before May 2007. The Netherlands was the second main destination of choice for migrants from the provinces of Opele and Silesia, which formerly belonged to the Prussian empire. Due to their dual Polish-German citizenship, the ‘German Poles’ have enjoyed free access to the Dutch labour market since the early 1990s (Pool 2004; Pijpers & Van der Velde 2007). Furthermore, under specific economic sector agreements, ‘Polish Poles’ and migrant workers from the new member states were already working in the Netherlands, more specifically from the early 2000s on. Polish workers dominated this labour force. Apart from this regular labour migration, from the early 1990s, there were also a significant number of irregular labour migrants from CEE who were employed in agriculture, horticulture and construction (Burgers & Engbersen 1996).

In other words, before the opening up of the Dutch labour market in May 2007, regular and irregular forms of organised labour migration could be observed in the Netherlands. Nevertheless, the European Union's enlargement has led to an accelerated growth of CEE migration to the Netherlands. The figures presented in this chapter will show that the largest category of CEE migrants arriving in the Netherlands come from Poland. The numbers of immigrants coming from the other CEE countries are still relatively small. However, we do not have complete insight into the volume of temporary and irregular immigration from the CEE countries to the Netherlands.