After years of lax migration policies, the Netherlands appears to be reverting to a more restrictive, common-sense approach.
On Thursday, July 3rd, the Dutch parliament’s lower house passed a sweeping package of asylum law reforms championed by right-wing populist leader Geert Wilders.
The legislation halts new residency permits for asylum seekers indefinitely, and cuts the duration of temporary residency permits from five to three years.
The law also imposes strict new limits on family reunification for recognised refugees—asylum seekers who want to be reunited with their families will have to have lived in the Netherlands for at least two years, and have both a home and an income. Adult children will not be allowed to join them at all.
An amendment, added at the last minute by Wilders’ Party for Freedom (PVV), criminalizes undocumented residency and penalizes those offering assistance to illegal migrants—an amendment that caused furor among even some centre-right parties.
Last year, the Netherlands received around 32,175 asylum seekers and 11,875 family members. In the first three months of 2025, the numbers halved compared to the same time period of 2024.
The main countries of origin are Syria, Turkey, and Eritrea.
The bills adopted on Thursday now await review in the parliament’s lower house, the Senate, after the summer recess.
The adoption marks a significant victory for Wilders, who has long vowed to clamp down on immigration. He pulled the PVV out of the governing coalition on June 3rd, citing delays in implementing robust asylum policies—the move resulted in the collapse of the Dick Schoof-led cabinet after just eleven months in office.
Before the vote, Wilders said that “immigration and asylum policy will be the major campaign theme of the elections,” which are set to take place in October this year.
At every working visit, every debate, every interview, I will point out that a super-large PVV is the only guarantee for stopping asylum, closing asylum centres, and getting the criminal scum out of our country.
The reforms advocated by Wilders reflect widespread voter anxiety about housing shortages, pressure on healthcare, and integration challenges—a sentiment that propelled his party to power in November 2023 and sustains its influence today.
A recent poll shows that the PVV remains in the lead ahead of the elections in October, polling at 21%—2.5 percentage points lower than the votes it received in the previous election.
Wilders’ main rivals are the left-wing GroenLinks–PvdA alliance, led by former European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans, and the liberal VVD, a coalition ally of Wilders until the collapse of the government—both parties are polling at 17%.
It is doubtful, however, that the latter will enter into a coalition with Wilders again.
As it is always in Dutch politics, more than a dozen parties are expected to enter the parliament, and striking a coalition deal will be extremely tough, let alone creating a government that will be able to implement even more tough anti-migration policies, favoured by the PVV.
