Last Sunday, CDA politician Antoinette Vietsch read Delta 27 ”over coffee and cakes”. She was taken aback by the stories about foreign scientists and the visa delays for their partners and families (‘Red tape costs TU human capital’ and ‘Victim of the system’).
The following day she was scheduled to meet Deputy Minister of Labor Mark Rutte in a Parliamentary Committee. The subject: the law on foreign labor. This was an opportunity, Vietsch thought.
What did you ask?
”I asked Mark Rutte to do something about the fact that foreign scientists have to wait a long time before their families can be reunited. The subject you guys were writing about.”
And can he deliver?
”Rutte told us that, formally, he isn’t responsible. His labour department handles work permits, and visas are the jurisdiction of the Justice Department. But he promised to take matters up with his colleagues over there and that he would urge them to find a solution.”
Won’t that take a long time?
”He said he’d make sure that things wouldn’t drag on for too long. As such this debate was merely an opportunity. We were discussing a change in the law regarding foreign labor, as a result of enlargement of the European Union. Perhaps we will allow people from the new EU member states quick access to our labor markets. I could join the subject of the scientists to this. Otherwise, I’d have been obliged to put my questions in writing, which would have meant a delay of six to twelve weeks. Now the deputy-minister can get on it straight away with his colleagues.”
What triggered you? Was it the importance to Dutch research and industrial innovation? Or was it more ideological % a Christian politician should be interested in the togetherness of harmonious families?
”Basically, it was my own academic background. I found it very odd that a scientist went home because his wife wasn’t admitted quickly over here. The culture of universities is a culture of exchange of knowledge, and international contacts are part and parcel thereof. Governments have to facilitate that. We in Holland are proud when a Dutch scientist is appointed to a chair at MIT or elsewhere in the States. But the reverse situation has to be a possibility as well. Moreover, our country already applies exceptions to the rules. When multinational companies for instance need to appoint a new CEO over here, we admit them and their families on very short notice. This should also be possible for scientists and the like.”
Last Sunday, CDA politician Antoinette Vietsch read Delta 27 ”over coffee and cakes”. She was taken aback by the stories about foreign scientists and the visa delays for their partners and families (‘Red tape costs TU human capital’ and ‘Victim of the system’). The following day she was scheduled to meet Deputy Minister of Labor Mark Rutte in a Parliamentary Committee. The subject: the law on foreign labor. This was an opportunity, Vietsch thought.
What did you ask?
”I asked Mark Rutte to do something about the fact that foreign scientists have to wait a long time before their families can be reunited. The subject you guys were writing about.”
And can he deliver?
”Rutte told us that, formally, he isn’t responsible. His labour department handles work permits, and visas are the jurisdiction of the Justice Department. But he promised to take matters up with his colleagues over there and that he would urge them to find a solution.”
Won’t that take a long time?
”He said he’d make sure that things wouldn’t drag on for too long. As such this debate was merely an opportunity. We were discussing a change in the law regarding foreign labor, as a result of enlargement of the European Union. Perhaps we will allow people from the new EU member states quick access to our labor markets. I could join the subject of the scientists to this. Otherwise, I’d have been obliged to put my questions in writing, which would have meant a delay of six to twelve weeks. Now the deputy-minister can get on it straight away with his colleagues.”
What triggered you? Was it the importance to Dutch research and industrial innovation? Or was it more ideological % a Christian politician should be interested in the togetherness of harmonious families?
”Basically, it was my own academic background. I found it very odd that a scientist went home because his wife wasn’t admitted quickly over here. The culture of universities is a culture of exchange of knowledge, and international contacts are part and parcel thereof. Governments have to facilitate that. We in Holland are proud when a Dutch scientist is appointed to a chair at MIT or elsewhere in the States. But the reverse situation has to be a possibility as well. Moreover, our country already applies exceptions to the rules. When multinational companies for instance need to appoint a new CEO over here, we admit them and their families on very short notice. This should also be possible for scientists and the like.”
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