Work and Income of Inburgeraars After Housing: Employment, Benefits, and Wages by Route
Official CBS figures on how employment, benefit-reliance (uitkering), and household income change in the months and years after new inburgeraars are housed in a Dutch municipality, and how they differ by learning route.
- Author
- By Inburgering.org team (Editorial team)
- Reviewer
- Reviewed by Kirill Svavolia (Editorial review)
- Last updated
In the first months after new inburgeraars (people with a civic-integration obligation) are housed in a Dutch municipality, only about 1 in 4 are in paid work — but by month 33, that share reaches roughly half. According to CBS Statistiek Wet inburgering (SWI) figures, employment climbs from about 24% three months after housing to about 50% thirty-three months after, while the share receiving a benefit (uitkering) falls and household income rises. This page analyses those official CBS statistics; we are not a government body and do not produce these numbers, we only summarise them.
Direct Answer: Do Inburgeraars Find Work, and Does Benefit Reliance Fall?
Yes, gradually. CBS SWI data shows that the employment share of people housed in a municipality rises from roughly 24% three months after housing to about 50% by month 33. People on the B1-route are far more likely to work than people on the Z-route (about 56% versus 26% employed at month 33). Over the same period the share receiving a benefit (uitkering) declines — from about 54% to 43% on average — and mean standardised disposable household income for the 2022 cohort rose from roughly EUR 18,800 in 2022 to EUR 24,400 in 2024. Note the cut-offs: employment and benefit figures run through end 2025, but income figures run only through reporting year 2024.
Key Points
- Employment roughly doubles over the first three years. About 24% of housed inburgeraars are employed three months after housing, rising to about 50% by month 33 (through end 2025).
- The B1-route works far more than the Z-route. At month 33, about 56% on the B1-route are employed versus about 26% on the Z-route (leerroute = learning route) — a gap of around 30 percentage points.
- Benefit reliance declines over time. The share receiving an uitkering (benefit) falls from about 54% at month 3 to about 43% at month 33 on average; on the B1-route it falls from about 44% to 34% (through 2024).
- Most jobs are part-time and temporary. About 66% of jobs are part-time (deeltijd), about 89% are fixed-term contracts, and temp-agency and on-call work make up a large share of the job mix (through end 2025).
- Household income is rising. For the 2022 cohort, mean standardised disposable household income rose from about EUR 18,800 in 2022 to about EUR 24,400 in 2024.
- These are early cohorts. Wet inburgering 2021 only started in 2022, so the longest trajectories cover roughly the first three years after housing.
What These Figures Measure
CBS tracks people from the month they are housed in a municipality (huisvesting) and follows their work and income status at three-month intervals — month 3, month 6, and so on up to month 33 after housing. "Employed" means having paid work as an employee (loondienst), as a self-employed person (zelfstandige / zzp), or both. A benefit (uitkering) here means receiving any social-security benefit, most often social assistance (bijstand). Figures are broken down by learning route (leerroute): the B1-route, the Onderwijsroute (education route), and the Z-route (Zelfredzaamheidsroute, self-reliance route).
For what each route involves and how people are assigned to them, see our companion pieces on how inburgeraars are split across the routes and who the new inburgeraars are.
Employment Over Time After Housing
The table below shows the share of housed inburgeraars in paid work at each measurement point after housing, by learning route. Employment rises steadily on every route, but the level differs sharply: the B1-route is consistently the highest and the Z-route the lowest. These figures run through end 2025.
| Months after housing | All routes | B1-route | Z-route |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 months | ~24% | ~29% | ~8% |
| 12 months | ~31% | ~38% | ~11% |
| 24 months | ~37% | ~43% | ~16% |
| 33 months | ~50% | ~56% | ~26% |
Across all routes, the employed share roughly doubles between month 3 and month 33. The B1-route reaches about 56% employed by month 33; the Z-route reaches about 26%. The gap between the two is around 21 percentage points at month 3 and around 30 percentage points at month 33. This is consistent with the routes' design: the B1-route is aimed at people who can reasonably combine language learning with work, while the Z-route is for people for whom that is not yet realistic. Self-employment (zzp) is a small part of the picture — only about 1% of housed inburgeraars work as a zzp'er early on, rising to a few percent later (that self-employment series runs through 2024).
Benefit Reliance Over Time
Most asylum-status newcomers start out reliant on a benefit (uitkering), and the share receiving one falls as employment rises. The table below shows the share receiving a benefit by route, at month 3 and month 33 after housing. These figures run through reporting year 2024.
| Learning route | Receiving a benefit at month 3 | Receiving a benefit at month 33 |
|---|---|---|
| All routes | ~54% | ~43% |
| B1-route | ~44% | ~34% |
| Z-route | ~85% | ~76% |
| Onderwijsroute | ~79% | ~37% |
Benefit-receipt declines on every route over the 33 months tracked. The decline is sharpest on the Onderwijsroute — from about 79% to about 37% — which fits its design as an education track whose participants gradually move into study or work. On the Z-route, benefit-receipt stays high (about 76% at month 33), mirroring its low employment share. These are descriptive figures only; they reflect the different populations on each route, not the effort of the people in them.
Main Source of Income (2022 Cohort)
CBS also records each person's main source of income (voornaamste inkomen) over time. The series below covers the 2022 cohort only and runs through reporting year 2024. The shift over 33 months is clear: work overtakes benefits as the most common main income source.
| Main income source | At month 3 | At month 33 |
|---|---|---|
| Work | ~15% | ~47% |
| Benefit / pension | ~66% | ~26% |
| In education | ~4% | ~6% |
| No income | ~15% | ~21% |
Three months after housing, about two-thirds of the 2022 cohort relied mainly on a benefit or pension, and only about 15% mainly on work. By month 33, work was the main income source for about 47% and benefit/pension for about 26%. The "no income" share — people in a household supported by someone else, for example — sits around 15-21%. Again, this covers the 2022 cohort through 2024 only; later cohorts have shorter trajectories so far.
Household Income Is Rising
Mean standardised disposable household income (gestandaardiseerd besteedbaar huishoudinkomen) — disposable income adjusted for household size so households can be compared — rose year on year for the 2022 cohort. These figures run through reporting year 2024.
| Reporting year | Mean standardised disposable household income (2022 cohort) |
|---|---|
| 2022 | ~EUR 18,800 |
| 2023 | ~EUR 20,500 |
| 2024 | ~EUR 24,400 |
For the 2022 cohort, mean standardised disposable household income rose from about EUR 18,800 in 2022 to about EUR 24,400 in 2024 — an increase of roughly EUR 5,600 over two reporting years. This tracks the rise in employment over the same period. The 2024 figure is the latest available for income; do not read it as an end-2025 number.
What the Jobs Look Like
For those in work, CBS records the type of job. The picture is one of flexible, entry-level employment: mostly part-time, mostly fixed-term, and concentrated in temp-agency work (uitzendwerk), hospitality, and retail. The figures below are for all housed inburgeraars in work, measured three months after housing, and run through end 2025.
| Job characteristic | Breakdown |
|---|---|
| Hours | ~66% part-time (deeltijd), ~34% full-time (voltijd) |
| Contract type | ~89% fixed-term (bepaalde tijd), ~10% permanent (onbepaalde tijd) |
| Job type | ~50% regular employee, ~33% on-call (oproepkracht), ~16% temp-agency (uitzendkracht) |
| Top sectors | Hospitality ~25%, temp-agency & staffing ~19%, retail ~15% |
| Hourly wage | Mean ~EUR 17/hour; ~26% earn under EUR 14/hour |
About 66% of jobs are part-time, and about a third of jobs are below a 0.5 FTE workload (deeltijdfactor). Almost 9 in 10 contracts are fixed-term. If you add on-call work (about 33%) and temp-agency work (about 16%) to the staffing-sector employment, the dominant pattern is flexible, agency-mediated work rather than permanent direct employment. Hospitality is the single largest sector at about 25%, followed by the temp-agency and staffing sector at about 19%, and retail at about 15%. About three-quarters of those working hold a single job; roughly a fifth hold two jobs.
Who Worked at All in 2025
Looking across the whole obligated population over calendar year 2025 (not just the months after housing), about 43% of inburgeraars worked at some point during the year. The share varies a lot by integration status: people who are still on an active obligation are least likely to have worked, while those who are exempt or have already met the requirement are much more likely to have done so.
- Total: about 43% worked at some point in 2025.
- Obligation still active (lopend): about 40% worked.
- Obligation met (voldaan): about 60% worked.
- Temporarily exempt: about 84% worked.
- Fully exempt: about 86% worked.
The pattern is intuitive: those whose obligation is still running are earlier in their trajectory and often still focused on language learning, while exempt groups (often people already established in the Netherlands) work at much higher rates. These are descriptive associations, not statements about effort or ability.
What This Means If You Are Integrating
These are averages across thousands of people; your own path depends on your situation, your route, and the local labour market. The figures are most useful as context: they show that work tends to come gradually in the years after housing, that the B1-route is associated with much faster movement into work, that early jobs are usually part-time and temporary, and that household income climbs as people settle in. None of that is a target you must hit — it is a description of how the typical trajectory has looked for the first cohorts under the 2021 law.
To see how this fits the wider picture, read our analysis of outcomes after people finish inburgering, how people are assigned to the learning routes, and who the new inburgeraars are.
Official Sources
Official source checked: June 2026.
- CBS Statistiek Wet inburgering (SWI) dashboard - CBS dashboard on the obligated population under Wet inburgering 2021, including employment, benefits, household income, and job characteristics by cohort and learning route. Has per-chart CSV downloads. Employment, benefit, and job-characteristic charts run through end 2025 (preliminary); household-income and main-source-of-income charts run through reporting year 2024.
- CBS: gestandaardiseerd besteedbaar inkomen (definition) - CBS definition of standardised disposable household income: disposable household income adjusted for household size and composition so households of different sizes can be compared.
- Rijksoverheid: Wet inburgering 2021 - Government overview of the 2021 integration law: the three learning routes, the role of municipalities, and the personal integration plan (PIP).
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