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Maarten Vink supervises study by Dutch Ministry of Security and Justice

Prof. Maarten Vink has acted as chair of the supervisory board of a study by the Research and Documentation Centre of the Dutch Ministry of Security and Justice on low naturalisation rates among former asylum applicants in the Netherlands. The study was commissioned by the Dutch Parliament and submitted on 1 October 2015.

The study focuses on a specific group of around 27.000 asylum-seekers who arrived in the Netherlands in the 1990s and early 2000s who had not received a final decision on their asylum application by 2007 and were granted an exceptional permission to remain in the Netherlands. These persons were eligible to acquire Dutch citizenship from June 2012, yet available statistics show that only around 30% of this group has naturalized. The study aimed to analyse the factors that explain this relatively low naturalisation rate.

The study finds that the largest obstacle for naturalisation is the requirement to obtain proper identity documents from the country of origin. 71% of persons who are interested to naturalise, indicates that they do not manage to obtain the required documents. Understanding the procedures is also indicated as problematic.

The study was done on request of the Dutch Parliament and submitted to the “Tweede Kamer” (the Lower House of Dutch Parliament) by the Minister of Security and Justice on 1 October 201

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