Ukraine-Netherlands Migration Skill Corridor: A Corridor Apart

This working paper examines the emerging Ukraine–Netherlands migration skill corridor, focusing on governance arrangements, migration trends and drivers, labour market integration outcomes, and links to broader integration and return dynamics. Drawing on 26 semi-structured interviews with policy-makers, practitioners and experts in Ukraine and the Netherlands, complemented by statistics, literature and policy documents, we show that the corridor changed abruptly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Before that it was characterized by small flows of mainly family, study, and highly skilled migration. Since then, numbers of Ukrainians arriving in the Netherlands under the EU Temporary Protection Directive rose sharply. We therefore categorize the Ukraine-Netherlands corridor as the humanitarian type. With no substantial bilateral framework beyond a tax treaty, the corridor is characterised by ad hoc governance, where public actors (e.g., municipalities, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment, UWV) and especially private recruitment agencies play key roles in facilitating labour market entry of Ukrainians under temporary protection, who are granted immediate access to the Dutch labour market. While employment among Ukrainians under temporary protection is relatively high, many experience deskilling due to slow recognition of qualifications, language barriers, and sectoral mismatches, reinforced by a “work-first” approach and uncertainty about length of stay that discourages employer investment. Integration is supported by strong migrant agency and community initiatives but constrained by framing of displacement as temporary, creating a paradox in which employer demand and societal support coexist with limited long-term policy commitment, leaving Ukrainians’ skill potential underutilised despite growing labour shortages in the Netherlands.