Many questions remain for migrant self-employed people, ‘The Netherlands is a completely different world’

• Billie Slagboom

  economics editor

“Who are all self-employed here?” asks one of the speakers. In the room, a few hands raise cautiously. “Very little, I see,” she continues, “but some of you may not know that you are self-employed.”

In the room, painted pastel green, there is a mixed group of status holders and people who have not yet had a Dutch passport. They are refugees and migrants from Somalia, Syria and Afghanistan, among others. They often work in transport or logistics.

Some want to become entrepreneurs, others already are. For them, the upcoming enforcement of the self-employed law could be good news. Some are in fact forced to work as self-employed.

Last night about forty of them came met in a community center on the outskirts of Haarlem to learn about the changes. Two weeks ago, the Somalis Haarlem & Surroundings Foundation (SSHO) also organized such a meeting. The interest was so great that it was decided to do it again.

“In the Netherlands, not only is the weather always different, but also the rules,” jokes the other moderator of the evening. The complexity of self-employment regulations becomes apparent when someone asks what the difference is between an entrepreneur and a self-employed person. From the previously silent group, people now chime in about how confusing everything is and many questions follow. The two speakers can’t quite figure it out either and move on to the next slide of their PowerPoint presentation.

Mahad Ahmed is standing at the back of the room leaning against the wall. He continuously sees ignorance among self-employed people. As chairman of the SSHO, he speaks to many people who are ‘forced’ to be self-employed. These are not real entrepreneurs, he says, but they have to register a company with the Chamber of Commerce. Only they have no idea what this means, let alone what it means to be self-employed.

“Most people here do not have disability insurance, do not build up a pension and sometimes do not know that they have to pay income tax,” says Ahmed. Due to a lack of knowledge, they quickly count themselves rich, he sees. “When they hear that they earn 34 euros per hour, they think that is a lot. But that is gross, and you still have to pay all kinds of money yourself. They are underpaid, but they have no idea.”

The idea that you receive money that is not actually yours (because you still have to pay taxes) is a strange concept, says one of the visitors. “They are used to getting what they are entitled to, and so the money is simply spent,” says Ahmed. “Debts quickly arise. “And if you get into trouble, it is very difficult to get out of it. “

This also happened to Omar Osman, who lingered for a while after the meeting. He says he heard many things he didn’t know before. Osman has been working as a self-employed taxi driver for nine years, but only discovered after three years that he had to pay income tax from his salary. He was left with a debt of almost 10,000 euros. His taxi was also temporarily confiscated. “It took me a long time to pay back.”

It is these types of ‘forced’ freelancers that the government wants to protect with the upcoming enforcement of the law, which is intended to prevent exploitation. For employers, hiring people as self-employed is often attractive, because they then bear little responsibility for them and it is cheaper.

The upcoming enforcement is already bringing about change in many sectors. Two weeks ago, Uber Eats announced that it would stop hiring freelancers as of January 1. Food delivery workers are known par excellence as exploited self-employed people.

While entrepreneurs in, for example, the culture or healthcare sector are very clear about their wish to remain self-employed, you hear much less about this group. “There is also fear of authorities,” says Ahmed. “The Netherlands is really a whole different world for them.” At the meeting someone talks about all the contradictory voices circulating on social media about enforcement. “There is a kind of culture of fear.”

Taxi driver Osman isn’t too worried about next year; he doesn’t think he is a bogus self-employed person, he says. But when asked whether he does the same work as an employed colleague at the taxi company where he drives the elderly, Osman immediately answers that he does. “They hire me as a self-employed person, but I drive a company car,” he says. But that will no longer be tolerated.

He was very happy with the meeting, he says before he walks out the door. “I’ve heard all kinds of things again that I didn’t know before. I just want to be able to work with pleasure, without worrying about things I don’t understand.”