A quiet but deepening crisis is unfolding in the Netherlands. Hundreds of thousands of retirees with non-Western migration backgrounds are struggling to make ends meet, with 40 percent of them living below the poverty line. The reasons are layered — many arrived in the country too late to accumulate a full state pension, and a large number spent their working years in low-wage sectors that offered little to no additional retirement savings. The result is a generation growing old in financial hardship, often too proud or too afraid to ask for help.
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Why So Many Are Falling Through the Cracks
The Dutch state pension system, known as the AOW, is built on a straightforward principle: the longer you live in the Netherlands, the more pension you receive. A complete benefit requires 50 years of residency. For every year short of that, the payout is reduced by 2 percent.
So someone who spent 40 years in the country walks away with 20 percent less than the full amount — a significant cut for anyone living on a fixed income.
Researchers have found that 40 percent of pensioners originally from Morocco and Turkey are now living in poverty. That same figure is expected to apply in the coming years to retirees from Afghanistan, Iraq, and Poland.
The contrast with the broader population is stark — only 3 to 6 percent of retirees without a migration background, or those from Western European countries, find themselves in the same position.
Jelle Lössbroek, a researcher at the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute, known as NIDI, has studied this issue closely. He points to a double disadvantage these workers faced throughout their careers.
"In the years that they were working, they often earned fewer euros per hour than Dutch people without a migration background, for various reasons on the labor market," Lössbroek explained. "Moreover, they also often receive less pension, because in those sectors you build up less pension per earn.
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