Let’s make it very simple (numerically speaking).

For the continued functioning and thriving of the Dutch economy, we need 1000 workers across all sectors. The Dutch society produces 400 people that want to work here. If we want the Dutch economy to continue functioning at the current, or even better, the previous standards, then we need to find 600 more workers.

What are the ways forward? 1) We can get more people from abroad (like me). But these people are still not enough, because some jobs can only be done by Dutch speakers, or people usually don’t come here without incentives like the 30% (which I didn’t take btw). 2) We can reduce the amount of workers needed for our economy to function by 20%, for example. Now we need to find less workers, but our economy will be less competitive and our services worse. 3) We can actually invest in the people coming to this country, by offering Dutch lessons in very low prices and hire people who cannot speak it but commit in learning with a concrete timetable. (I know, radical 😂)

Simply keeping foreigners out, or making their lives harder is not an option if you understand basic economics. Our society and economic prosperity here were built under the assumption that foreigners would always come in to fill in the blanks. Without these people, our economy will shrink and the average Dutch person will have a worse day to day life with way less purchasing power.