Anyone who applies for a blue card must satisfy the same requirements in all participating countries: an employment contract before departure, with a view to a substantial salary. Blue card holders must earn at least 1.5 times the average wage in the receiving EU country. Eighteen months after their arrival they will also be allowed to go and work in a different European country. Apart from Great Britain, Denmark and Ireland, all EU countries have joined in.

The Netherlands already has an arrangement for knowledge migrants. In order to qualify, knowledge migrants must file an application jointly with their future employers. In the application they must be able to show that they satisfy the income criterion of 45,000 euros. For migrants up to thirty the requirement is considerably lower.

In addition, highly educated persons without jobs will be given a year’s time to find jobs in the Netherlands or to start an innovative enterprise. They do need to have obtained a Master’s diploma at a Dutch institution of higher education or at one of the one hundred and fifty best universities in the world. The THES-ranking and the Shanghai-ranking will be leading for this.

The European rules will replace the Dutch ones, say spokespeople for the IND and the European Union. However, whether this will make it easier or, indeed, more difficult to come to the Netherlands as a knowledge migrant, will not become clear until the details of the new European arrangement have been elaborated. The participating countries have given themselves two years for the introduction of the blue card. (HOP)/.