Housing migrant workers

Horticulture and the port area around Westvoorne have developed considerably in recent years into a sector with a lot of employment opportunities. The glasshouse horticulture area in Tinte and the port area employ many labor migrants. The former Municipality of Westvoorne, together with the other municipalities on Voorne, started to develop policy frameworks for the housing of labor migrants. In order to do this properly, it was important for the former Municipality of Westvoorne to collect information from our residents about what they consider important in the housing of labor migrants.

Citizen panel survey

The Citizen Panel Westvoorne was consulted for the survey. The panel consists of 779 panel members. These are residents of the former municipality of Westvoorne who signed up to participate in online surveys conducted by the municipality. In addition, an open link was used that could be completed by other residents of Westvoorne. The municipality distributed this link through the municipal website and social media.

For this survey, all 779 panel members were invited. 391 members completed questionnaires, this is a response rate of 50 percent. In addition, other residents could participate in the survey through an open link. 260 residents took advantage of this opportunity. With the citizen panel, our residents were questioned about what they think in general about migrant workers coming to the Netherlands to work. In addition, we asked what our residents think is important when it comes to housing labor migrants. Questions were also asked about where our residents would prefer to realize the housing locations and what they see as the advantages and disadvantages of these locations. Furthermore, questions were asked about preferences in terms of the distribution of locations. Finally, our citizens were asked what advice, tips and ideas they had for the municipality and the migrant workers and how they would be kept informed of news regarding migrant housing.