Professor Arjen Leerkes from Erasmus University Rotterdam appears on a Dutch radio (podcast) to provide an explanation of the Dutch distribution law (in Dutch Spreidingswet), a statute intended to better distribute asylum seekers across municipalities throughout the Netherlands.
This podcast was originally posted on Dutch national radio.
The outgoing Dutch State Secretary Eric van der Burg is once again defending “his” distribution law today. This much-discussed law is currently being debated in the Senate, which will vote on it next Tuesday. The division could not be more significant: Van der Burg’s own VVD party is against it, as are the PVV, BBB, and NSC—all of whom are in discussions about forming a new government. And in the Senate, the outcome could still go either way, as the division is 50/50. But putting all opinions aside, what exactly does this law entail? In this podcast, Professor Arjen Leerkes, a migration expert at Erasmus University Rotterdam, reads through the law together with journlist from NPO radio. They follow the document’s path: what is written in it? What has been adjusted along the way? What does the text concretely mean? These might seem like basic questions, but in times of such intense debate, Arjen Leerkes explains what this law means in practice.