Dutch Youth Employment Success Masks Sharp Divide for Immigrant Teenagers

The Netherlands achieves a 4.9% NEET rate—among the world's lowest. Yet immigrant youth aged 15–24 face NEET rates more than double those of native-born peers, exposing a critical flaw: the system's tightly structured credential pathways work efficiently for those who enter on schedule, but penalize those with interrupted education. This bifurcation mirrors patterns across highly formalized school-to-work systems in Germany and Austria, signaling where policymakers must next focus.