Second generation immigrants from Turkey, Morocco, Suriname and the Antilles are doing better at school but are still not making a breakthrough in the jobs market, according to a new report by the government’s social policy think tank SCP.

‘For example, non-western migrants are scoring more points in the [primary school test] Cito,’ researcher Willem Huijnk said. ‘More of them are going on to pre-college and pre-university streams at secondary school.’

Nevertheless, non-western migrants are still trailing in the jobs market, with an unemployment rate of 15.2%, compared with 5.6% for the native Dutch. They are more likely than the native Dutch to have a temporary or flexible contract.

This partly due to their lower levels of education and limited work experience. ‘But other factors are also an issue,’ Huijnk said. ‘These include different social networks, cultural competencies and discrimination by employers.’

At the same time, the number of second-generation ethnic minority immigrants with a top level job has gone up to 23%, compared with 15% at the beginning of this century, the SCP research showed.