More effort needs to be made to ensure refugees are placed in areas where there is work, and taking their background and education into account is also crucial, the government’s macro-economic think tank CPB said on Wednesday.

Currently, refugee numbers are determined by the size of the town – so bigger cities get more refugees. The refugee settlement agency COA does take job opportunities into account, but the CPB says this should be done more structurally.

The CPB investigated how asylum seekers who were given residency permits between 1995 and 1999 had fared. If found those who moved to the Utrecht region were most likely to find work and the worst place for employment was southern Limburg.

However, there were also major differences between groups of refugees. For example, the Rijnmond region and Amsterdam offered good job options for people from the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia but not other groups.

The CPB said that by combining individual characteristics (gender, education, cultural background, network) with experiences from the past provides a clear picture of where a person has the best prospects of finding work.