When Iranian process engineer Ali Shabani was offered a job in the Netherlands via a specialised employment agency a year ago, he relocated enthusiastically with his wife, wishing to broaden his career prospects in Europe.

After completing his first three months at work in the Netherlands, knoweldge migrant Shabani saw that he had a future in the Netherlands.

“I went back to Iran, rented out my house, sold the car and resigned from my job – I’d taken a three-month sabbatical to try out working abroad,” he says.

In January 2009, Shabani’s employer told him bluntly that they didn’t have enough projects for him to work on and referred him back to the agency. The agency informed him that no other company on their books had work for him either, and terminated his contract on the spot. He was informed that he could search for work for three months but wasn’t eligible for any payment.

Shabani applied to the CWI for social security and so far has received payment of half his salary for one month. April is his last legal month in the Netherlands and he is now in the final negotiations for a new job contract after strenuous job-hunting efforts.

His wife, a qualified medical doctor, who was learning Dutch on courses offered by Ali’s previous employer, may soon be able to continue her efforts to learn the language to the level necessary for her to practice her profession in the Netherlands.

“I thought that in the Netherlands, employment law was in favour of employees and didn’t realise that an agency could terminate your contract with two weeks notice and no support,” says Shabani.

And he is one of the lucky ones. By not signing any negotiated severance deal, he held onto the right to remain in the Netherlands for three months after loosing his job, as well as being eligible for a percentage of his salary from social security over the same period.

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