| dc.description.abstract | EU labour migrants (EU-LM) in the Netherlands were often unable to access the municipals’ social relief policies, to acquire welfare supports to avoid their risk of homelessness (Boesveldt, 2019). The literature on homelessness prevention in the Netherlands did not report on how the country's four largest municipalities (i.e., Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, and Utrecht) counteracted such access barriers, to support vulnerable EU-LM, during the period 2016-2019. Therefore, this thesis aimed to research the municipal actions developed by these municipalities to prevent their EU-LM from becoming homeless, between 2016 and 2019. To do so, four case studies were conducted, corresponding to each of these municipalities. For each one, was performed a document analysis of policy papers that accounted for the municipal actions implemented to prevent the risk of EU-LM homelessness. The analyses were developed in relation to Gaetz & Dej's (2017) theoretical model of the causes and prevention of homelessness. As a result, 6 municipal actions were identified in Amsterdam, 4 in Rotterdam, 12 in The Hague, and 5 in Utrecht, which demonstrated different governmental strategies to counteract the structural, system, and individual and relational leading factors of EU-LM homelessness. The comparison of the case studies showed that the municipality of The Hague prevented the three leading factors of EU-LM homelessness, continuously during the research period. This thesis produced new knowledge on the history of EU-LM homeless prevention in the Netherlands considering Gaetz & Dej's (2017) theoretical model and helped to establish the basis for future research on the field. | |
