Dutch race policy 'a 30-year failure'

Electronic Telegraph ^ | 20/01/2004 | Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in The Hague

[Map Kernow]

Holland's 30-year experiment in trying to create a tolerant, multicultural society has failed and led to ethnic ghettos and sink schools, according to an official parliamentary report.

Between 70 and 80 per cent of Dutch-born members of immigrant families import their spouse from their "home" country, mostly Turkey or Morocco, perpetuating a fast-growing Muslim subculture in large cities.

The 2,500-page all-party report by the Dutch parliament was the establishment's tentative answer to the critique of Pim Fortuyn, the shaven-headed firebrand who warned that Holland's easy-going way of life was threatened by militant Islam and over-crowding. He was assassinated by an environmental activist two years ago.

While the report praised most immigrants for assimilating and for doing well at school, it attacked successive governments for stoking ethnic separatism.

The worst mistake was to encourage children to speak Turkish, Arabic or Berber in primary schools rather than Dutch. The report concluded that Holland's 850,000 Muslims must become Dutch if the country was to hold together. It proposes cheap housing in the leafy suburbs to help ethnic groups assimilate with the rest of the 16 million population.

The major parties in the centre-Right government dismissed such solutions as insufficient. Maxime Verhagen, the Christian Democrat leader in parliament, said one had to be "either naive or ignorant" not to understand that the policy had led the country into a cul-de-sac.

He said: "Immigrants in the Netherlands top the 'wrong' lists - disability benefit, unemployment assistance, domestic violence, criminality statistics and school and learning difficulties."

For years Holland was seen as a glowing example of multi-ethnic tolerance, making huge efforts to make immigrants feel at home. Funding was provided for ethnic diversity projects, including 700 Islamic clubs that are often run by hard-line clerics.

The simmering resentments erupted two years ago when Mr Fortuyn gave voice to an increasingly fearful majority. The European Union's Racism and Xenophobia Monitoring Centre has catalogued a rash of anti-Muslim attacks, leaving girls too frightened to go out wearing head scarves.

The violence has taken a more ominous turn since the September 11 attacks. The Dutch intelligence service, AIVD, has warned that the al-Qa'eda network is "stealthily taking root in Dutch society" by preying on disaffected Muslim youth with Jihad video cassettes circulating in mosques, cafes and prisons.

Rotterdam has announced measures to deter more poor immigrants and is closing its gates to new asylum seekers for four years.

[Map Kernow]

Shall we in the USA "go Dutch" as well?

[Zipporah]

"The European Union's Racism and Xenophobia Monitoring Centre ".. same words different place.

[henderson field]

Only unicultural societies succeed. Multicultural societies fail. Remember "United we stand, divided we fall." It should be easy to understand.

[Map Kernow]

Remember "United we stand, divided we fall." It should be easy to understand.

Well, about as easy for our politicians and elites to understand as "Don't kill the goose that lays the golden eggs." ;-)

[marron]

There is something to be considered that is perhaps between the lines here. Poverty is not only generated by the economic system, it is a result of personal attributes and personal circumstances that prevent someone from being effectively integrated into the society at large.

These reasons may be of no fault of your own, or they may be problems of character, or they may be a lack of marketable skills, or they may be a cultural inability to engage effectively.

It seems unlikely that the ethnic ghettoes would be caused by Dutch intolerance when Dutch tolerance is the reason they were admitted in the first place. There are ethnic ghettoes because people have come to Holland with no intention of integrating, or else they have been admitted in such numbers that they can't integrate. Or more likely a combination of both.

[Viking2002]

Assimilation or deportation!

[marron]

Assimilation or deportation!

Yes. It is important to admit immigrants in numbers that can be assimilated, and not more.

[cavtrooper21]

I wonder if these guys are buddies with the ACLU and Morris Dees of the SPLC

[wizardoz]

It proposes cheap housing in the leafy suburbs to help ethnic groups assimilate with the rest of the 16 million population.

LOL! Yeah! That's right! Spread the blight into the suburbs! ROTFL!!

[Focault's Pendulum]

There are ethnic ghettoes because people have come to Holland with no intention of integrating, or else they have been admitted in such numbers that they can't integrate. Or more likely a combination of both.

It would appear to be more the former than the latter.

Your third proposition makes me think that the UN must get involved. They can solve everything.

[martian_22]

***Shall we in the USA "go Dutch" as well?***

It seems the Dutch have "gone USA". Only the finest of countries are selected by the international chefs for innundation by outside ingredients.

Have you ever noticed that the one-way movement of demographic types seems to handicap the "host" country.

[Gritty]

Holland's 850,000 Muslims must become Dutch if the country was to hold together. It proposes cheap housing in the leafy suburbs to help ethnic groups assimilate with the rest of the 16 million population.

Yikes! Over 5% of the population is *already* Muslim.

It looks as if they are choosing the "French Route", with ghetto housing in the suburbs and rapist gangs on every corner, demanding free benefits and agitating for Sharia Law.

Rather than showing them their new flats, the Dutch should take a lesson from the agony of the French and show them the door, solving this intractible immigration problem while they still can. It will soon be too late - if it isn't already!

[neutrino]

Holland's 30-year experiment in trying to create a tolerant, multicultural society has failed and led to ethnic ghettos and sink schools

Imagine that! I'm SOoooo surprised. No, really. Sure. You betcha.

[claudiustg]

At the rate things are going the Dutch shall be evicted from their homeland not long after the Africaners are chased out of theirs.

[Map Kernow]

At the rate things are going the Dutch shall be evicted from their homeland not long after the Africaners are chased out of theirs.

It's a shame because it's clear that the hearts of the Dutch are in the right place.

The right place, that is, to be thrust through with a Muslim saber.

[Map Kernow]

Rather than showing them their new flats, the Dutch should take a lesson from the agony of the French and show them the door, solving this intractible immigration problem while they still can. It will soon be too late - if it isn't already!

Well, at least those Muslim immigrants "share the same values" as the French.... ;-)

[Map Kernow]

The major parties in the centre-Right government dismissed such solutions [further outreach programs, etc.] as insufficient. Maxime Verhagen, the Christian Democrat leader in parliament, said one had to be "either naive or ignorant" not to understand that the policy had led the country into a cul-de-sac.

He said: "Immigrants in the Netherlands top the 'wrong' lists - disability benefit, unemployment assistance, domestic violence, criminality statistics and school and learning difficulties."

This contrasts comfortingly with our immigration policy and profile---our immigrants never use public services or welfare, have no issues such as family breakdown, don't engage in criminal activity (especially not violent crime), and present no problems to our education system.

Do they...?

[wizardoz]

Only the finest of countries are selected by the international chefs for innundation by outside ingredients.

Well, many Muslim countries simply will not give citizenship to non-Muslims. And we mustn't ever criticize them for that, must we?

[wizardoz]

It's a shame because it's clear that the hearts of the Dutch are in the right place. The right place, that is, to be thrust through with a Muslim saber.

LOL! You said it. We can see their hearts are in the right place because they're marked by a big bull's eye!

[martian_22]

Like I said, "Only the finest of countries". ;)