Netherlands immigration record called into question

[Dreamer128]

Two years ago a massive outpouring of public grief followed the assassination of Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn. After the killing his party, which had campaigned for a freeze on immigration, came second in the general election and joined a short-lived coalition government.

Fortuyn believed immigration, particularly from Muslim countries, was diluting Dutch liberal values. He also argued that the Netherlands was full and those without permits should be deported.

Voters later abandoned his party in droves after the coalition collapsed - but two successive administrations have toughened asylum policy.

The Netherlands has seen the number of asylum seekers fall sharply, from over 43,000 in 2000 to 19,000 in 2002. The Dutch Refugee Council estimates the figure was just 10,000 last year.

So perhaps the current clampdown should be seen within a wider debate about multi-culturalism in the Netherlands.

Around a fifth of the country's 16 million inhabitants are of non-Dutch origin. Most of these "immigrants" are of Moroccan or Turkish background.

The country's decades-old reputation as an example for the rest of Europe has been rocked by a parliamentary report published in January. It concluded that the attempt to create a multi-cultural society had failed.

The report said while most immigrants had integrated well, there were growing ethnic ghettoes, and recommended that the country's Muslims should effectively "become Dutch".

One area highlighted as a problem was education. The report blamed successive governments for what had been seen as a positive move to make life easier for immigrants - allowing them to be taught in their mother tongue at primary school.

Classes made up mainly of first or second generation immigrants consistently under-perform, and the result is often reflected in higher rates of unemployment.

Meanwhile the issue of refugees remains a divisive one. Last week Human Rights Watch, the New York-based group, slammed Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende's centre-right government for the new plans just passed by parliament.

It said they signalled "a serious departure from the Netherlands' historic role as a leader in human rights protection in Europe". Balkenende's supporters point out the policy figured in his 2003 manifesto, before he was voted in.

In the short-term, opponents continue to protest, and several failed asylum seekers are threatening to go on hunger-strike.

[Source: EuroNews]