Posted on 06/18/2006 4:20:42 AM PDT by knighthawk
A DRACONIAN new law is expected to force immigrants to the Netherlands to sit a tough exam on Dutch history, geography and culture or face heavy fines. The rules, drafted by the country’s hardline immigration minister, “Iron Rita” Verdonk, and likely to be approved this autumn, will set a challenge for up to half a million mainly Muslim immigrants, including some who have lived in Holland for 30 years.
The legislation, which is due to come into force on January 1 next year, requires immigrants to attend 600 hours of coursework before being tested.
Failure to attend the course or pass the exam within five years will trigger an annual fine of almost £700, cuts in benefits or the termination of a residence permit.
The cost of sitting the course and taking the exam will be £4,000 per person, although local authorities will pay most of the fees.
The measure is a further signal that Holland, once one of Europe’s most tolerant countries, has become the toughest point of entry for foreigners after a raft of restrictions in the past few years. “Several countries are looking at us, including Germany and the UK,” said a spokesman for Verdonk.
The questions will be far tougher than the British test, Life in the UK, which was introduced for new citizens last November and poses simple queries such as “What are MPs?” Candidates in the Netherlands will be asked about the intricacies of Dutch shipping history and the country’s constitution.
Questions will be asked about its harbours, dykes and churches. The candidates will also have to show an understanding of historical sensitivities in Dutch society, including attitudes towards anti-semitism and the second world war.
Andre Krouwel, an immigration expert from the Free University of Amsterdam, said that many of his own students would be unable to explain the influence of shipping history and colonialism on today’s Holland — yet both subjects will be compulsory.
Krouwel suggested that a typical question could be: “How many provinces are there in the Netherlands and what are the differences between them?” (There are 12, each with different traditions and history.) A further question mooted by the Dutch immigration ministry is: “Why do the Dutch commemorate May 4 and 5?” (Remembrance Day and Liberation Day).
Much of the coursework will have moral overtones, explaining liberal Dutch views on homosexuality, abortion and euthanasia.
Candidates will also be assessed on a series of role plays, including how to open a bank account.
The legislation now before parliament is so controversial that Verdonk may be forced to backtrack on her insistence that some naturalised Dutch citizens — immigrants who are unemployed, parents caring for children or religious workers such as imams — must also take the test.
Jeroen Djisselbloem, a Social Democrat MP, said the measures against naturalised citizens were “discriminatory”.
“All other EU citizens will be exempted from this law, so actually being a Dutch national puts you back compared with an Englishman who lives in Holland,” he said.
Even if Dutch citizens are exempted, 150,000 to 250,000 immigrants face the exam.
Verdonk, 50, a former prison warden and head of state security, has previously angered Muslims by expelling imams accused of promoting terrorism and cancelling a meeting with Islamic leaders who refused to shake her hand because she was a woman.
She has argued that a ban on burqas might be needed on grounds of public safety.
In March she introduced a compulsory Dutch language and culture test for would-be immigrants before they left their home country.
Many are being asked to watch a teaching video with provocative shots of gay men kissing and a topless woman on a beach to introduce them to Dutch lifestyles.
Famile Arslan, 34, an immigration lawyer of Turkish descent, said the crackdowns were dividing society between westerners and non-westerners, Muslim and non-Muslim. “I don’t feel welcome here any more,” she said.
Verdonk’s bold approach has struck a chord with many Dutch people who feel that as a small country of 16m with more than 1.5m immigrants they have been too soft.
A poll earlier this month found that 63% of Dutch people believed that Islam was incompatible with modern life and one in 10 openly admitted to being racist.
Martijn Lampert, a research director of Motivaction which carried out the poll, said: “People are longing for a local, authentic identity. They fear it’s being threatened.”
Maurice de Hond, another pollster, said disquiet about immigration had existed in Dutch society for the past 50 years.The murder in 2002 of Pim Fortuyn, an anti-immigration politician, had caused private fears to break out into the open.
Geert Wilders, a right-wing politician who has received death threats after criticising Islam, said all immigration should be stopped until the problem of integration had been resolved.
This writer must be either SARCASTIC or a MORON.
"Multiculturalism," as it seems to be most accurately defined, is the parallel existence of multiple cultures within a single society.
As far as I know, no multicultural society has ever lasted very long.
The U.S. has never until very recently really been a truly multicultural society, because while there have been regional subcultures (e.g., Cajun, New Mexico, Midwest Germanic), there has always been a clear understanding of and participation in the overall American culture, and the subcultures have tended to become part of the greater culture, rather than remain truly separate.
Part of this is probably because the degree of difference was sufficiently small to allow this to occur.
The problem with today's immigration pattern is that now we have groups that have very, very great differences from the cultures/societies to which they are migrating. Multiculturalism, even if not desired, tends to be the result. It remains to be seen if such differences can be blended into the host cultures.
What's the mechanism for deporting those who don't pass the test?
That could be another nail in the coffin of Turkish EU hopes!
This is not restricted to Europe. If we forget about your Mexican immigrants the US has also a birth rate that is frightening low. Espechially those who are reponsible for your unique American culture fail to reproduce themselves. Not that far in the future it is possible that we identify the United States with dark haired muchachas who dance the samba on the streets of Los Angelos.
(BTW - since Mexican girls are among the most beautiful in the world this is not nessecarily a desaster)
That's not to say America doesn't have her problems in this area, but it has not reached the levels here that it has in the old country.
This is interesting. So you think that the new immigrants from Mexico do not define themselves as Mexicans but as Americans? I would be happy if we could achieve the same in Europe since most problems we have with our immigrants result out of their inabillity to define themselves as Frogs, Krauts or Brits...
Just some info:
http://usgovinfo.about.com/cs/censusstatistic/a/aabirthrate.htm
The US have a benefit from all those sexy Mexican muchachas that raise traditionally big families. This is the reason why they still have such a (comparatively to the western world) high birth rate.
Maybe it sounds cynical, but in Europe we found out that it are the "wrong" people who get the children (I hate my own verbalism here, since a baby will never be someting wrong - no matter who its parents are). I.e. 41% of the German women with a academic title have no kids anymore. The rate of childless male academics in Germany is even much higer. I doubt that this trend is different in the US. Young educated women want to combine job, kids, relation and have thereby high material and personal demands. Not exactly a good basement for founding a family. Since nearly nobody is taking morality too serious, marriage is no the pre-condition to sex anymore since a long, long time. Therefore young "Alpha-males" are not forced to marry anymore and engage themselves in the "quagmire" of a family (I have 3 sons and married the nicest girl you can think of and would never ever call my family a quagmire. But it is simply the viewpoint of many young ecducated dudes). This was different in the former ages when the pill and other contraceptives were not available.
The birth rates in ALL western societies suffer from the changed self-conception of women and men. I am quite sure that the US will get "European" birth rates within the next decade.
The Dutch get it.
There's a much simpler test and cheaper too, in reply #4, posted by calex59
You said, "No nation or region, anywhere at anytime in history has ever benefited from multiculturalism. Name one. Anyone?"
Throughout history, many nations have permitted Jews to live among them, even in times when those Jews remained very culturally distinct from their hosts. I suspect that every nation that did so was blessed by having those Jews, whether they acknowledged it or not.
Since you challenged us to "Name one", I'll name England.
I'm not suggesting that any civlized country should admit militant Muslims. Just disagree with your words quoted above. Historically, many nations have accepted and tolerated the presence of others among them (such as the Amish in this country) who did not share the culture, customs, and morals of the majority, and it has not inevitably led to disaster.
I agree...we're all headed in the same direction...we're just not quite as far along. I'm hoping that somehow we can all turn it around.
I Thought that the birthrate for White Americans were at 1.8. Not quite at replacement rate but nevertheless higher than Europe with the exception of Ireland.
Only if the host culture was weak to begin with. In reality one cannot stop cultural mixing and morphing, it's a fact of any dynamic society. If the so-called culture of 'Americanism' is weak it will subjugate itself to new patterns as they come along, and rightly so if it is so weak.
Also, enforced mono-culturalism doesn't last either, because it culls a cultures ability to adapted thus weakening it and usually has to be enforced by the state, which eliminated individual freedom in the long run. In any case identitarianism has a leftist liberal history, and rational conservatives should reject it as childish at best.
Verdonk is quite strickt on that issue, she sends them back on a plane.
Excellent.
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