DUTCH INTEGRATION ON RIGHT TRACK

People have had enough!’, ‘We can't pamper them anymore; we have to put our foot down.’ ‘We're plagued by an epidemic of Moroccan violence.’ Just a few comments made by politicians from across the political spectrum during a recent debate about integration in the Dutch parliament. It sounds pretty bad. Just how did Dutch integration fail so badly? The answer: it didn't.

Despite heated debates in Dutch politics, integration in the Netherlands is going well. That's one of the conclusions of the annual report on Dutch society published by the Dutch national statistics organisation Statistics Netherlands (CBS).

The CBS report shows that non-western immigrants, and their children, are closing gaps with native Dutch citizens in various areas. More immigrants are enrolled in higher education and more are graduating from secondary school. There's also been a sharp rise in the number of immigrants in the workforce.

But the CBS report is not just good news. More people say they're bothered by anti-social behavior, particularly that of teenage boys from a Moroccan background. The problems caused by young Dutch-Moroccan boys have attracted a lot of attention, and led to calls for a harsh response too. read more (radionetherlands.nl)


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December 15, 2008