NATURALISATION COURSE OBLIGED FOR ELDERLY MIGRANTS

The policy of Dutch minister for Integration Mrs. Verdonk undergoes serious waves of criticism. This summer the Dutch will start with the plan to deport 26.000 migrants who never received a permit of residence. Finally a location for a deportation centre is found.

Another plan of the government is to oblige 100.000 so called ‘oud-komers' (old-comers), so migrants of the second and especially the first generation, to also do a naturalisation course. When people cannot pass their exam they will be fined. At the moment the plans were debated in the parliament in The Hague . Outside elderly migrants, mostly from Turkey and Morocco , were demonstrating.

Many first and second generation migrants have been contacting local authorities to criticise the new Dutch naturalisation policy for ‘old-comers', after they got an introduction letter for the naturalisation course. Angry Turks argued in fluent Dutch, offended Dutch-Indonesian citizens expressed their grief and a Spanish journalist asked surprised, why his mother country suddenly became a migrant country. more features

June 28, 2004