It looks as if the Dutch are not going to find it so easy to shake off multiculturalism: witness a bizarre new plan to force Dutch natives to go through integration courses along with immigrants. From Expatica, with thanks to Anthony:
AMSTERDAM “” Almost all political parties in the Dutch Parliament have strongly criticised government plans to force Dutch people with a low education to undergo integration courses.
MPs of Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende’s Christian Democrat Party (CDA) said the integration course and examination should apply only to non-Dutch speakers.
The small coalition party D66 joined with the opposition “” Labour (PvdA), populist LPF, green-left GroenLinks and the Socialist Party “” in voicing strong objections.
News was leaked late last week that Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk, a member of the Liberal Party (VVD), was planning to force all Dutch nationals to undergo integration courses unless they have completed eight years of schooling in the Netherlands.
She decided on this approach after the ACVZ, a special committee on newcomers’ affairs, warned that forcing immigrants alone to undertake an integration course would be discriminatory.
Her plans are part of the government’s mass shake up of immigration and integration policies. Verdonk wants immigrants who don’t speak Dutch well to do an integration course in a bid to solve the social polarisation witnessed in the Netherlands in recent years.
And while the CDA praised Verdonk for seeking methods to obligate immigrants to integrate, the party labelled her plans to force Dutch natives to also undergo integration into society as “nonsense”. It said the minister’s energies should be focused on immigrants….
The ACVZ has advised Verdonk that everyone with less than eight years of Dutch schooling should sit an integration exam. It said to only force immigrants to follow an integration course would be discriminatory.
Absolutely incredible.