Intergration in the Netherlands

Why do people come her in first place?

What would you do when you lived in a place, which you hardly could call your home? What would you do when your daily task was trying to survive and try not to get shot down by another army or by any other freak? Wouldn’t you go to a safer place? A place where you could start a better life, and find new home? I would. And that’s exactly the problem. Because there is so much poverty and famine, and wars going on a lot of people are forced to leave their homes. Those immigrants left their problems behind and add more problems to our economic situation. I will give you a few examples: -In the Netherlands our culture is very different to the cultures of other European countries. Our way of schooling is different. Like in our country girls and boys are mixed, and uniforms are not compulsory. We all have the right to speak and vote and so we can decide why and how our country has to be ruled. -Women have the same rights as men. -You can have your own religion while in other countries you are only allowed to have e.g. the Islam as your religion and that is very strict. Girls have to wear kerchiefs and are in a very low position compared to men. This can lead to complications when you suddenly move to Holland and men and women are equal. -Immigrants have to learn our language. To get the possibility to get a decent job here you have to be able to speak Dutch properly. Otherwise you can’t communicate and it is much harder to make the society one big group of people, instead of many smaller groups of Dutch, Moroccans, Turks etc. The foreign people will be more separated and education will be very hard for foreign children, because they don’t speak the Dutch language very well. Of course there are also people entering our country who live in a country without wars or any problems like that. They might have a partner here in Holland and they want to be with their partner and come over and start a life here. That sounds very easy but nowadays it is quite hard because integration policies are changing. A lot of Moroccans get their wife from Morocco and take them to Holland to live with them. This is called family reunion. Also this brings problems, Moroccan women are used to stay at home cook and do the entire household. But of course in Holland it’s different. ‘So this brings even more not-integrated people in our country. And this is what the government is discussing now. They are now thinking of making certain demands. They want that the partners who want to come over to Holland already have followed an integration course in their own country. Her husband needs to take care of her for at least 5 years and he has to have a job. There are also people coming in without an identity. They have just thrown their passport away and think it’s easier to just tell a story why they have come to Holland. But luckily they have to go through a whole process and interrogations so we will find out who they are anyway.

The relation between foreigners and native Dutchmen

Since the attack in the VS on the 11th of September a lot has changed in the world, especially in the relation between Western people and the Islam, so also in the Netherlands things have changed in our multicultural society. Stronger rules and laws have been made in the connection with foreigners and newcomers. But this hardening in the social and political climate of the society hasn’t jet reached its top. Foreigners especially Moslems are always a topic of the news and there have been a lot of debates about the things in which foreigners act different then the average culture ever since the turn-out of the “leefbaarheidpartij” and the “Lijst Pim Fortuyn”. And it seems that all the things tried to make immigrants integrate as good as possible have been totally useless without any results. Also the attitude of the natives against foreigners has changed and became negative especially against Moslems. The space for foreigners to give their opinion and cultural expression had decreased dramatically and the pressure on them to adopt and integrate in our society gets more and more, so at the moment it is difficult for everybody. Changes are made, meant to promote the integration of foreigners, like:  Limitation of family reunion  A stronger policy about the expulsion of refugees  A interdiction of turbans and veils  Control on Islamic and Imams schools  The approach of criminality, etc.

There are lots of reasons why our relations are getting worse. Most of these reasons are summarized below.  More people feel a bit unsafe the last time because of the threat of terrorism and war  The quality of the infrastructure isn’t that good as it used to be and this causes a feeling that everyone is on his own. People are more egoistic and don’t think about the others but only about their own problems and efforts.  Many people are doubt about the loyalty of Moslems especially after the events on the 9th of September.  The streetscape has changed spectacularly and native Dutchmen feel less home in their own country.

As you see there are a lot of problems and things have to be changed, cause as it goes now it isn’t nice for both of us.

An intergration corse

We followed an integration course at the Albeda College in Rotterdam. We got to interview a few teachers who work there. They explained to us what is taught to immigrants who come to this college to follow the integration course and told some general information about the course. One of the teachers also invited us to join her in a lesson, where she was going to tell her students about education in the Netherlands. She thought it would be nice if we told something about our school. In trade for that we got to ask the students some general questions about the Netherlands.

Their first thought of the Netherlands was that it is a good country  Where you have an easy life  Where there are lots of jobs available and  Where you can work directly after you come into the Netherlands.

Some students also expected to have a nice car and snow in the winter. Their thoughts changed mostly negative. They say  The weather is cold,  Goods are expensive  And another disappointment is that they do have to go to school before they are able to get a job. But according to them, even though it appeared not to be heaven on earth, it ís way better compared to their home country.

One of the teachers gave us an estimate of where most of her students come from:  40% Turkish  20% Moroccan  10% Iraq  10% Iran  10% Africa  10% rest.

An integration course consists of 600 hours of school. People who follow an integration course have 20 hours of school per week. 50% of this is computer lessons, 50% group lessons. In the integration course the students are taught four aspects. They get  Dutch language,  Computer lessons,  Group lesson  Sociology. The students are obligated to go to 80% of the classes. The government pays the first year of the integration course, the students have to pay for the second year of the course themselves, but the costs of this course are only €60 for the books and administration costs. The first year the students get free childcare so that when they go to school their children will be taken care of. The students don’t have to pass an exam at the end of the course, but every two months the students get a test, and if they pass, they go on to the next level. If they fail they have to do those two months over again. When an immigrant comes to the Netherlands they have to start the immigration course quite quickly. In the first three months that they are in the Netherlands they have to start an integration course. But they can only start the course if they have a residence permit. Only the first year of the integration course is compulsory. Yet it takes two years to be able to speak the Dutch language well. Level 2 is necessary for an immigrant to stay in the Netherlands. In order to get a passport an immigrant has to have completed the integration course and speak level 2 Dutch, which is about the same as the level of French you reach when you have finished MAVO. After completing the course, immigrants have to find a job, or go to a university or any other form of education, which can lead to a better job, and a better place in the society.