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| Europe |
| Dutch to get tough with illegal and legal immigrants |
| 2004-07-18 |
| Once one of the most tolerant and most densely populated countries on the continent, the Netherlands has embraced tough new immigration policies in the past two years. The laws and proposed regulations target both those who applied for asylum and the more than 400,000 long-term legal immigrants — so-called "oldcomers" — who have failed to integrate into Dutch society... Dutch Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk has shown no signs of backing away from her aggressive enforcement of the new immigration and asylum laws. Mrs. Verdonk last week pressed the mayors of the four largest Dutch cities — Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht — to evict failed asylum seekers from temporary public-housing centers, saying it is the responsibility of those who have failed to qualify for asylum to make their own way home. But the cities fear the rejected applicants will simply flee the centers and remain in the country illegally...the Netherlands in the 1980s and 1990s had one of the most liberal immigration policies in Europe, coupled with a generous social-welfare net for newcomers. Leading political parties avoided any debate on the social and economic effects of a growing number of Turkish, Moroccan and other minority communities clustered in so-called "black" districts in major Dutch cities. By 2002, some 18.4 percent of the country's 16.1 million people were born outside the country. |
| Posted by:rex |