The why of this happening now when a recession could accelerate new social tensions, particularly among nonskilled workers, has a couple of explanations. A petty, political one: It involves a Labor Party on an uptick, with its the party chief, Wouter Bos, who serves as finance minister, showing optimism that the Dutch can avoid a deep recession. The cynical take has him casting the party's new integration policy as a fresh bid to consolidate momentum ahead of elections for the European Parliament in June. A kinder, gentler explanation (that comes, remarkably, from Frits Bolkestein, the former Liberal Party leader, European commissioner, and no friend of the socialists, who began writing in 1991 about the enormous challenge posed to Europe by Muslim immigration): "The multi-cultis just aren't making the running anymore. It's a brave step towards a new normalcy in this country. "
The why of this happening now when a recession could accelerate new social tensions, particularly among nonskilled workers, has a couple of explanations.
A petty, political one: It involves a Labor Party on an uptick, with its the party chief, Wouter Bos, who serves as finance minister, showing optimism that the Dutch can avoid a deep recession. The cynical take has him casting the party's new integration policy as a fresh bid to consolidate momentum ahead of elections for the European Parliament in June.
A kinder, gentler explanation (that comes, remarkably, from Frits Bolkestein, the former Liberal Party leader, European commissioner, and no friend of the socialists, who began writing in 1991 about the enormous challenge posed to Europe by Muslim immigration):
"The multi-cultis just aren't making the running anymore. It's a brave step towards a new normalcy in this country. "
Hm... nanne... what is your reaction to the piece?
I find it all rather sad. It's a rational political logic for the left - who ever really lost votes by picking on immigrants?
At the same time, the immigrant population doesn't seem that large and has there really been that much stifling of "criticism of cultures and religions"?
Obviously I don't know because it's now years since I lived there...
So I think that this position paper, from Vinocur's reporting at least, is muddled. If you think about communities it is obvious that you will have some level of separation in a society. You also have Jewish, Chinese, Indian and Indonesian communities in the Netherlands and these are not seen as problematic. So in dealing with the Turkish and Moroccan community you will have to address the aspect of where the problems lie, and in that sense trying to eradicate parallel societies and force full assimilation will not work.
There were some taboos in talking about immigrants in the ninetees, in the sense that the political top and much of the press stayed away from it, following a model of multiculturalism. But that was exploded long ago.
This change in the party's strategy has been decided at the top, by Wouter Bos. The Minister of Integration and Housing, Ella Vogelaar, fell as a result.
The Netherlands has in practice been trying confrontation for the past eight years, the only new thing being that the labour party is now also on board. I don't think it's brought much improvement over the soft approach of the ninetees.
If they allow themselves to embrace immigrants two things will happen:
