While many political leaders in the United States — especially President Barack Obama and his administration and political party — continue to put their deconstruction and political-correctness agenda, masquerading as multiculturalism, political leaders in The Netherlands are reevaluating their own policies.
Many members of the Dutch parliament are working to develop a bill that will change the current problem of integrating immigrants into the mainstream of Dutch society. Home Affairs Minister Piet Donner told parliament as far back as June that "Dutch society and its values must take precedence and integration policy should go."
At that point Donner introduced his integration bill to members of parliament.
Donner described the need for a "change of direction" in which the government "will distance itself from the relativism contained in the model of a multicultural society." Society changes, he said, but must not be "interchangeable with any other form of society", according to Dutch News.
It is not the government’s job to integrate immigrants, Donner told Parliament. "General policy on schooling, jobs and housing gives them ample opportunity for integration."
Donner stated he and a majority of Holland’s citizens want an end to the current integration policy and a tougher approach to people who ignore Dutch values or disobey the law. He is planning to introduce laws making forced marriage illegal and he wants tougher measures for immigrants who lower their chance of employment by the way they dress.
If necessary, the government will introduce extra measures to allow the removal of residence permits from immigrants who fail their integration course, Donner warned.
However, some living in The Netherlands believe Donner’s proposals don’t go far enough.
"Too late [for the Netherlands], I am afraid. But copy Denmark’s immigration laws, and then perhaps you have a chance," said Morten Olesen, who responded to Donner’s speech.
Besides Donner, The Netherlands’ Deputy Prime Minister Maxime Verhagen said in a speech to Christian Democrat Party members that Holland’s native population’s "worries about foreigners are understandable."
"There is unease in Dutch society about wider issues than simply the economy and the Christian Democrat Party should listen more to concerns about the way foreigners are changing the Netherlands, Verhagen is quoted as saying in a leaked copy of the speech.
People are concerned about churches being replaced by mosques, about the fact immigrants don’t integrate and the risk that they will take Dutch jobs, he said in her speech.
Verhagen said he wants to distance himself from populism but that he is not blind to what drives it. "We have to make sure we do not dismiss these concerns as being offensive or unmentionable,’ he will say. ‘Such unease should also be the unease of a people’s party like the Christian Democrats."