"Going Dutch on immigration" - by Rita Verdonk (Dutch Minister for Immigration and Integration
The Dutch position on immigration, Islam and relations between the native population and immigrants is often misunderstood. The general picture in the foreign press is that the Netherlands once was the living embodiment of tolerance and multiculturalism, but after the murders of Pim Fortuyn (a Dutch politician) and Theo van Gogh (a filmmaker and writer) it changed into a country governed by polarization, xenophobia and assimilation. This picture does not reflect reality, but it is true that our views on immigration and integration have changed. In short, we have become more realistic.
We realized, for example, that our policy of having rules but not enforcing them properly attracted so many people that it could not go on. Our immigration levels had long outgrown the absorption capacity of our economy, our welfare system and the other institutions. Meanwhile, in the area of integration, our famous tolerance toward strangers was less of an ideal than we had once believed. Under the veil of tolerance, we neglected the too often marginal position of immigrants. The Dutch government's caretaker attitude of "taking by the hand and patting on the head" tended to stifle private initiative and did not stimulate newcomers to take personal responsibility for their lives and to engage with the wider society.
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