THE
HAGUE, December 22, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The
Netherlands has endorsed a law requiring would-be immigrants to pass a
special integration test on Dutch language and culture before they can
enter the country.
The
law, approved by the Dutch senate Wednesday, December 21, stipulated
that candidates for immigration will have to pass on the Dutch
language and culture, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.
"Because
integration into Dutch society is a long process it is important that
newcomers have a basic knowledge of Dutch and Dutch society before
coming to the Netherlands," the justice ministry said.
Applicants
for immigrants will have to pass all the tests in their country of
origin, the ministry added.
They
will have the right to take the exam as often as they want, but will
have to pay some 350 euros each time they do.
No
course material will be provided for the applicants to prepare for the
exam, but the Dutch government will issue introductory material about
Dutch films and prepare sample tests.
The
law is expected to be implemented in the first quarter of 2006.
Some
14,000 applicants, mainly from Turkey, Morocco and Surinam, are
expected to sit the test each year.
Exempted
The
justice ministry said that citizens from the European Union,
Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand and the United
States will be exempted from the test.
"Victims
of women trafficking or a witness to the said offence" will also
be exempted, it added.
The
Netherlands already has one of the strictest immigration policies in
the European Union.
It
already makes integration classes mandatory for newcomers as laws have
been changed to oblige all new immigrants and accepted asylum seekers
to take classes in Dutch language and culture.
Integrating
immigrants has been the subject of much debate in the
Netherlands since the emergence of right-wing politicians such as the
late Pim Fortuyn.
Only
three years ago, public debate on the problems of integration was
still taboo until the populist Fortuyn burst onto the political scene
with his bold proclamation, “enough is enough”.
Fortuyn
was a vocal critic of the Dutch policy of encouraging a multi-cultural
society and advocated that everybody who lived in the
Netherlands should be able to speak Dutch.
After
his meteoric rise in politics that ended when he was shot dead in June
2002 just ahead of the elections, many traditional political parties
toughened their stance on immigration to lure back discontented
voters.
More
recently the debate got another impulse when tension between ethnic
groups flared after controversial filmmaker Theo van Gogh was killed
by a Dutchman of Moroccan descent.
A
series of Muslim sites and mosques have come under racist attacks in
the wake of Van Gogh’s murder.
Muslims
make up one million of the Netherlands’s 16 million population.
Turks represent 80 percent of the Muslim minority.
Europe’s
main rights and democracy watchdog, the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), expressed concern in May 2005 at the
increasing Dutch intolerance towards Muslims and the "climate of
fear" under which the minority was living.
