TonH
19-11-03, 10:14
De stroom van berichten in de pers werpt zijn vruchten ook in het buitenland af.
En weet iemand wat af van een AD-poll waarin 90% oproept tot het inzetten van het leger tegen troublesome Moroccan youths? Die had ik even gemist. :confused:
Lifestyle - Reuters
Netherlands Struggles with 'Immigrant Crime'
Fri Nov 14, 8:13 AM ET
By Marcel Michelson
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Long famed as a haven of multicultural tolerance, the Netherlands is now searching its soul to ask whether its integration policy has failed.
The recent Amsterdam murder of a homeless German woman by a group of youngsters of mainly Moroccan descent has thrown the spotlight onto immigrant youth and reopened a discussion on their role in the Netherlands.
The killing of 43-year-old former drug addict and alcoholic Anja Joos followed several other highly publicized incidents in which young Moroccans were held responsible for civil disturbances and threatening behavior.
Rita Verdonk, minister for immigration and integration, has said she wants to make parents financially responsible for the damage caused by "trouble kids" of immigrant families.
"The limits have been reached," she said in reaction to a study that showed Moroccan gangs were terrorizing an old people's home and a mental asylum in the Dutch capital.
A poll by the daily Algemeen Dagblad showed 90 percent of respondents wanted the authorities to "act decisively, if needed with the army" against troublesome Moroccan youths.
And an Amsterdam newspaper recently reported that some teachers felt so threatened by an anti-Semitic atmosphere in their classrooms that they no longer dared teach about the Nazi Holocaust, in which Dutch Jewry was decimated.
Debate about the role of immigrants in the Netherlands flared up last year with the meteoric rise of taboo-busting anti-immigration politician Pim Fortuyn, who was gunned down just before the May 2002 elections.
Though temperatures are no longer quite as high, anti-foreigner feelings have returned as the once-buoyant economy battles with recession and rising unemployment.
Similar factors partly explain the rise of ultra-right parties such as Jean-Marie Le Pen's Front National in France, Joerg Haider's Freedom Party in Austria, Christoph Blocher's People's Party in Switzerland and the Vlaams Blok in Belgium.
The Dutch parliament, stung by criticism from the right-wing about a lax immigration policy, has started an inquiry to see whether the country's integration policy has failed.
PROBLEM OR PERCEPTION?
But is there a real problem or just a change in perception?
Public prosecutor Leo de Wit, for instance, said the study on Moroccan gangs exaggerated the situation.
And Amsterdam police spokesman Remco Gerritsen said that while police were tackling youth crime and singling out repeat offenders for special attention, data showed a decline in crime.
"The group of youth criminals is a mixed bag of people of all kinds of origin. It is not a special immigrant or Moroccan problem," he told Reuters.
Big Dutch cities boast a large immigrant population. While many churches are closing, mosques are opening up.
Of the 735,000 inhabitants of the Dutch capital, 390,000 are from the Netherlands, 72,000 from the former south American colony of Surinam, 59,000 from Morocco and 36,000 from Turkey.
Dutch companies such as the Hoogovens steel mills recruited workers from Morocco and Turkey in the booming 1960s when they were short of labor. From the late 1970s, the families of these workers also came to the Netherlands.
Their children attend Dutch schools and in many big cities these schools turn into battlefields between different traditions and cultures. While some politicians campaign openly for "black schools" catering mainly to immigrant children, the consensus in parliament remains for mixed education.
But only one in three 20-25 year olds of Moroccan descent obtains a school diploma. Others become social outcasts with no work or low-paid jobs but with plenty of resentment and time on their hands. Some join youth gangs.
KICKED TO DEATH
Gerrit Mak, professor in metropolitan issues at the University of Amsterdam, pointed out that waves of immigrants had played a key role in Amsterdam's prosperous past.
Mak said the Dutch labor under the illusion that only foreigners need to adapt, not they themselves.
There is little doubt that the death of Anja Joos was an ugly incident, shot through with racism.
Joos, who lived in the popular multicultural De Pijp area of Amsterdam, was chased by staff of the local supermarket who suspected her of shoplifting and stopped her to check her bags.
Police said that while she could produce a receipt for the can of beer, a snide racist remark she made provoked two men to kick her, causing internal bleeding that led to her death.
On a web forum run by the city of Amsterdam on the issue of Moroccan youths, "Emir" said gangs made up less than 5 percent of Moroccan youngsters in the Netherlands and "Said" urged people not to condemn a group for the acts of individuals.
But one Eline Scheffer is clearly afraid. The state must act firmly against Moroccan youths, she writes, "or there will be civil war."
Is dit nu die druppel-op-steen waar Donner het over had?
En weet iemand wat af van een AD-poll waarin 90% oproept tot het inzetten van het leger tegen troublesome Moroccan youths? Die had ik even gemist. :confused:
Lifestyle - Reuters
Netherlands Struggles with 'Immigrant Crime'
Fri Nov 14, 8:13 AM ET
By Marcel Michelson
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Long famed as a haven of multicultural tolerance, the Netherlands is now searching its soul to ask whether its integration policy has failed.
The recent Amsterdam murder of a homeless German woman by a group of youngsters of mainly Moroccan descent has thrown the spotlight onto immigrant youth and reopened a discussion on their role in the Netherlands.
The killing of 43-year-old former drug addict and alcoholic Anja Joos followed several other highly publicized incidents in which young Moroccans were held responsible for civil disturbances and threatening behavior.
Rita Verdonk, minister for immigration and integration, has said she wants to make parents financially responsible for the damage caused by "trouble kids" of immigrant families.
"The limits have been reached," she said in reaction to a study that showed Moroccan gangs were terrorizing an old people's home and a mental asylum in the Dutch capital.
A poll by the daily Algemeen Dagblad showed 90 percent of respondents wanted the authorities to "act decisively, if needed with the army" against troublesome Moroccan youths.
And an Amsterdam newspaper recently reported that some teachers felt so threatened by an anti-Semitic atmosphere in their classrooms that they no longer dared teach about the Nazi Holocaust, in which Dutch Jewry was decimated.
Debate about the role of immigrants in the Netherlands flared up last year with the meteoric rise of taboo-busting anti-immigration politician Pim Fortuyn, who was gunned down just before the May 2002 elections.
Though temperatures are no longer quite as high, anti-foreigner feelings have returned as the once-buoyant economy battles with recession and rising unemployment.
Similar factors partly explain the rise of ultra-right parties such as Jean-Marie Le Pen's Front National in France, Joerg Haider's Freedom Party in Austria, Christoph Blocher's People's Party in Switzerland and the Vlaams Blok in Belgium.
The Dutch parliament, stung by criticism from the right-wing about a lax immigration policy, has started an inquiry to see whether the country's integration policy has failed.
PROBLEM OR PERCEPTION?
But is there a real problem or just a change in perception?
Public prosecutor Leo de Wit, for instance, said the study on Moroccan gangs exaggerated the situation.
And Amsterdam police spokesman Remco Gerritsen said that while police were tackling youth crime and singling out repeat offenders for special attention, data showed a decline in crime.
"The group of youth criminals is a mixed bag of people of all kinds of origin. It is not a special immigrant or Moroccan problem," he told Reuters.
Big Dutch cities boast a large immigrant population. While many churches are closing, mosques are opening up.
Of the 735,000 inhabitants of the Dutch capital, 390,000 are from the Netherlands, 72,000 from the former south American colony of Surinam, 59,000 from Morocco and 36,000 from Turkey.
Dutch companies such as the Hoogovens steel mills recruited workers from Morocco and Turkey in the booming 1960s when they were short of labor. From the late 1970s, the families of these workers also came to the Netherlands.
Their children attend Dutch schools and in many big cities these schools turn into battlefields between different traditions and cultures. While some politicians campaign openly for "black schools" catering mainly to immigrant children, the consensus in parliament remains for mixed education.
But only one in three 20-25 year olds of Moroccan descent obtains a school diploma. Others become social outcasts with no work or low-paid jobs but with plenty of resentment and time on their hands. Some join youth gangs.
KICKED TO DEATH
Gerrit Mak, professor in metropolitan issues at the University of Amsterdam, pointed out that waves of immigrants had played a key role in Amsterdam's prosperous past.
Mak said the Dutch labor under the illusion that only foreigners need to adapt, not they themselves.
There is little doubt that the death of Anja Joos was an ugly incident, shot through with racism.
Joos, who lived in the popular multicultural De Pijp area of Amsterdam, was chased by staff of the local supermarket who suspected her of shoplifting and stopped her to check her bags.
Police said that while she could produce a receipt for the can of beer, a snide racist remark she made provoked two men to kick her, causing internal bleeding that led to her death.
On a web forum run by the city of Amsterdam on the issue of Moroccan youths, "Emir" said gangs made up less than 5 percent of Moroccan youngsters in the Netherlands and "Said" urged people not to condemn a group for the acts of individuals.
But one Eline Scheffer is clearly afraid. The state must act firmly against Moroccan youths, she writes, "or there will be civil war."
Is dit nu die druppel-op-steen waar Donner het over had?