Skip to main content
Home

Main navigation

  • Top stories
  • Health
  • Crime
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Tech
  • Culture
  • Sports
  • Weird
  • 1-1-2
Image
Dutch language
Dutch language - Credit: nito103 / DepositPhotos - License: DepositPhotos
Politics
refugee
asylum seeker
integration
Amsterdam
Rotterdam
Utrecht
The Hague
Wednesday, 10 November 2021 - 11:00
Share this:
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • linkedin
  • whatsapp
  • reddit

Large Dutch cities worried about refugees stuck in old naturalization system

Amsterdam, Utrecht, Rotterdam, and The Hague are very concerned about a group of at least 11,000 refugees who will have to integrate in the coming years. A new integration system will be implemented on January 1, but everyone who got a residency permit before that date will have to integrate in the old, failing system. And that is unfair, the cities wrote in a letter to responsible State Secretary Dennis Wiersma, Trouw reports.

The old integration system was labeled "failing" in 2018 already when the National Ombudsman and others said that the government was making it harder for integrators to find their place in Dutch society instead of easier. The new system was scheduled to take effect in 2020, but the introduction was postponed three times.

The delay means that thousands of refugees will struggle in the failing system in the coming years. "Then one refugee may integrate well, and his neighbor who happened to receive a residency permit earlier must still manage in the old system. We think that is unjust and absolutely inexplicable," Amsterdam alderman Marjolein Moorman said. The municipalities did receive money to help this group, they said in their letter. "But we continue to have to deal with the limitations of the current system."

The Netherlands' four largest cities propose that all people who have already received a residency permit but don't have a home yet and still live in an asylum center be allowed to integrate under the new system. That is a large group because due to the housing shortage in the Netherlands, around 11,000 refugees are stuck living in asylum centers, according to Trouw.

"I think that from the point of fairness, you should, in any case, grant as many people as possible good integration. But it is also smart from a financial point of view. We've seen in recent years that people got into deep trouble because of the integration system, and once you're in trouble, it is very difficult to get out of it. People struggle with debts, get social assistance, have mental health problems. That ultimately costs society money."

Follow us:

Latest stories

  • Some 1.5 million buttons needed for monument to Jewish children killed in Holocaust
  • Millions of computer chips from Dutch manufacturers wound up in Russia: Report
  • High energy bills made life very difficult for 600,000 households in 2022
  • Teens could get 20 months for shooting 17-year-old in face with sawed-off shotgun
  • Dutch meteorologists say Musk's Starlink network disrupts weather forecasting
  • Money woes mean solar car firm Lightyear’s 600 workers expected to lose jobs

Top stories

  • Millions of computer chips from Dutch manufacturers wound up in Russia: Report
  • High energy bills made life very difficult for 600,000 households in 2022
  • Philips to slash over a thousand jobs in new reorganization: Report
  • Netherlands heading for "socially disruptive" asylum crisis, involved authorities warn
  • Climate activists released from custody; Banned from Hague highway for months
  • Alfred Schreuder fired as Ajax manager

© 2012-2023, NL Times, All rights reserved.

Footer menu

  • Privacy
  • Contact
  • Partner content