Moroccan-born Rahmouna Lakdhari was still living as an outsider after 13 years in her adoptive Netherlands, prevented by language and cultural barriers from working and making new friends.
However, last year, the life of the 33-year-old who followed her husband to the land of windmills, bicycles and tulips changed dramatically thanks to a state-sponsored integration course — a privilege the new, rightist government plans to take away.
“Only now am I learning what one needs to know about the Netherlands,” Lakdhari told reporters in halting Dutch at the school where she spends 10 hours a week on lessons in language and socialization — how government works, how to befriend neighbors, open a bank account and register a birth.
The Netherlands was long seen as a land of multicultural tolerance, but the Dutch, like their neighbors in Germany, have shifted toward promoting greater social integration as EU states rethink their response to continued waves of immigrants.
The country introduced integration courses in 2007, obliging all non-European adult immigrants — workers and their family members — to attend classes and pass an exam. Those who fail to do so do not qualify for permanent residence and cannot claim social benefits.
As Lakdhari arrived before 2007, her course was not compulsory but she took it voluntarily. About 40,000 people successfully completed the course last year, according to the Netherlands Centre for Foreigners (NCB).
“I can now go to the doctor and explain what is wrong with me. I no longer need my husband, my child or a neighbor to help me,” Lakdhari said proudly as her classmates — mostly women in headscarves from Turkey and Morocco — nodded in agreement as they copied grammar from a blackboard. “I can look for work, I can talk to people, I can help my children with homework.”
The new minority coalition, which took over last month backed by a controversial anti-Islam party, is bent on halting rising public debt.
One target is slashing the integration budget of about 500 million euros (US$703.4 million) in incremental amounts, to culminate in an annual savings of more than 300 million euros as of 2014.
The plan must still be put to parliament, where a right-wing coalition backed by the Party for Freedom of anti-Islam member of parliament Geert Wilders, hold a joint majority.
It wants newcomers to foot the bill for the compulsory course, which training centers told reporters costs up to 5,000 euros for up to 18 months of lessons.
Under the plan, those who fail the exam will lose their temporary residence permit — meaning they must leave the country.
NCB director Ilhan Akel, for one, opposes making immigrants pay for the course, calling it “shortsighted” and indicative of a “broad shift to the right.”
“It is imperative that as many people as possible complete these courses,” he said. “With our ageing workforce, we need more young people to work in the care and production sectors. But if they have no language skills and sit on the margins of society, they will cost us money instead of contributing to the economy.”
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