Allochtonen Weblog is a Dutch language blog that collects news about the immigrant community in the Netherlands. Here’s a few interesting stories they’ve had the past couple of weeks.
Karim Saadouni will start this season as the first Moroccan referee in Belgian national level soccer. Saadouni is a 2nd generation immigrant whose grandparents came from Morocco.
Attracting immigrant volunteers
Breda-Actief, an organization dedicated to attracting volunteers in the Breda area has put out five new brochures to explain how to attract more immigrant volunteers and keep them volunteering.
Discrimination in the police force
According to an interest group of immigrant police agents, it is almost impossible for immigrants to make a carrier in the police, due to discrimination. A program to bring more people to command position in the police did not succeed. Of 25 participants that graduated the police academy, only 11 are still working in the police and none of them in a high position.
Separate women swimming
The Muslim swimming association “De Waterlelie” wants to start again with separate sex swimming in the Mercator pool in Amsterdam. They intend to start renting the pool after the Ramadan (end of October this year) on Sunday evenings for women only. The question of who will pay to cover the pool windows is still open.
The pool itself also organizes a “women only” afternoon, but says that the women who come then are much more open and educated than the women of “De Waterlelie”
Museum programs for immigrants
The Municipal Museum and the Amsterdam Historic Museum are preparing special programs for new immigrants. Titled “City and Language” they are hoping to introduce the immigrants to the art and history of Amsterdam. The city is financing the program with 140,000 euro.
Free language lessons
Various Amsterdam neighborhoods are doing their best to make sure that as many people take language lessons while they’re still free. Graduates are encouraged to bring in more people to the courses.
Segregation in kindergarten
Officials in Hellevoets are afraid that one of the kindergartens is segregated with one group of kids speaking Turkish and almost no Dutch. The kids have almost no incentive to learn Dutch and Dutch parents don't want to send their kids to that group.
Support for Muslim schools down
Support for Islamic education has decreased the past year. Barely 40% of the Dutch think that Muslim schools have a right to exist as special schools. That’s down from 50% last year.
12% of parents (down from 18%) are willing to prevent the formation of “black” schools by sending their kids to such a school.
Wilders' party platform
Geert Wilders, a right wing Dutch politician, wants to forbid holding a double nationality. Since Morocco forces its citizens to hold on to their citizenship, this would mean that Moroccan-Dutch will not be able to hold Dutch citizenship. Wilders intends to force Morocco to change its policy.
Wilders also wants to halt immigration from non-Western countries for 5 years, to accept a maximum of 5000 asylum seekers a year and to stop building mosques and Muslim schools for the next five years.
Human smuggling ring arrested
Police arrested 19 people in connection with a human smuggling ring. Two were arrested in the Netherlands and hold Dutch citizenship, the rest in Turkey.
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