XPost: alt.religion.islam, soc.culture.canada   
   From: crusader@crusader.com   
      
   COMMON SENSE FINALLY PREVAILING AS THE MULTICULTURALISM EXPERIMENT STARTS TO   
   STINK REAL BAD   
      
   Rotterdam plans to ban poor immigrants from moving in   
      
   Andrew Osborn   
   Tuesday December 2, 2003   
   The Guardian   
      
   The city of Rotterdam said yesterday that it wanted to ban poor and   
   unemployed immigrants from moving there.   
   In a move that is likely to cause uproar, the city council adopted a policy   
   paper which it said sought to restore "long-term balance" to the city.   
      
   Almost half the port city's 600,000 population is of non-Dutch origin and   
   the council said it was keen to curb new immigration "of the wrong sort".   
      
   Its policy paper stipulated that any newcomers must earn 20% more than the   
   country's minimum wage or about ?9.10 (£6.30) an hour in order to settle   
   there.   
      
   New immigrants would also have to possess a good command of the Dutch   
   language in order to obtain a residence permit and the council said it would   
   ask the Hague not to send new political refugees for the next four years.   
      
   "We have a lot of people coming into the city who just go on welfare,"   
   Ronald Sorensen, leader of Leefbaar Rotterdam (Liveable Rotterdam), the   
   party behind the initiative, told the Guardian.   
      
   "If people want to come to Rotterdam they must have a job. If they don't   
   have one, then we don't want them."   
      
   Mr Sorensen said that the council would stop building affordable housing and   
   only build "expensive houses" in order to get the right "balance".   
      
   "We want people to work and we want people to learn Dutch. We want Rotterdam   
   to look like any other Dutch city but at the moment we have more unemployed   
   people and crime than anywhere else."   
      
   Deportations of illegal immigrants will be stepped up and the council said   
   it intends to start evicting anti-social residents from social housing.   
      
   Mr Sorensen argued that urgent action was needed to stop Dutch middle class   
   families fleeing the city for better areas.   
      
   Mr Sorensen denied the initiative was racist. But he admitted the policy   
   would have been approved by one of the city's most famous sons, the far   
   right anti-immigration champion, Pim Fortuyn, who was assassinated last   
   year.   
      
   "He would be very proud of this," Mr Sorensen said. "This problem has been   
   around for 30 years but nobody has dared burn their fingers on it. This is   
   exactly what Mr Fortuyn stood for."   
      
   He added: "Colour is no problem but the problem is coloured. We are not   
   racist. Nobody dares say that any more after Pim was shot."   
      
   He claimed that the new rules would also apply to Dutch white people who   
   wanted to move to the city, the Netherlands' second largest.   
      
   The initiative is being pushed by councillor Marco Pastors, one of Fortuyn's   
   students and a close friend of the man who was gunned down by an animal   
   rights activist in 2002.   
      
   Fortuyn outraged many by calling Islam "backward" and demanding zero   
   immigration.   
      
   The subject of immigration remains sensitive in the Netherlands. The   
   construction of one of Europe's largest mosques began in Rotterdam in   
   October and the council is fighting to make its design less "Islamic".   
      
   Recent surveys suggest that the population supports tough action on   
   immigration with 60% of Rotterdam inhabitants in favour of restricting the   
   number of newcomers.   
      
   The city council's plans are likely to enrage the Dutch left, however, and   
   the centre-right government has already indicated that limiting the number   
   of immigrants who can settle in one area may constitute discrimination and   
   be in breach of the constitution and various international treaties.   
      
   The council is therefore likely to become locked in a battle in order to   
   realise its plan, but insists it will persist.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)