XPost: alt.religion.islam, soc.culture.canada   
   From: crusader@crusader.com   
      
   Liberal Netherlands grows less so on immigration   
   After a report projecting a majority nonnative population by 2017, Rotterdam   
   voted this month to limit poor newcomers.   
      
   By Jennifer Ehrlich   
      
   ROTTERDAM, NETHERLANDS - Within sight of this port city's historic soccer   
   stadium, the largest mosque in Europe is going up. When complete, its   
   164-foot-high minarets will tower over the arena.   
      
   A decade ago, few would have objected to such a large Islamic imprint. But   
   now, worried that the mosque is sharpening ethnic tensions in the city's   
   working-class Dutch neighborhood, city leaders are calling for a design that   
   is "less Arabic."   
      
   "There's no reason the minarets have to be that high - it will not be   
   Rotterdam; it will be Mecca on the Maas (river)," said Ronald Sorenson,   
   leader of Leefbaar Rotterdam (Livable Rotterdam), the largest party in the   
   city council.   
      
   The controversy is emblematic of larger concerns in the Netherlands that the   
   growing immigrant population - which is mostly Muslim - will dominate more   
   than a skyline. In a nation known for its liberal views and openness, the   
   days of multicultural tolerance may be fading as residents question the   
   numbers of foreigners and the social-welfare costs of integrating them.   
      
   Earlier this month, citing a need to restore long-term balance in a city   
   projected to have a majority-immigrant population within 15 years,   
   Rotterdam's city council approved restrictions to close the door to poor and   
   unemployed newcomers.   
      
   "It is as if the Netherlands has realized that they are a multicultural   
   society, and are beginning to say to themselves - 'Well, we always said we   
   wanted this, but now we have second thoughts,' " says Jan Niessen, director   
   of the independent Migration Policy Group in Brussels. "The time of   
   formulating nice policies about multiculturalism is over."   
      
   The move came after a report from the Dutch government research bureau   
   Centrum Voor Underzoek and Statistiek, which forecast that, by 2017, almost   
   60 percent of Rotterdam's 600,000 population will be nonnative. Now, almost   
   half of the population in the city - the nation's second-largest - was born   
   outside Holland.   
      
   Rotterdam's decision, which is likely to face court challenges, is extreme   
   among immigration policies in Europe. Still, it reflects an increasingly   
   less friendly attitude on the Continent toward immigrants.   
      
   Under the new policy, only newcomers earning at least 20 percent more than   
   minimum wage (or about $11.15 per hour) will receive a residency permit from   
   the city. Rotterdam has also asked that for four years the national   
   government send no more political refugees its way. The city also plans to   
   step up deportations of illegal immigrants and to try to stop   
   immigrants from bringing in migrant spouses.   
      
   The main national Dutch opposition parties blasted the plan as   
   discriminatory. Dutch Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk has criticized the   
   plans as unrealistic, saying that Rotterdam cannot refuse entry to newcomers   
   whom the federal government has recognized as refugees or to whom it has   
   given a residency permit.   
      
   But city leaders estimate that Rotterdam receives 60 percent of all new   
   immigrants to the Netherlands, and that it simply cannot cope with the   
   housing expenses and other social-welfare costs of absorbing more.   
   Meanwhile, city leaders say middle-class Dutch residents are leaving the   
   city because of rising crime rates and deteriorating neighborhoods. While   
   crime records are not kept according to ethnicity, Dutch police and   
   government officials have publicly linked a rise in crime to immigrants,   
   particularly youth gangs.   
      
   Recent surveys show that 62 percent of Rotterdam residents support limiting   
   immigration. The city's non-European population has risen over the past   
   decade, in part because of the arrival of spouses from the old country - and   
   robust birth rates. A recent government study in Rotterdam showed that the   
   average birth rate for Moroccan women is nearly four times that of the Dutch   
   rate of just over one child.   
      
   The Netherlands has no quota system for accepting immigrants. The cost of   
   sending a new arrival through the required "integration program," which   
   includes job training and Dutch lessons, can reach almost $7,500 per person.   
      
   It's no coincidence that a blunter policy toward immigrants originated in   
   Rotterdam. The dominant Livable Rotterdam party rode to power in local   
   elections in March 2002 on the popularity of Pim Fortuyn, a leader who   
   promoted the slogan "Holland is full." He was murdered by an animal rights   
   activist two months later, on the eve of general elections that he was   
   expected to win by a landslide. But the debate he sparked about immigration   
   continues to influence political life in Holland.   
      
   "There are too many people coming here who don't want to work. Before long   
   there will be more foreigners than Dutch people, and Dutch people won't be   
   the boss of their own country," says Léon, a white Rotterdam window cleaner   
   who wants to be identified only by his first name. "That's why this has to   
   be stopped."   
      
   The feeling among many ethnic minorities is that the policy is not about   
   economics, but race. "There are a lot of people who feel that there are a   
   lot of people of color on the street - and that is disturbing," says   
   Suzanne, a Rotterdam resident of Indonesian descent who prefers to be quoted   
   by first name. "But, that's the way the world is now, and there is no   
   changing that."   
      
   Sorenson says the new policy is "pragmatic," not racist, and is aimed at   
   reversing urban blight. Part of the council's plan is to shift from building   
   affordable housing to upscale housing, to attract wealthier families and   
   their tax contributions.   
      
   Previous Dutch policy has focused on educating migrants - most were "guest   
   workers" from Turkey or Morocco - rather than penalizing them. In the 1990s,   
   the Dutch government created programs to integrate the initially temporary   
   immigrants, but they were underfunded and voluntary. In 1998, Holland passed   
   a tougher plan, requiring immigrants to attend Dutch-language classes and   
   receive job training. But 20 percent dropped out, most did not learn basic   
   Dutch, and there was no follow-up for vocational opportunities, says a   
   report from the Migration Policy Group.   
      
   Some immigrant-rights groups warn that Rotterdam's policy signals a growing   
   polarization in Holland. "[The city] shouldn't have made immigrants the   
   scapegoat. There was way too much us and them in this plan," says project   
   leader Anil Ciftci of the Rotterdam group Delmatur.   
      
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