Allochtonen Weblog Roundup

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 this week.


Judicial Assistance

New research shows that foreigners who are kept in custody often don’t get judicial assistance. The often don’t see a lawyer within 24 hours and lawyers sometimes fail to appear to court sessions.

Due to the results of the research, councils for judicial assistance will pose stricter demands from their lawyer members.


"Black" school getting blacker (and blacker)

For the first time in 10 years, the number of “black” school is going down – 536 such school this year compared to 580 in 2002. However, those schools are becoming “blacker”. The number of schools with 70% or more immigrant population has gone up from 322 to 337.

Black schools are schools with a student population of 50% or more immigrants.

In Amsterdam, for example, the number of ‘black’ schools has gone done from 119 to 104, but 75 of those are schools with 70+% immigrants.

In smaller and middle sized communities, the Christian schools promote segregation. The result is that usually only one or two schools in the area receive immigrant children, bringing up the percentages of immigrant populations in those schools to 90+%


Immigrants not finding internship spots

Immigrant education students cannot find a place to do their internship many times, causing them to drop out. 8% of students are immigrants, and of those 46% drop out within the first year (compared to 27% by ethnic Dutch). Barely 35% get a diploma within five years (compared to 57% by ethnic Dutch).

Parliament member Leerdam has been speaking with mayors, students and school boards in the four big cities about this problem. He says it’s hard to speak about racism or discrimination, though he’s sure the students feel that way.

Many schools who refuse to take on immigrant interns do so because of parental opposition to head covering, or because the Muslim interns do not “fit the atmosphere and culture” of the school.


France: A couple of weeks to turn out an extremist Muslim

According to Pierre de Bousquet de Florian, head of the French secret service, recruiters for fundamental Muslim groups can change young Muslims around within weeks – from youth who have little interest in belief to extremists.

A potential threat comes from volunteers who go to Iraq via Syria to take part in the rebellion and then come back to Europe to wage Jihad.

Nine French have been killed in the fight in Iraq, after joining the rebel forces, with about another 10 still fighting. Two others have been arrested.

There are 5 million Muslims in France (officially), with about 5000 supporters of radical Islam. 400 of these group are converts.


Documents on integration

Allochtonen Weblog has 2 documents in English concerning the integration of ethnic minorities in the Netherlands. Both articles are written by dr. Chan Choenni.

National government policy for ethnic minorities; the case of the Netherlands 1975‑2005

Facts and figures Integration ethnic minorities 2005 in the Netherlands


Italy: Citizenship within five years

Giuliano Amato, Italian Minister of the Interior, has announced that legal immigrants will be able to get citizenship after five years. This new policy, which is yet to be implemented, is supposed to affect about 3 million people.

The government has also announced earlier that there is a willingness to help the hundred thousands of illegals attain legal status. This policy diverts from the general European policy which attempts to stem immigration.


New Moroccan soccer teams in Amsterdam

Two Moroccan female soccer teams are supposed to start off in September, with about 30 applicants. An earlier attempt failed to attract applicants.

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