EUKN - European Urban Knowledge Network - Towards lasting integration

Towards lasting integration

Introduction

At the request of Minister Verdonk, the Council for Social Development (RMO), after its recommendations of March 2005, has now issued a follow-up recommendation on integration. Minister Verdonk requested concrete recommendations as to when and where inter-ethnic contact can occur.

According to the RMO, there many are fascinating initiatives but they are often not sufficiently effective and lasting. Attention is more often paid to ethnic differences than to common goals or interests. The RMO argues for an infrastructural approach to integration. This means that integration should not occur alongside people’s daily routines, but should rather become an integral part of them.

Proposition

How can the government advance integration between immigrants and the indigenous population?

Description

According to the RMO, an integration policy that brings people together in the long-term and repeatedly, without ethnicity being the starting point, is needed. Many government measures in the area of integration originate from three flawed assumptions. Firstly, that integration is an individual choice. The second assumption is that dispersion leads to mixed networks. Finally, the third assumption is that incidental encounters between immigrants and locals will automatically lead to mutual understanding. The RMO’s recommendations refute these assumptions and propose supplementary measures to encourage integration.

Conclusions

The socio-economic position of minorities must be improved. This means higher education, more work and better jobs. This will ensure more inter-ethnic bonding. Work, education and language are therefore of essential importance. Specific policy from both the demand and supply sides can improve the position of immigrants in the job market. In education, segregation must be avoided as much as possible. Learning the Dutch language is so important that a mandatory nature is hereby appropriate. The government must in that case guarantee that immigrants can obtain a good education.
The spatial organisation of public institutions must be such that people meet repeatedly. This can be achieved by setting up obvious meeting centres, such as schools and community centres. This can also be done by creating multifunctional meeting centres, where activities are organised for different target groups at the same time. Moreover, age-specific meeting centres should be created, where people who are in the same stage of life can come.
Finally, more long-lasting projects should be undertaken that are not focussed on ethnic differences but on factors that transcend ethnicity. These projects can be oriented on matters that people consider as important, useful or amusing. The projects may interest native Dutch and immigrants for different reasons, just as long as they are beneficial to both.

Contact info

Council for Social Development
Phone: +31 70 340 5294
rmo@adviesorgaan-rmo.nl

Publication date

01/02/2006

Researcher

Council for Social Development

Links

Council for Social Development

RMO recommendation: from one-time encounter to lasting integration (PDF, Dutch, 1.7MB)

Document type

research

Themes

Urban Policy > Social inclusion & integration > Community development

Keywords

Mediation