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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I don't agree with some of the analysis here. I live in the Netherlands now, and did 30 years ago.  Was first here on a scholarship at the University of Amsterdam to research the rise in right wing movements in Western Europe and most of my work was around assimilation of 1960s and 1970s immigrants into France, Germany and Netherlands.  It's not true that Syrians and Afghans aren't assimilating now, and the Dutch have amazing taal schools to get immigrant children up to speed on Dutch to join regular Dutch basis schools (primary) and other options for children over 12.  There are many hardworking well integrated Syrians here. More people where I live now (Maastricht) are complaining of Moroccan youth being disruptive around the center and link increasing crime to new laws forbidding foreigners from going into coffee shops thereby creating a black market with aggressive sellers.

The housing crisis is THE biggest deal for most and it's easy to point the finger at immigrants for some.

Not all Dutch are as tolerant as the stereotypes.  And Geert Wilders has more in common with some of the fundamentalist Muslims that he wants to deport.  His platform is just as anti-LGBTQ and black and white in approach.  It would be wrong to simply link his support as tied to those who see Muslims as a threat to Dutch tolerance.  The cities with the largest Muslim populations did not vote for his party, notably Amsterdam.

Just wanted to add some nuance to some of the generalizations I'm reading here.  [/quote]

I really wonder if you are a man. I have a female friend who has lived in different cities in the Netherlands and is now in Amsterdam. She says the amount of catcalling is so out of control when you walk down so many street and 99% of the men who are making incredibly rude sexual comments and then making threatening comments and spitting when they are ignored or rejected are immigrants from North Africa or the Middle East or other parts of Africa. She says ask any female if they have gone to cities in the Netherlands and been harassed and they will say yes. It is so out of control.

So while she is liberal and believes there are many positive things that immigrants bring and do jobs Dutch often don't want to do, she is really mad that women are constantly harassed. She has been to Latin America, so I asked is it like being in Latin America, and she said absolutely not. It might be whistling and some comments but nothing at the level that is going on in the Netherlands now. She said so many women are just so sick and tired of it and are going to vote for someone who might bring some hope that it can stop. [/quote]

DP.  This is exactly the behavior we encountered in Sweden, France, and Italy.  There is a very clear LACK of assimilation going on and extremely toxic treatment of women.  I can see why these countries would want to stop immigration from certain countries.  [/quote]

The Erosion of Women's rights in many areas is frightening and so many people are in absolute denial because they don't want to be called a racist or prejudiced against any religion. To really understand what is happening a Somali born immigrant who lived in the Netherlands for years and became a politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali wrote a book called Prey: Immigration, Islam, and the Erosion of Women’s Rights. It examines the sharp rise in the number of sexual assaults in Western Europe that coincides with the sharp rise in illegal immigration from Muslim-majority countries. She contended that Dutch and other European laws are overly accommodating toward immigrants, enabling the formation of fundamentalist Muslim enclaves whose practices ultimately posed a threat to the women.

She explains that Governments are not collecting any type of statistic on who is committing sexual assaults or not allowing women to freely gather in spaces such as park in cities that are now predominantly fundamentalist Muslim because if they collect data points such as immigration status or skin color, or religion or nationality that they're going to empower the far-right groups.
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