Poles, other Europeans 'should integrate'

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Poles, other Europeans 'should integrate'

Wednesday 01 July 2009

Polish nationals who move to the Netherlands permanently should attend compulsory integration courses, as should other EU nationals who do not speak Dutch properly, Nos tv quoted integration minister Eberhard van der Laan as saying on Tuesday.
A majority of MPs also support compulsory courses (inburgeringscursus) on Dutch customs and society for Polish immigrants, Nos said.
At the moment most people from outside the EU have to pass an integration test to live in the Netherlands. EU nationals have been exempt under European law. But the minister is to find out if a change in the law is possible, Nos tv says.

Children
He is also looking into the possibility of making EU nationals take such courses under compulsory education laws. At the moment parents whose children are behind in Dutch can themselves be forced to take language lessons, Nos said.
Christian Democrat MP Madeleine van Toorenburg said during the debate that the arrival of so many Poles in rural parts of the provinces of Noord-Brabant and Limburg have caused problems in some country schools.
Schools are being forced to use precious funds to pay for extra teachers to help children who did not speak Dutch at home, she was reported as saying.
Similar calls for integration tests for EU citizens were made in 2007. Some 400,000 EU nationals are thought to live in the Netherlands.
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