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week 52 | maandag 23 december 2024 03:50 uur | 3 bezoekers

The integration Has Not Failed!!!

The integration has not failed!!
Its just stuck in traffic.
When you talk about integration, are you looking at what’s going on in the rest of the world? How many years has there been an integration problem in the Netherlands? How many years did it take societies to integrate in other countries? All the articles regarding integration are talking about that integration is a dual process and that the "other side" should look inward.
But lets look for a second outward at the greater picture: how did this integration thing work somewhere else? This is a factor that must be studied because we learn from our past and we learn from our mistakes. Even if we can’t find a solution, we can maybe find a reason.
Look at the city and the way it is organized for instance; we can easily notice that there are immigrant neighborhoods, and that there are 3rd generation Dutch neighborhoods. Of course there are exceptions and mixed ones, but that’s beside the point. There are several Moroccan neighborhoods, now, most of the people who live in those neighborhoods enjoy having an all-Moroccan neighborhood like that don’t they?
Naturally we can say that the reason for that is because the Dutch society is not so accepting, (but neither is every other society in the world which has a high percentage of immigrant inhabitants). The local Dutch see the immigrants as something different, they have their own clothes (kinda), they have their own language (which admittedly might sound aggressive to whoever doesn’t understand it) food, habits, neighborhoods, etc… (And we often fear and despise what we don’t understand).
So at the moment, the convenient solution for them will be living in single-cultural neighborhoods. One of the problems with that however, is that that alone divides the society, puts the immigrants apart and turns the map into clusters and not a continuous fabric. Many people will say: “I don’t care what’s going on in other countries, I don’t care about history, the situation is bad, here and now!!” not wanting to see the bigger picture is just childish and ignorant. So if this is somewhat of an intellectual conversation, all aspects should be taken under consideration.

But all this is not criticism; it’s merely an observation. Pointing out what I see. I think we all understand (or should) that this process takes time. The truth is that the Netherlands is doing much better than the rest of the world. If we compare it to the global situation and look up history for reference, the process can take literally hundreds of years. So I think for now, with a considerably (I said considerably) peaceful environment, everyone's on the right track.

You can’t hurry love; no you’ll just have to wait.


 
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