- The city of Rotterdam said yesterday that it wanted to
ban poor and unemployed immigrants from moving there.
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- In a move that is likely to cause uproar, the city council
adopted a policy paper which it said sought to restore "long-term
balance" to the city.
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- Almost half the port city's 600,000 population is of
non-Dutch origin and the council said it was keen to curb new immigration
"of the wrong sort".
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- Its policy paper stipulated that any newcomers must earn
20% more than the country's minimum wage or about Euro9.10 (£6.30)
an hour in order to settle there.
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- New immigrants would also have to possess a good command
of the Dutch language in order to obtain a residence permit and the council
said it would ask the Hague not to send new political refugees for the
next four years.
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- "We have a lot of people coming into the city who
just go on welfare," Ronald Sorensen, leader of Leefbaar Rotterdam
(Liveable Rotterdam), the party behind the initiative, told the Guardian.
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- "If people want to come to Rotterdam they must have
a job. If they don't have one, then we don't want them."
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- Mr Sorensen said that the council would stop building
affordable housing and only build "expensive houses" in order
to get the right "balance".
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- "We want people to work and we want people to learn
Dutch. We want Rotterdam to look like any other Dutch city but at the moment
we have more unemployed people and crime than anywhere else."
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- Deportations of illegal immigrants will be stepped up
and the council said it intends to start evicting anti-social residents
from social housing.
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- Mr Sorensen argued that urgent action was needed to stop
Dutch middle class families fleeing the city for better areas.
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- Mr Sorensen denied the initiative was racist. But he
admitted the policy would have been approved by one of the city's most
famous sons, the far right anti-immigration champion, Pim Fortuyn, who
was assassinated last year.
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- "He would be very proud of this," Mr Sorensen
said. "This problem has been around for 30 years but nobody has dared
burn their fingers on it. This is exactly what Mr Fortuyn stood for."
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- He added: "Colour is no problem but the problem
is coloured. We are not racist. Nobody dares say that any more after Pim
was shot."
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- He claimed that the new rules would also apply to Dutch
white people who wanted to move to the city, the Netherlands' second largest.
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- The initiative is being pushed by councillor Marco Pastors,
one of Fortuyn's students and a close friend of the man who was gunned
down by an animal rights activist in 2002.
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- Fortuyn outraged many by calling Islam "backward"
and demanding zero immigration.
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- The subject of immigration remains sensitive in the Netherlands.
The construction of one of Europe's largest mosques began in Rotterdam
in October and the council is fighting to make its design less "Islamic".
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- Recent surveys suggest that the population supports tough
action on immigration with 60% of Rotterdam inhabitants in favour of restricting
the number of newcomers.
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- The city council's plans are likely to enrage the Dutch
left, however, and the centre-right government has already indicated that
limiting the number of immigrants who can settle in one area may constitute
discrimination and be in breach of the constitution and various international
treaties.
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- The council is therefore likely to become locked in a
battle in order to realise its plan, but insists it will persist.
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2003
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- http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1097757,00.html
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