Resistance is Futile

I think the reason the immigrant issue so problematic is here in the Netherlands, is because to a certain degree everyone has always relied on the old tried and tested tactic which doesn't seem to work anymore.

Tactic?

The Dutch attitude towards anything 'foreign' has always been one of 'assimilation'. In very much the same way as the Borg did, Dutch society bears down on anything out of the Dutch ordinary and smothers it slowly but surely with mediocracy, absorbs what is useable and vomits what is useless.

The Dutch language is liberally peppered with sayings that have always been used to control society. "Don't stick your head out above the corn field because it will be chopped off", "Act normal, that's crazy enough", etc.

The Netherlands even managed to do this with the Surinamers, a sensitive, highly strung race of people of diverse ancestry. How? By forcing them slowly but surely to become 'normal'. Of course they were allowed certain social privileges that reflected their status as 'originally other'. However, their position has now been taken over by other parts of the immigrant community and they are beginning to feel the weight of society pushing their 'other' status into a commercially acceptable form of entertainment instead of a valid political grouping.

Dutch tolerance is a temporary tactic that permits society to carry on functioning without derailing until 'assimilation' kicks in.

But the sheer weight of numbers has meant this long term tactic of cultural osmosis isn't fast enough to cope with the Moroccan and Dutch Antilles immigrant problems. The second generation has not been fully assimilated yet the third and fourth are already on their way.

Dutch society is white, if not in actual skin colour then at least in terms of law and order. Democracy is now a very frightening concept for a country where a significant percentage of the population non-white is. Very frightening too is the the idea that something might have to be done about it.