How many are mothers with children? If many of them are, wouldn't staying home with them prove that they are acting like real Dutch women?

But seriously, who are these people? If you move here as a refugee or on a family sponsorship, you have to be inbuggered anyways. How did they avoid it, considering that people who aren't required to inbugger even get letters demanding that they integrate?

Or, perhaps they should look a bit closer at their civic integration programs and ask why so many flunk out?

In 1972 I taught myself Dutch in one month, since I was fluent in German. Despite that, I am certain that this inhumane compulsion is wrong. What shall happen? Take away their benefits, then their resident permit, then "deport" them? Probably, unless some of these victims vanish into poverty and homelessness. I am glad I left.

When i'm paying my 52% tax on my salary i'm not asked to speak dutch.

My question is whether or not they are willing to HELP them learn Dutch. It is nearly impossible to practice Dutch if you don't have a Dutch partner because almost everyone you try to speak with immediately switches to English at the moment you stumble even a bit.

It is highly unfair, in my opinion, to criticize someone for not learning Dutch but then on the other hand make it nearly impossible to do so. Offer free courses (again) and I can support this initiative because it is true - not knowing Dutch is a very huge obstacle to finding a (good) job here.

wait a second... how comes those people are on benefits? did they work and lost the job? well, then I am sorry but if they paid taxes government should pay their benefits, dutch or not-dutch speaking. A different case would be if they are getting benefits without having worked a single day in NL. But in that case you just pick them up and send them back to where they came from. Again, no need to learn Dutch.

Do any of these people speak or understand English? If so, would that not suffice seeing as when I first came here for employment, the Dutch were only too willing to show off their English and give me a large choice of jobs...
Of course times have changed and the nationalistic element here is being advertised as the norm, perhaps even to extremes? I hope the people concerned receive the necessary help and motivation to learn Dutch and not bullied by threatening their pocket money income.

Fear not ! Just hang in there and in 9 months time they will change the rules again.

Personally I think if you live in the Nederland’s then you must speak Dutch, I work for a Hotel in Amsterdam and the Boss can’t even speak English never mind Dutch.
Wallace (The Dam)

I agree with this. I wish we would implement this kind of rule in the States. Unfortunately, anyone who proposed such a thing would be instantly accused of being a racist. That is a crying shame. It is this kind of thinking that divides us as a nation when what we really need is to be unified. United we stand, divided we fall. Sadly, we are falling.

Let's see. I lose my benefits, then I cannot pay my basic insurance premiums, then I lose my home, and I'm homelesss. So is my family. Then we are on our own, in the jungle of The Netherlands. Perhaps we'll be deported, or dead. Well done, xenophobes. Remember WW2?

Great! Does this mean that if I don't speak Dutch I will no longer be required to pay my current exorbitant taxes and live in apartments with artificially high rents? Do you know what you want?

As someone who learned the language immediately upon moving here, I say "Smart Move Den Hague". No more living off the rest of us.

PVDA is opportunistic and disgusting. Nobody knows what they stand for anymore that is why they are rapidly losing votes also the fact that nobody trusts them at all because they are hypocritical, have no ideas of their own are wishy washy flip floppers. For one thing, Rita Verdonk tried to pass this very same law that PVDA Norder wants to force. It is against European Human rights and also international human rights so it will be thrown out, Nederlandse will end up being fined by Europese hof and against Tax payers money is thrown down the drain for another law that violates citizen rights. Time for Nederlands to get out of EU.

@joanna, bijstand is for people who didn't work. If you worked and lost your job then you get ww. Different matter.

What does "800 people with an *ethnic minority background*" mean?? I was born in Canada and don't speak Dutch well enough to get a job, yet my parents and centuries of grandparents, great grandparents have lived in the Netherlands... Am I considered to have a "minority background"?? If not, this has nothing to do with "helping them to participate in the labour market". Its just plain racist. I'm so embarrassed to be Dutch right now!

@Ames: That is a simplistic and selfish point of view - all you care about is YOUR money and not one bit about some other human being in a tough situation.

I've paid into the system for 1.5 years and I lost my job (thanks government cutbacks). Now I am told that I cannot apply for "Bijstand" because it will impact my Kennismigrant status (I am from Canada). Right now I am paying for a €1000 Dutch course in order to help me find another job, but I have to pay for it myself AND I can't get bijstand. This seems screwed up to me. Thankfully my partner's parents are helping us out, but if I didn't have them, where would I go? I can't even afford a plane ticket home.

If you're unemployed, I can't see any reason why you are unable to spend some of the wealth of free time you have, in learning the language of the country in which you reside. Is it really that unreasonable a thing to ask?

Smart move. Too many people get benefits to help them live whilst looking for work, with no actual chance of finding it, due to language barriers or lack of education or experience.
The latter unfortunately is hard to find without speaking Dutch.
For those who have people respond in Engels, tell them that you would prefer to speak in Dutch, as you want to practice it. Works like a charm

while I'm not a fan of over doing it regarding integration, I don't think learning some Dutch in order to collect some benefits is such a terrible thing to ask. seems like common sense to me actually. first thing I did here in NL 15 yrs ago is start learning the language.

The only thing I'm a little confused about is how one can get benefits and keep their RP? I was under the impression unless it's unemployment because you lost your job, you can't go on welfare.

I have to say I agree with Joanna. If someone has paid their taxes they are entitled to benifits, regardless of what language they speak.
Having said that,however, I think it makes sense to learn the language of the country you intend to live in.

If they've been 'inbuggered' (CW's comment) by the Dutch authorities, I think that gives them the right to stay in NL.

As somebody who learned Dutch years ago, and paid his (exhorbitant) taxes year in and year out.. Then when I was ill I was told I could not have any benefits because I had been self employed. I still have to pay my local taxes, and everything else. Even though I have no income, and am recovering from cancer. This is not a civilised country anymore - it is not only if you happen to be a foreigner, or don't speak Dutch yet, or happen to be ill. This is all quite normal for an extremist right wing state.

@Joanne You are right. These people paid and are entitled to their benefits, even if they lived on Mars. That's how insurance works. The gov takes a gamble. *But* for two decades the govs have stopped calling a benefit a public insurance (Volksverzekering). A premium is now part of taxes. That's "Fiscalisation" and it's a trick: your money is no longerearmarked in detail. That's your EU Liberalism.

Dutch can't be that difficult, in only five weeks, with a lot of practice, I learned how to say "Scheveningen".

'Living off the rest of us' is implying that only Dutch speakers pay taxes. Untrue. Den Haag - home of Shell, one of the largest employers of expats in NL would do well to remember that the Dutch has a skills shortage, hence the need to encourage expats to come here. Why, after moving their homes & families here, should redundant expats, after paying 52% tax, should they learn Dutch: to get a job in a local AH/C1000 with their engineering degrees?

Get real Den Haag (and Ames): who is living off whose tax money here? How many native Dutch will be unemployed once all the international companies grow tired of xenophobia and leave the Netherlands?

Actually if the Netherlands would prefer to further encourage economic growth the government should consider a dual language requirement Dutch/English. This would pull in more international businesses. My Dutch is not as good as I would like but at least I try.

I regret that I speak only very basic Dutch, but understand more if is spoken clearly and slowly - which of course it's not. As others have said as soon as I start to speak Dutch, the bus driver, shop assistant, etc. all start to speak English. I worked for a very large electronics company who transferred me from the UK because I am a native English speaker and writer in its global marcom department. And it is mandatory in this company that English is spoken by most employees.

Andrew from Eindhoven.

@Maru- #1: If you worked here you are NOT entitled to bestand. It is only for those who haven't worked. #2: You should try and apply for WW, then you'd get unemployment. #3: Why didn't you learn Dutch the 1st 1 1/2 years living here? Seems you didn't take living in another country seriously and/or care about learning to live as a citizen rather than having a long vacation. Why should you then get money from this country?

@Ames.. Give me a break. Most expats I know work LONG hours. They are NOT here on vacation. These people are working their tale off to make a living and trying their best given the time and money constraints of modern life.

Language is power. People like you want to subordinate the hard-working immigrants to yourself. That's what all of this is really about. You want to use your own language as the instrument of your suppression. I am beginning to think that this isn't about integration at all. Integration into what? Explain it to me. What have you lost from your culture due to immigrants and immigrants alone? Lay it out for us.