A majority of MPs want Poles, Bulgarians and Romanians to follow compulsory integration courses, despite being members of the EU, the Volkskrant reports on Friday.

The paper says new research shows immigration from the new EU member states will be more important than that from outside the EU. ‘A modern Turk from Istanbul has to take an integration course but someone from rural Bulgaria does not. But the divide between the latter and Dutch society is far greater,’ opposition Liberal (VVD) MP Halbe Zijlstra is quoted as saying.
Two other opposition parties, the anti-immigration PVV and the Socialists, also support compulsory integration. ‘We must not make new ghettos. The influx of immigrants from eastern Europe is an enormous problem which is totally under-estimated,’ says Socialist MP Paul Ulenbelt.
Coalition parties too say measures are needed to make sure this group of immigrants learn to speak Dutch and are integrated.
Poles have been allowed to work in the Netherlands without legal restrictions since May this year and the same will apply for Bulgarians and Romanians from 2012.