Amsterdam scraps integration tests for some long-term residents
Amsterdam city council is to stop making obviously well-integrated foreigners who have lived in the capital for years take a compulsory integration course and language test, the Parool reports on Friday.
Dozens of fully-integrated, long-term residents have been summoned to take the tests over the past few years, and it is an insult to some of them, given their position in society, the paper quotes a city official as saying.
Among those who have been told they have to take a course on Dutch customs and society are a teacher at the national ballet school who is married to a Dutchman and has lived here for 36 years.
And an American man who has lived in Amsterdam for 20 years and writes speeches for Dutch firms was also ordered to take the test because he did not know what huursubsidie – housing benefit – is.
Most non-EU citizens are required by law to take the course and test, no matter how long they have lived here. Amsterdam is now to focus its efforts on new arrivals.
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