participation of immigrants in the Dutch political system, and consequently also .... offspring), 180,000 people from Surinam (a former Netherlands territory at the.
CEMOTI
Political participation of Immigrants in the Netherlands Han Entzinger
Citer ce document / Cite this document : Entzinger Han. Political participation of Immigrants in the Netherlands. In: CEMOTI, n°1, 1985. Partis politiques en Turquie Immigration. pp. 63-73. http://www.persee.fr/doc/cemot_0764-9878_1985_num_1_1_860 Document généré le 17/11/2015
POLITICAL PARTICIPATION OF IMMIGRANTS IN THE NETHERLANDS by Han ENTZINGER. Netherlands Scientiiic Council for Government Policy, The Hague
(*) v '
On January 27th, 1984, the Council of Ministers decided to submit a bill to Parliament which would amend the electoral law so as to enable most foreign immigrants in the Netherlands to take part in local elections. This decision is a crucial step in the long process which will lead eventually to a fuller participation of immigrants in the Dutch political system, and consequently also in Dutch society as a whole. In this paper we shall be discussing in some detail the arguments that have been put forward during the long debate that preceded the recent cabinet decision. For a better understanding of these arguments we shall first have to give a brief outline of Netherlands government policy for immigrant minorities in general. Immigrants in the Netherlands On January 1st, 1983 there were almost 550,000 foreigners living in the Netherlands, which corresponds to nearly 4 per cent of the total population (see Table 1). Three out of every five foreigners originate from countries in the Mediterranean area, mainly from Turkey and Morocco. These are the two countries where the Netherlands recruited most of its "guest workers' during the rapid economic growth of the late 1960s and the early 1970s. Like other European countries - in particular the Federal Republic of Germany and Switzerland - the Netherlands had opted explicitly for a policy of rotation: after a certain number of years the 'guest workers' were expected to return home and they would be replaced, if necessary, by other 'guest workers'. It is a well known fact now that these expectations proved to be false: most foreign workers stayed on, and in many cases they were joined by their families. For a very long time the Netherlands government did not wish to face the consequences of this development. Although the recruitment of new workers had practically stopped in 1973, is was not until 1980 that the government finally admitted that most Mediterranean workers and their families would stay for good, and that it decided to develop a policy aiming at their fuller participation in Dutch society.
This article was originally written as a paper for the 12th Joint Sessions of Workshops of the European Consortium for Political Research, which took place in Salzburg in April 1984. Since then, the most important development has been that both Chambers of the Netherlands parliament have adopted the proposed amendments to the Electoral law, as described in the paper. This means that it is certain now that foreigners with a residence record of at least the first five time years in thewill nextbe municipal able to use elections, their active set for andMarch passive 1986. voting rights for
- 64
Table I. Foreigners living in the Netherlands, by country of citizenship, January 1st 1983 as against 1974. _ 1983 1974 î nde X 1983 (x 1,000) (x 1,000) (1974 Turkey Morocco Germany United Kingdom Belgium Spain Italy Yugoslavia United States Surinam Indonesia other countries
152.2 100.5 42.9 39.3 23.6 22.1 20.6 13.9 11.0 10.6 10.5 95.4
53.5 29.6 38.4 14.2 20.5 31.8 19.4 12.0 9.1 9.0 59.3
284 340 112 277 115 69 106 116 121 117 161
Total
542.6
296.8
183
Source: CBS In the meantime, however, many immigrant groups had developed into 'ethnic minorities'. The position of ethnic minorities may be characterised by (1) a weak legal and political status, (2) a socially and economically deprived situation, (3) an ethnic background which is different from the dominant population (Entzinger 1984, p. 25-31). Referring to 'immigrants' as 'ethnic minorities' has become so popular in the Netherlands, especially in government circles, that the two terms are almost considered as synonyms, and that 'immigrant policy' is usually referred to as 'ethnic minorities policy'. Although in this paper we will not always be able to avoid this inaccurate usage, it should be kept in mind that most of the 200,000 non-Mediterranean foreign residents are not in a minority position. These people are not affected by the government's ethnic minorities policy either, except by legal measures which aim at achieving more equality ween Netherlands citizens and foreigners. The right to vote and to be elected, of course, is one of those legal measures, and, once introduced, it will be equally applicable to all foreign residents. To make things even more confusing it should be added that the terms 'immigrants' and 'foreign residents' are not synonyms either. In the Netherlands there are well over half a million first and second generation immigrants who originate from (former) overseas territories. About half of them came as 'repatriates' from Indonesia during the 1950s; their integration has often been described as a 'success story' (Bagley 1973; Van Amersfoort 1982). The integration of the other half has been less successful so far. Among them are 40,000 Moluccans (soldiers of the former colonial army and their offspring), 180,000 people from Surinam (a former Netherlands territory at the northern edge of South America), and 40,000 people from the Netherlands Antilles, which still forms a part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The vast majority of this second category, most of whom arrived during the 1970s, have always been Netherlands passport holders. Yet, their social situation is similar
- 65 to the situation oi the Mediterranean immigrants, and because of that these groups are also affected by the government's ethnic minorities policy (see Table 2). As Netherlands citizens, however, the members of these groups do possess the right to vote and to be elected. Hence, the planned changes in legislation do not apply to them. Yet, the idea that all 'ethnic minorities' should be treated equally often serves as an argument for the extension of voting rights to non-Dutch immigrants.
Table 2. Immigrant groups affected by the government's 'ethnic minorities' policy, January 1st 1983 Mediterranean Turks Moroccans Spaniards Italians Yugoslavs Portuguese Greeks Tunisians Surinamers Netherlands citizens Surinamese citizens Antilleans Moluccans Refugees (admitted after 1974) Gypsies
152,000 100,000 22,000 21,000 14,000 9,000 4,000 3,000 180,000 10,000
Total
325,000
190,000 43,000 40,000 15,000 2.000 615,000
Source: Entzinger 1984, p. 70. Government policy As we saw earlier, it was only in 1980 that the Netherlands government gave up its ideas about the presumed temporary nature of the presence of the Mediterranean immigrants. It is even more surprising to note that the presence of most colonial immigrants was also seen as temporary for a rather long time, notwithstanding the fact that these people were Netherlands citizens. The argument that, with over 400 inhabitants per square kilometer, the Netherlands was attitude. this too densely populated already, served as an commonly accepted excuse for In spite of their presumed temporariness, government felt a certain responsibility for the well-being of the immigrants, and during the 1970s various measures were taken, mainly in the fields of social work, housing and education. That policy became known under the heading of 'integration with the preservation of the immigrants' own identity'. Apart from the fact that these two aims are contradictory to some extent, the scope of that policy was far to limited so as to avoid that the immigrants developed into 'ethnic minorities'. A more full-fledged policy however, would not have been in line with the government's ideas about temporariness.
- 66 -
It was not until those ideas had been given up finally, that a more comprehensive 'ethnic minorities' policy could be developed, co-ordinated by the Minister of the Interior. The aim of this new policy, launched in 1980, is to increase the immigrants' participation in all fields of Dutch multi-ethnic society. Generally speaking, this policy may be defined as integrationist in legal and economic matters and as pluralist in the social and cultural fields. More recently, however, a tendency has become manifest for the integrationist elements to overshadow the pluralist ones. This tendency has been caused partly by the current economic recession, which hits the immigrants even more heavily than the original population. It should also be seen to some extent, as a reaction to the fact that anti-immigrant feelings are being expressed more readily now than they used to be. There is a growing number of Dutchmen who feel unhappy about what they consider to be a "preferential treatment of immigrants". Yet, research outcomes not only confirm that most immigrants' social situation is so bad that some special attention would certainly be justified, but they also show that discrimination against immigrants is a wide-spread practice (ôovenkerk et. al. 1978). In order to take away even the impression that a pluralist approach would "favour" immigrants, the government has begun to stress the need for an equal treatment of immigrants and the original population. As an effect of this, those elements of its ethnic minorities policy which aim at an equalization in legal status have come to the foreground. So far, most of such measures have proved to be far less controversial than measures which aim at facilitating immigrants to preserve their original identity in a pluralist, multi-ethnic society. This may explain why the voting rights debate has hardly been affected by the recent shift in public feelings about immigration issues. Before we shall discuss that debate in more detail it should be stressed that, in the Netherlands most basic rights laid down in the Constitution are also applicable to foreign residents, except for those rights that are linked explicitly to the possession of Netherlands citizenship. This means, for instance, that foreign residents do possess freedom of speech, of association, of religion, of education, etcetera. This is not always the case in other European countries, but in spite of this relatively liberal attitude, foreign immigrants still lack a considerable number of rights in other, public and non-public areas. Foreign residents, for instance, cannot become members of the police force, the army, the civil service, certain advisory commissions and other representative bodies in the public sphere. Moreover, stricter rules are applicable to them in the field of employment and also as regards the granting of loans, legal assistance, scholarship, etcetera. Finally, certain forms of legislation make is impossible for some immigrants to practice their own religious values. In view of this, the regulations for slaughtering animals have been adapted, and the Law on Undertaking (Wet op de Lijkbezorging) will also be changed, just to mention a few examples (öeune
