Foreigners in the Netherlands

FOREIGNERS IN THE NETHERLANDS. Foreigners are people who may have the Dutch nationality, but they have an ethnic background. This is why they do not feel completely Dutch. There culture might be different and they can have another religion than being Christian. If we look at map 69D in “De Grote Bosatlas” we can see that Holland has many foreigners compared to West-European countries. This is because the Dutch laws about refugees getting an asylum are not as strict as the laws from for example France. Compared to East-European countries we do not have so many refugees. One reason is that Holland is not next to a country which is in war. Refugees mostly go to the neighbour country of the land that is in war. When the war is over they can easily return to their own country and go on with their own life. Though a lot of people do not return. If they had come to Holland it had been very hard to return and pick up their life. It costs more money, it is a more strange country for them than a neighbour country and Ithink I would not feel comfortable if I left my whole family behind, not knowing if they are all in good conditions. Another reason again is that we do not need unskilled workers anymore. We now need a lot of skilled workers for especially “computer-jobs”. I will not say that refugees are not skilled, but they do not speak very good Dutch and that is a problem. I think the word foreigner is a bit strange. People are not to be placed in “hokjes”(like we say in Holland), because I think no one really feels comfortable in one certain group.