Today handling Bosman proposal

The Daily Herald writes that the initiative law proposal of Member of the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament André Bosman is on the agenda today, Wednesday, after last week’s delay in handling the law proposal to regulate the residency of new migrants from Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten. The knives were sharpened the day before the plenary debate: both the Consultative Council for Dutch Caribbean persons in the Netherlands OCAN and Bosman’s governing liberal democratic VVD party published their views on the controversial law proposal, to which the island governments have objected fiercely.

The VVD posted a blog on its website titled “Strict regulation stay and residency deprived Antilleans.” “Stay and residency of deprived immigrants from Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten has to be reduced as much as possible. The VVD wants fewer people from the Netherlands Antilles to settle in the Netherlands, and in this way also give the countries themselves the power to better develop their own people,” the VVD blog stated.

OCAN has an opposite view: “This is especially humiliating because of the motivation of the law proposal. Bosman says that it is about improving the starting position, but people of Dutch Caribbean descent obviously feel differently about that.” According to OCAN, the Bosman law proposal gives a “clear signal” of the Dutch Government: Dutch Caribbean persons are not welcome in the Netherlands. “Our plea remains: an actual human rights policy in the entire Kingdom is the solution to strengthen the position of the Dutch Caribbean people.”

OCAN called again on its people and supporters to come to the Second Chamber today to be present at the debate and in this way show that they defend the legal position of Dutch Caribbean people as well as Article One, the equal rights article of the Dutch Constitution. A group of supporters was present last week, but the meeting was deferred due to the late hour.

The VVD stated in its blog that strict regulation of new immigrants is needed because of the mass migration of people from the islands, especially from Curaçao. “Many of these people are underprivileged according to Dutch standards. It serves nobody when people leave their mother country for a country where they have little opportunity. They often have no diploma, do not master the language well and often become involved in crime.”

The 2013 Annual Integration Report about immigrants’ opportunities on the Dutch labour market drafted by the Social Cultural Plan (SCP) Bureau underscores the VVD’s arguments. (See related article.) Unemployment among Dutch Caribbean persons, especially those with a poor education and of the first generation, has been increasing since 2008. More people are making use of social welfare. This annual report did not include crime statistics.

Today’s handling of the Bosman initiative law proposal started at 10:15am Dutch time and can be viewed live via www.tweedekamer.nl . Representatives of the various parties in the Second Chamber will share their views and pose questions. The handling will resume a few weeks later to give Bosman the opportunity to provide answers to the questions. Bosman already has announced that he is willing to draft an amendment to accommodate the wishes of Parliament.