SHIFT TO THE RIGHT
How the Netherlands has become less liberal:
# Immigrants must pass an exam on Dutch language and culture before being allowed to move to the Netherlands. That does not apply to immigrants from US, Canada, Australia, Japan and other EU states.
# Legal immigrants already there must take a Dutch language course at their own expense.
# Immigrants guilty of any minor crime, such as shoplifting, during their first three years in the country can be deported.
# People can bring in a husband or wife only once they are 24 years old, and do not depend on welfare benefits. The measures are aimed at curbing international arranged marriages.
# 26,000 illegal immigrants are being deported, some of whom have been in the country for ten years and have established families.
# Clampdown on foreign imams working in mosques. They must show their appreciation of Dutch values.
# Increase in sentences for a range of crimes, and introduction of “zero tolerance” policing to cities such as Rotterdam.
# Tightening of rules on cannabis-selling coffee-shops and zero-tolerance approach to infringements. About half the coffee shops in Amsterdam have closed.
# The Netherlands is still liberal in some ways, however. In 2001, the country became the first in the world to legalise gay marriages. The Netherlands still has liberal rules on euthanasia, recently extending it to severely handicapped babies and children.
Couldn`t agree more....................wish other European countries had the guts to also get their act together!