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11/19/2004:

"EU Officials Implore New Immigrants to 'Learn European Values'"

European Union justice and interior ministers agreed Friday that new immigrants to the 25-nation bloc should be required to learn local languages, and to adhere to general "European values" that will guide them toward better integration.

Dutch immigration minister Rita Verdonk, who chaired the meeting, said all countries agreed to make integrating newcomers a priority, considering the growing ethnic tensions as EU nations struggle to absorb a steady stream of poor, mostly Muslim immigrants.

Just this month in the Netherlands, the slaying of filmmaker Theo van Gogh by a suspected Muslim radical unleashed a wave of attacks against mosques, churches and religious schools in a country once famed for its tolerance.

Tensions also rose in Belgium, where authorities arrested a suspect Friday accused of sending death threats to a senator of Moroccan heritage who criticized radical Muslims.

"It's not like we are against immigration," Verdonk said. "If you want to live in the Netherlands, you have to adhere to our rules ... and learn our language."

Highlighting a European-wide problem, Verdonk said that some 500,000 Turkish and Moroccan immigrants in the Netherlands don't speak Dutch.

For now, integration policies across the continent vary greatly. Public concerns over immigration have fueled electoral successes for far-right parties in several European countries, including Austria and Italy, where they have joined the national government.
Full Article: sfgate.com

Popular Dutch Lawmaker Urges Halt to Non-Western Immigrants
Full Article:sfgate.com

Immigration surge fuels racism in Spain
Full Article: guardian.co.uk

Did French 'colonists' learn Algerian values? Did Dutch Afrikaaners learn Xhosa and Zulu values? Did Belgians learn Congolese values? Did Spaniards learn indigenous American values?
And then there is the fascinating question of which 'values' non-Western immigrants should learn. Maybe not the ones so prominently on display for the past few centuries, anyway.