Thread: Study Shows Dutch Afraid to Speak Against Costs of Immig.

Study Shows Dutch People Afraid to Speak out Against High Costs of Immigration

Wednesday, March 31, 2010, 4:12 PM EDT - posted on NumbersUSA

A new study by Dutch social scientist Jan van de Beek shows that many Dutch are worried about the high costs of immigration, but are afraid to speak out.

The study, part of van de Beek's doctoral thesis at the University of Amsterdam, attempted to answer two questions: what kind of economic consequences did mass immigration to the Netherlands between 1960 and 2005 have and why is it such a taboo to study the economic effects of these immigrants.

Van de Beek says that the mass migration allowed by previous governments was a catastrophe: "The recruitment of labourers in the 1960s was an economic disaster. The stated intent here was to keep wages down, but we would have been better served by letting them rise." He also adds that each new immigrant costs Dutch taxpayers 43,000 euros and immigration overall costs the Netherlands 5.9 billions each year.

While many Dutch are concerned with the ramifications and costs of mass immigration, most are afraid to speak out for fear of bring branded racists or xenophobes. Indeed the Dutch government refuses to calculate the cost of immigration because it would be ""improper" to reduce
citizens’ contribution to society "to a profit-loss analysis.""

Click here to read more about van de Beek's study.
http://www.nrc.nl/international/Feature ... efty_price

http://www.numbersusa.com/content/news/ ... ation.html

(fuller article appears below)

Immigration comes at hefty price

Published: 30 March 2010 16:55 | Changed: 31 March 2010 09:27

Immigrants are expensive for Dutch society, but few people want to say it out loud for fear of the consequences, a study by a Dutch scientist has found.

By Dirk Vlasblom

The economic effects of immigration have become a hot-button issue in Dutch politics. The mere mention of the subject is often greeted with suspicion and loathing. But that didn’t stop scholar Jan van de Beek from writing his doctoral thesis on the issue. In his PhD research, which he defended at the University of Amsterdam on Tuesday, he answered two related questions: what kind of economic consequences did mass immigration to the Netherlands between 1960 and 2005 have, and why is it such a taboo to study the economic effects of these immigrants?

Van de Beek has come to conclusions the Netherlands may not like. Since the 1970s, little research has been done into the economic effects of immigration, for fear of playing into the hand of the xenophobic right. As recently as last year, populist politician Geert Wilders asked the Dutch cabinet to calculate the net costs or benefits imposed on society by immigrants. Cabinet refused to do so, which led to uproar amongst several opposition parties. The minister responsible called it “improperâ€