Verlenging naturalisatietermijnen

Reactie

Vraag1

I have been living in the Netherlands for 1.5 years now, and I have to say that this one and a half year has proven to be the best time of my life. I have put in a lot of effort to integrate, managed to find local Dutch friends, met an amazing Dutch boyfriend, moved in to Uilenstede where all of my roommates are Dutch. Now the elections are coming up and I realise that I am interested and have something to say- and maybe it is too soon now, but I will for sure be ready in 3.5 years. I originally come from Switzerland, where we also have 10 years of wait- and I can say with confidence that frustration permeates all of the expats/families that wish they could feels as full members of Swiss society and not be looked down upon. It’s a real issue- the longer wait creates divide and a subtle discrimination. The bureaucracy process becomes slower and more complex, robbing people of hope of ever exiting the hopeless limbo of “What is my nationality vs my ethnicity? Where do I come from and who am I now?”.
In my opinion, a better solution is to put more resources into integration of the expats- almost every student at UvA wishes they could stay here to work but the language barrier makes it very hard: Dutch should be more accessible, language classes should be free and promoted to newcomers. I know they used to be but now they’re again inaccessible to students (who will eventually meet a partner here and decide to stay and make their family here). You can even make the NT2 exam harder and make everyone try to achieve a B1/B2.
Please listen to real experiences from a person who’s seen this all develop in another country already.
Thank you,
Regards
(Anonymous)