The VVD wants more stringent integration requirements in the Netherlands including a total ban on face covering clothing, like burkas and balaclavas, in public.
Wearing face covering clothing makes it more difficult for you to openly meet and greet each other, VVD parliamentarian Malik Azmani emphasizes in a broad integration agenda the ruling party is presenting on Thursday, Het Parool reports.
While ruling with the PvdA these past four years, the VVD managed to ban face-covering clothing in schools, healthcare, government offices and public transport.
Azmani now wants to take that even further. "Integration means that you adapt to society, to its norms and values. In our society we find it important that we meet each other openly", he said.
The VVD's integration agenda also includes increasing the term before an immigrant is given Dutch citizenship (naturalization) from five years to 10 years. It should be mandatory for newcomers (immigrants or asylum seekers) to take a job or do volunteer work as part of their integration process.
The language requirements should be raised. And it should be possible for citizenship to be revoked if the immigrant commits a crime within five years of being given a Dutch passport, the agenda states, according to the Telegraaf. [NLTimes.nl] Read more
