Immigrants are ruining cities, says bank
- | 14.10.2003 11:50
Business campaigns for ban on immigrants in Dutch cities. Larger cities also favour dispersal policies, to remove existing minority concentrations.
According to a report by the Dutch bank ING, immigrants are bad for cities: their presence lowers economic growth. The average level of education drops, due to the presence of immigrants, and employers find it harder to hire skilled labour. At the same time, immigration causes unemployment to rise.
ING is best known in the UK as the buyer of Barings Bank, when it collapsed after the Nick Leeson trading scam. In the Netherlands it is the second largest bank and financial group. Their report, published last week, focussed on Rotterdam. It is part of a trend for Dutch business to take a clear stand against immigrants and ethnic minorities. Shell and another bank financed a group calling for a stop to immigration. Partly as a result of lobbying by business, but also due to the general political climate, Rotterdam and other cities are now considering a ban on new immigrants. They don't control immigration policy, but the cities do have wide powers to regulate housing: they could ban specific ethnic groups or nationalities from moving into a city. Moroccans, Antillians, and Somali's are often named as "problem groups" in this context.
In the larger cities, there is already a feeling that a ban on new immigrants is not enough. There is widespread discussion of 'dispersal policies' to force existing immigrant minorities out of the cities. This policy is even being considered at cabinet level. It can be enforced using existing housing legislation, especially urban renewal powers. In reality, urban renewal projects already have a strong anti-immigrant component. The cheapest housing is demolished, and it is usually inhabited by immigrant tenants. The replacement housing is owner-occupied, and 3 or 4 times as expensive: most of the previous population moves on. The same effect - "whitening" - is visible in private gentrification.
A dispersal policy would simply accelerate these trends, but it indicates the general hostility to immigrant minorities. One political party proposed banning claimants from cities. It says a lot about the present political climate in the Netherlands, that this was intended as a 'progressive' alternative to immigrant bans.
ING is best known in the UK as the buyer of Barings Bank, when it collapsed after the Nick Leeson trading scam. In the Netherlands it is the second largest bank and financial group. Their report, published last week, focussed on Rotterdam. It is part of a trend for Dutch business to take a clear stand against immigrants and ethnic minorities. Shell and another bank financed a group calling for a stop to immigration. Partly as a result of lobbying by business, but also due to the general political climate, Rotterdam and other cities are now considering a ban on new immigrants. They don't control immigration policy, but the cities do have wide powers to regulate housing: they could ban specific ethnic groups or nationalities from moving into a city. Moroccans, Antillians, and Somali's are often named as "problem groups" in this context.
In the larger cities, there is already a feeling that a ban on new immigrants is not enough. There is widespread discussion of 'dispersal policies' to force existing immigrant minorities out of the cities. This policy is even being considered at cabinet level. It can be enforced using existing housing legislation, especially urban renewal powers. In reality, urban renewal projects already have a strong anti-immigrant component. The cheapest housing is demolished, and it is usually inhabited by immigrant tenants. The replacement housing is owner-occupied, and 3 or 4 times as expensive: most of the previous population moves on. The same effect - "whitening" - is visible in private gentrification.
A dispersal policy would simply accelerate these trends, but it indicates the general hostility to immigrant minorities. One political party proposed banning claimants from cities. It says a lot about the present political climate in the Netherlands, that this was intended as a 'progressive' alternative to immigrant bans.
-
Comments
Display the following 2 comments