Dutch tighten immigration

The Dutch have tightened immigration controls in an attempt to ry and stem the influx of Turkish migrants.

The new controls mean immigrants will have take a gruealling citizenship test to show that they understand Dutch culture and can speak the language before they are allowed to settle there.

BBC News interviewed some Turkish immigrants who said that the language test was too hard. How can they expect to cope with life in the Netherlands if they can't speak the language? They also interviewed a Turkish man who still lives in Turkey but whose wife is in the Netherlands already. He wants to join her but he was complaining that the test was too expensive and some of the images on the accompanying DVD were inappropriate. He was specifically referring to the bit that talks about gay marriages and topless beaches - both of which are abhorrent to muslims of course. He said that if any of his friends saw him near a topless beach they would have no respect for him. Not quite sure why this stops his from learning enough about Dutch culture and language to be able to live there and integrate but the BBC obviously thought it had some relevance.

If only the collaborators in charge here had the balls to introduce something similar.