Apartheid turning back? Dutch bill proposal to enact second class citizenship

The Dutch Lower House of Parliament is set to debate a motion concerning residency requirements for Dutch citizens originating from Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten on March 5 2014 (1830 hrs Dutch local time). If passed, the migration law will ensure that the economically and educationally deprived be legally restricted from settling in the Netherlands. The legislation would also create the possibility for persons – who “objectively meet the criteria” and “upon reasonable suspicion” – to be checked by police in order to establish their identities, nationalities as well as residency status should these persons be found to be infringing the residency requirements (e.g. insufficient education and insufficient command of the Dutch language). The legislation will result in the possible deportation of citizens from the aforementioned islands. These deprived Dutch citizens, who migrate to the Netherland seeking employment opportunities, will, in turn be disadvantaged in their search for employment.

The residency requirements impede this group from registering in theMunicipal Personal Records Database (GBA) and for social housing, as well as their right to claim any form of income. The objective is: “less welfare dependant persons and criminals”. ‘Antillianen’ (a demonym for persons from the islands, Antilles) are over represented in the Dutch national crime statistics.

Residents of Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten, though they may originate from the Caribbean countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, hold, nevertheless the Dutch nationality. The motion has no bearing on Dutch citizens who originate from other parts of the world. The motion is according to interest group Overlegorgaan Caribische Nederlanders (OCAN) a violation of the prohibition of racism – ‘national origin’ matches the United Nations’ definition of racism – and therefore the OCAN deems the motion to be essentially an apartheid law. Several (international) human rights bodies and experts, such as the ECRI, the Meijers Committee, The Netherlands Institute for Human Rights and professor Dr. Peter Rodrigues have all expressed their concern for the motion.

The initiator of the motion, MP André Bosman of the VVD party, has argued for a principle of reciprocity: the autonomous countries of Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten have enacted residency requirement laws for the ‘European Dutch’ on their shores. However, the OCAN is of the opinion that the requirements established by the island nations are of an economical base and not judicial. They are meant to protect the small-scale economies of the islands from an influx of Dutch persons of European origin.

The motion, which in the past had been unsuccessfully submitted, seems to be garnering majority support in the Dutch Lower House. The Caribbean Dutch community residing both in the Netherlands as well as on the islands and their respective governments have all protested heavily against the proposed law. OCAN is of the conviction that a suitable alternative for residency requirements be an investment in poverty alleviation, the presence of a father figure in the family home and actual human rights policy throughout the kingdom. In doing so, dysfunctional homes can be curbed and the socio-economic perspectives of citizens of the kingdom be improved.

The ‘Dutch Antilles’

The islands of Aruba, Curaçao, Bonaire, Saba, Sint Eustatius and Sint Maarten were colonies of the Netherlands up until 1954. In 1954 the islands were granted an autonomous status of domestic self-governance, in the form of a constellation of the six islands: The Netherlands Antilles. Aruba would later secede from the constellation and was granted its own autonomy in 1986.

As of October 10 2010 the Netherlands Antilles was dissolved. Curaçao and Sint Maarten were granted autonomy – with an increase in Dutch supervision in the areas of finance and administration of justice – and the smaller islands of Bonaire, Saba en Sint Eustatius were granted an extraordinary status as public entities of the Netherlands. Foreign affairs, defence and nationality are areas that are governed at the Kingdom level of government. The constitutional relations between all countries within the kingdom are stipulated in the Statute of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The inhabitants of the six islands total some 320.000 persons. The most widely-spoken languages of the Leeward islands (Aruba, Curaçao, Bonaire) and Windward islands (Saba, Sint Eustatius, Sint Maarten) are Papiamento and English respectively.

The Caribbean Dutch community residing in the Netherlands totals 145.000 of first through third generation persons. The Netherlands has almost 17 million inhabitants. About 843 Caribbean Dutch in The Netherlands stay in detention (DJI, 2012: http://www.dji.nl/Organisatie/Feiten-en-cijfers/).

Unemployment among Antilleans from 2008 to 2013 increased from 9,4 to 20,8 percent (FORUM: http://www.forum.nl/Portals/0/factsheets/Monitor-werkloosheid-allochtonen-3e-kwartaal-2013.pdf)

The reasons for the relative overrepresentation are socio-economic (a relative poor part of the Kingdom in the Caribbean and a relative rich part of the Kingdom in the Netherlands, and poverty leads to migration), and demographic (a younger population), but they are also related to racial profiling from police and justice, the supply and demand on the drug market within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and strong discrimination and exclusion on the labour market and in education.

The migration balance was negative from 2003 till 2006, Net migration increased between 931 and 1.458 from 2008 till 2011 and decreased to 167 in 2012 (CBS: http://statline.cbs.nl/StatWeb/publication/?DM=SLNL&PA=03742&D1=0,3&D2=0&D3=0&D4=151&D5=0&D6=a&HDR=T&STB=G1,G2,G3,G4,G5&VW=T

The shared colonial and slavery past continues to linger and affect relations between all countries that constitute the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Information about the proposed law

All information about the proposed law can be found on: http://www.tweedekamer.nl/vergaderingen/plenaire_vergaderingen/details/index.jsp?date=05-03-2014#2014A00075

Source: Press release Consultative council Caribbean Dutch ‘Overlegorgaan Caribische Nederlanders’ (OCAN),