As an American who has similar interests regarding foreigners in our my own nation, I must disagree with this policy choice.

While many in the US disagree with me, I do not believe that fluency in a language should be a requirement for residency there. A person who does not speak the common language is already disadvantaged; he doesn't need an 'auto-fail' point.

Particularly in the case of those seeking political asylum- they escape injustice, only to be sent right back into its arms because they couldn't learn a new language from scratch as an adult in one year? Ridiculous!

And, practically speaking, this is going to take a government program to enforce, which means it will cost money. Some kind of standardized test, a committee to set the standards, staff to administer and review the tests, etc. Some of these could be folded into existing roles, but at the expense of time if nothing else. It seems like a lot of headache for marginal rewards.

We need these immigrants. In order to keep our economy stable we even need more. Thing is, with our current economy, 100.000 people more are leaving our labor force every year then people joining the labor force. Because of the baby boomers leaving we cant fill in this 100.000 people hole, but we do need more people to take care of them, and the rest!

The question how we should treat our immigrants, is in my opinion totally different. If people only come here to cause trouble or pull money from our economy, give them a warning or kick them out, thats obvious. However, if they are hard workers, paying their taxes and do what they are supposed to do, i dont care about the fact that they did not pass their ''inburgerings test'' within a year.

The Netherlands is obviously an attractive country for asylum seekers and immigrants. I think it is fair that one has to meet certain requirements for being granted permission to enter the country, but it’s important that these conditions are feasible. Most of the asylum seekers have a non-existent educational background, which means learning a completely new language that is in no way comparable to their own is easier said than done. It depends on what is meant by ‘proficient’, but one year might not be enough therefore. Still, I believe it is a matter of respect towards the culture you’re establishing yourself in to learn the language. So yes, eventually, you have to learn to speak the language, but one year seems too strict to me.

I agree that immigrants can be or are a good thing to our economy. However, I believe there are also those that do not contribute anything at all, simply because they refuse to integrate, mainly because they do not speak the language. I think that 1 year is definetely too short, and maybe obligation to learn a language is too harsh all together, but I do think there should be some sort of strong motivational policy towards learning the language of the country you yourself chose to live in.

I do not agree with the statement that without speaking proficient Dutch integrating in the Netherlands is not enough, because I think in order to integrate it is important to be able to communicate to most other people in one country. Whether this is in Dutch or in English does not matter. Also one year to learn Dutch is probably too short for most people.

I also have to disagree with this statement. There are many things to consider when learning all of the immigrants or asylum seekers Dutch in proper way. Foremost aspect is money, like already mentioned in the first comment, this idea needs a standardized test, an extra committee to oversee, staff to administer etc. And how do you agree on what the sufficient level of Dutch is to receive approval to stay? Furthermore, a year is rather short time and immigrants have other more important things to arrange first when arriving in the Netherlands before learning the languange.. Especially when they are not even sure yet if they will be able to stay in this country to begin with. However, I do think it's important some kind of 'inburgeringstest' needs to be done and immigrants should learn the culture of the country they will be staying in. And learning the languange is definitely also a very important aspect if they are staying in the Netherlands, but it is just not feasible within a year..

I disagree in a certain regard; namely that people seeking political asylum should be able to get it. However, if one is trying to make a permanent residence, I would agree.

I believe that language is an important aspect of integration into a new society. Without speaking the language of the country, it is almost impossible to contribute to the society. Therefore I believe that all immigrants should participate in a language program. However, there should not be any rules regarding as to how fast they are learning the language. As others already mentioned, some learn faster than others. Kicking immigrants out of the country for not having a sufficient level of Dutch is not acceptable. I do believe we should encourage (or even demand) all immigrants to take part in a language course, untill they have reached a certain level of Dutch to be able to succesfully participate in society.

I believe that language is an important part of society, and people should definitely make an effort to integrate completely. However, as we need the immigrants in our economy, one year might be too short to learn the language fluently. But some sort of benchmark might filter out the people who are not willing to integrate completely in the Netherlands.

The amount of 1 year is probably too harsh, since indeed they have most probably no cultural background of our country and Dutch is one of the hardest languages to learn. Still I think that some people make use of the aminities our country is providing them. Some people live here for over 10 years and still don't speak the language. I think you should track their progress closely and look at their willingness to integrate. If they do their best, more than welcome to stay and hopefully integrate into society and business. If they refuse to do anything at all, then for me there is no reason to let them make use of our facilities.

It is a sensitive subject since I think every immigrant has a different story.

I have to disagree with the statement because it does not differentiate between working immigrants and asylum seekers; these groups are really completely different and therefore the 146,000 mentioned in the introduction seems like a big number, but considering all the people moving out of the Netherlands the leftover surplus of immigrants is much less.

That said, I believe that people should learn the language, but in the first place for themselves. I have lived in multiple continents and countries, and even a basic knowledge of the local language will help participating in society.

On the other hand, I work in an international firm where more than 50% of the employees is from outside the Netherlands. With only 120 employees, we have more than 60 different nationalities, from literally all over the world. Most of them do not speak Dutch, even after years of living in the Netherlands. They still cope fine, because if you speak English you will not miss out on anything in this country.

My last remark on immigrants is that I have two sisters, both Dutch, but neither born in the Netherlands. They are both raised in Asia and do not speak a word of Dutch. Still, when the oldest finished high school, she moved to Amsterdam to join University there. She has all the local rights, such as Studiefinanciering and student OV, but upon moving here it was only the second time in her life that she set foot on her fatherland. After finishing her studies she will most probably move to another country again. There are thousands like her that make use of the education system here, and then move to another place again. She may be my sister, but she costs the tax payer more money than an immigrant who comes here to work.

Asylum seekers are a whole different story. Depending on what they have fled from and where it is simply not always possible to send them back. When all there legal remedies have exhausted they will be send back, but should we, as the Netherlands pay for their integration course when they are here? I say yes; for the simple reason that when they get a valid visa, it will be much easier for them to fully integrate, find a job, and make a living.

I do believe that a lack of understanding of the language of the country you are living in is a barrier to integration. However, it is hard to draw a certain deadline in which immigrants do need to study a language, in this case Dutch. I believe that this matter is very complex and therefore it is nearly impossible to say that immigrants need to learn a proficient amount of Dutch within a year or they will be be deported back to their country of origin. An immigration policy should (and does) depend on many more factors as well.

In line with many of the other arguments, I disagree with the statement. I think that learning the language is important for intergration - finding a job, meeting friends, entering in to society etc., but it should absolutely not be a prerequisite for aqcuiring a residence permit. If we start dividing asylum seekers and immigrants in this way, we would find ourselves in a very elitistic situation where we would favour those with education, previous experience of learning language and minor trauma affecting their learning ability. That, in my opinion, is not a fair reason for granting residence permit. I might be quite radical in the thought that immigration should be more liberalised, but I hope to fins more support at least in argument that it should not be performance based, but rather needs based. Just some quick thoughts.

Personally I disagree in the sense of being ''unable'' to integrate in the country as many others in this debate too.. However, to offer a little bit of a different perspective which could maybe be of use.. We are a tiny little country in which a lot languages other than Dutch are spoken, a lot of English is being used in the business world and so on.. Not even only, walk into a yoga school for fun and see that most classes are offered in English. Of course this is not the case with any activity, but as I said, I am just trying to broaden the lens / perspective here.. I think the reason behind having to learn to speak Dutch is more to preserve the culture and language of the country and out of respect for the host country you move to.. If I were to move to Spain, France, or anywhere.. I personally would like to be able to speak the language! So I am not planning to move to china ;)

I disagree, because there are plenty of people that don't speak the Dutch language and work at a higher proficiency in the Netherlands.

These people probably have other problems instead of learning the Dutch language. I really disagree.

I do agree that immigrants should learn to speak Dutch, or even English for that matter, as long as we are able to understand each other. I think it's especially important for themselves to learn the language. I was talking with someone working in a supermarket who was dealing with the job interviews. He told me that he only denied one of the job applicants the job, the one who could not speak Dutch well. They're not only slowing down their integration, they are also denying themselves from getting jobs. Because of this, they are dead weight for our society.