Integreren is identiteit inleveren!?

Abstract

According to many Dutch politicians and political commentators, theproject of a multicultural society in the Netherlands has failed. The ideologybehind this project was ‘integration while preserving cultural identity’,a slogan popular among policymakers in the eighties and nineties of thelast century. In the view of the critics of this project, the policy did not leadto integration, instead it fostered the segregation and isolation of ethnoculturalgroups. From the point of view of critics of the multicultural societyit is unacceptable that the city council of Gouda subsidises a projectthat provides separate homework supervision to allochthonous boys andgirls within the premises of a mosque, because it reinforces segregationand isolation. After sketching the moral foundation and the moral limitsof a politics of two-sided integration, the author argues that the initiativeto offer homework supervision within the mosque is laudable. However,homework supervision is essentially a task for schools. The city councilshould take steps to realise that the schools offer homework supervision.As long as that is not the case, the city council should (continue to) supportthe homework supervision project in the mosque, thereby accepting, forthe time being, that boys and girls get separate homework supervision.