Hi,

I really want to move to the Netherlands in the near future. In my opinion, the Netherlands has more freedom of speech than America does and political correctness does not plague society as much anymore. In the wake of Pim Fortuyn's and Theo Van Gogh's assassination, the Dutch made it a requirement that people learn and respect Dutch culture before immigrating there. Being a fellow westerner (although I'm not from a western country) I have no problem with that.

Can somebody tell me exactly how much racism is there in the Netherlands. I know that racism is everywhere and that there's no surefire way to run away from it but I really want to minimize it. It seems to me like the Dutch would accept anybody who's willing to integrate themselves into society and not try to destroy it. Despite the want for their newcomers to be well integrated, they still respect other people's cultures as long as it's not a threat to the western principles of Enlightenment upon which Dutch society if founded. I completely agree with Pim Fortuyn when he mentioned the Islamic Trojan horse of intolerance that was being accepted into the Netherlands in the name of multiculturalism. This just proves that the Dutch are well ahead of America when it comes to the problem about political correctness concerning race relations. People cannot play the race card as easily in the Netherlands anymore since the LPF took power for a brief time.

Whoa, it seems as if I answered my own question. OK, the real thing that I was trying to ask is: Will I be discriminated in my daily life when trying to find a job, a place to live, trying to succeed in physics (my major) or when doing any business in the Netherlands? Are the Dutch reluctant to allow any non-ethnic Dutch person to contribute significantly to society? (such as doing high energy physics research that may win a Nobel Prize) Those are things that I'm worried about.

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Originally Posted by leif_erikson

Whoa, it seems as if I answered my own question. OK, the real thing that I was trying to ask is: Will I be discriminated in my daily life when trying to find a job, a place to live, trying to succeed in physics (my major) or when doing any business in the Netherlands? Are the Dutch reluctant to allow any non-ethnic Dutch person to contribute significantly to society? (such as doing high energy physics research that may win a Nobel Prize) Those are things that I'm worried about.

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I don't think that anyone can give you an answer to this question.

You're asking us to judge what an entire country will do, how they will treat you, whether you'll be discriminated against. There's no way we can speak for everyone that lives in the Netherlands.

If this is a move that you're intent on making then your best bet is to find a job there, visit and find a place to live, go about making all the necessary preparations and then decide if this is what you want to do.