I found this rather interesting.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/mai...11/wneth111.xml

Exodus as Dutch middle class seek new life
(Filed: 11/12/2004)

For years Holland was celebrated as a symbol of racial tolerance. But two high-profile murders have changed all that, reports Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

Escaping the stress of clogged roads, street violence and loss of faith in Holland's once celebrated way of life, the Dutch middle classes are leaving the country in droves for the first time in living memory.

The new wave of educated migrants are quietly voting with their feet against a multicultural experiment long touted as a model for the world, but increasingly a warning of how good intentions can go wrong.

Australia, Canada and New Zealand are the pin-up countries for those craving the great outdoors and old-fashioned civility.

The illusion that all was well in the Netherlands died in May 2002 when Pim Fortuyn, the shaven-headed, gay populist, was shot by a Left-wing activist in the country's first political assassination since 1584.

Fulminating home truths than nobody else dared utter, Fortuyn swept on to the political stage protesting that Europe's most densely-populated country was full to bursting point, and that Muslim immigration, leavened with Salafist extremism, had reached a level where it was starting to destabilise Dutch society itself. His movement won more seats than the ruling Labour party in the 2002 elections.

Theo van Gogh, his friend and disciple, was next. The mischievous film-maker had his throat cut by an Islamic fanatic last month as he bicycled to work through the heart of Amsterdam, punished for a film about repression of women in the Muslim world.

A shrill provocateur, Mr van Gogh was not to everybody's taste. He once filmed kittens being mangled to death in a washing machine, which he thought was hilarious.

But his ritual execution, apparently by an Islamist hit squad, has shocked the country. Two leading MPs known to be targets are in hiding. The political class has been chilled to the bone, while white gangs have firebombed or attacked around 20 mosques and Islamic centres. "This was our 9/11. It was the moment the Netherlands lost its naivety. We always thought that we were the country of multicultural tolerance that could do no wrong," said Prof Han Entzinger of Rotterdam University.

Frans Buysse, the head of Buysse Immigration Consultancy, said he received more than 13,000 hits on his emigration website in November, four times the usual level. His office in Culemburg is flooded with fresh applications.

"Van Gogh's death was a confirmation for them of what they already sensed was happening," he said. "They're accountants, teachers, nurses, businessmen and bricklayers, from all walks of life. They see things going on every day in this country that are quite unbelievable. They see no clear message from the government, and they are afraid it's becoming irreversible, that's why they are leaving."

The tales range from exhaustion with Holland's epidemic of road rage incidents, to fears that it is no longer safe to go shopping.

"Van Gogh was a very public victim, but there are unknown victims on streets all the time. It's the living climate that is deteriorating. There are too many people on this one small spot of land,'' said Mr Buysse.

More people left the Netherlands in 2003 than arrived, ending a half-century cycle of surging immigration that has turned a tight-knit Nordic tribe into a multi-ethnic mosaic with three million people of foreign roots out of 16 million. Almost one million are Muslims, mostly Turks and Moroccan-Berbers. In Rotterdam, 47 per cent of the city's population is of foreign origin. While asylum claims have plunged, the exodus is accelerating, reaching 13,313 net outflow in the first half of 2004. Many retiring workers are moving to the south of France, but a growing bloc leaving the country appears to be educated, working families.

Peter and Ellen Bles have applied for visas to Australia after falling in love with the country during a trip there three years ago.

"People are so relaxed and open to each other there. As soon as we got home I just wanted to pack up our bags and leave," said Peter, 41, a computer operations manager for ING bank.

He was weary of the daily battles, short tempers, and coarsening manners at home. "When you want to park your car here it's almost warfare. We go to the supermarket at 8am just to avoid having to fight," he said.

A "for sale" sign stands outside their clean, airy house in Sprang Capelle, a three-hour round-trip from Amsterdam.

House prices are one third of costs in Perth, where they plan to go, but they have no jobs lined up. "We've no idea at all what we're going to do," he said.

Ellen, 43, a lawyer and banker who votes for the free-market Liberals, said the code of behaviour regulating daily life in the Netherlands was breaking down.

"People no longer know what to expect from each other. There are so many rules, but nobody sticks to them. They just do as they want. They just execute people on the streets, it's shocking when you see this for the first time," she said. "We've become so tolerant that everybody thinks they can fight their own wars here. Van Gogh is killed, and then people throw bombs at mosques and churches. It's escalating because the police and the state aren't doing anything about it.

"There's a feeling of injustice that if you do things right, if you work hard and pay your taxes, you're punished, and those who don't are rewarded. People can come and live here illegally and get payments. How is that possible?

"We didn't think about how we should integrate people, to make sure that we actually talk to each other and know each other, instead of living in ghettoes with different rules.

"It's not why we are leaving: the reason is that Australia feels different, it feels like a place where we would like to grow old," she said.

Rob Platje, 34, a sales agent in Arnhem, is leaving in February to live in the Canadian Rockies with his partner and infant son.

"In Canada people have the space to get along with each other without stress. When I'm here in traffic, I'm terrible. I'm no better than anybody else. I lose my temper in the car, and I just hate myself for it," he said.

"What I see here in the Netherlands is that people are becoming more frightened. A lot of things have been going on over the last two years. They don't know if they can trust their neighbours.

"We hid the problem for a long time because we didn't want to face up to the truth of what was happening," he said.

Unlike most earlier waves of migration to the new world, this one is not driven by penury. The Netherlands has a per capita income higher than Germany or Britain, and 4.7 per cent unemployment.

"None of my clients is leaving for economic reasons. You can't get a visa anyway if you haven't got a work record," said Frans Buysse.

Europe's leader for much of the last century in social experiments, Holland may now be pointing to the next cultural revolution: bourgeois exodus.
Dutch desert their changing country

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thanks for the read. What's kind of ironic is....I could see that kind of situation happening in Canada as well.....and that in a not so far future. Thriving immigration, inactive and ineffective government, double standards and segregation for the natives and undiscerned protection of those on welfare, sometimes totally able to work but unwilling to....the feeling of not having our taxes money invested where it ought to be....all the elements are there.

I guess nobody wants to live with brown people.

--PunkDavid

this brings up an interesting point: what happens when all of these new immigrants change the ethnic make-up of australia, canada, etc.? will these problems simply follow along afterwards?

a good article, nonetheless. sounds akin to the 20th century american movement of the middle class from the inner city to the suburbs.

The problem is Islam, which inevitably carries with it its fundamentalism. Why are people making this an ethnic thing?

There is such a thing as being too liberal. Man, I hope I don't become an angry old Stalinist, but Islam in Europe bugs me.

Extremism from anyone or any group is a problem.

This goes for Moslems as well as Christians and just about any other group, race, creed, or ethnicity you can plug into the equation.

BUT, we need to seperate the extremists from the groups at large. They do not represent the entire group. Failure to do so will inevitably cause further problems and create a situation in which history repeats itself. Should European Moslems at large become a scape goat for the acts of extreme radicals within their group, and the nationalistic qualities of the common folk become enflamed, it would not be surprising to see atrocities once again return to an ethnic group within Europe. This happens nearly everywhere, and Europe is no exception. Lets hope they can see this and avoid it.

As a dutchman, let me make it very, very clear that the atmosphere and "general opinions" put forth by this article are largely concentrated bollocks. I know not a single person that is even pondering leaving the country. I'ts true that the whole dutch culture is going to hell in a handbasket, but the way this is constantly being blamed un the immigrants or muslims is bordering on fascism. Even when they are not literally blamed, they are suggestively noted.

I'm beyond sick and tired of this Muslim bashing crap. I'm nearly foaming at the mouth from this one-sided, shit spewing, manipulative dribble that is called the media. You want to know the cause of the deterioration of our culture? EGOISM; SELFISHNESS and lack of moral conscience. When my car breaks down in the street and someone helps me start it, it is NEVER a native dutchman. When the cachier at the grocery store is not grumpy and arrogant, it is NEVER a dutch person. When a child is raped or murdered, when some CEO commits fraud, when a politician is found to be corrupt IT IS ALWAYS A DUTCHMAN.

So you think this country is going down the drain? So you don't think you have any part in this? So you absolve yourself from all blame? Than leave! Go wherever the fuck you please, so as long as it is nowhere near me.

An arrogant, lying, self obsessed, hypocritical bastard is what the average dutchman has become. I'm ashamed of my nation.

That's disgusting.

To be quite frank, I don't really care that this sadistic, racist scumbag's throat was slit. In fact, I think it's great.

To compare the murder of that pompous, racist, worthless prick(Theo Van Gogh) to 9/11 is disgusting, too. God, that's fucking ridiculous. Innocent people are murdered every day. That idiot was practically begging to be sliced. I don't care that he was murdered, and I never will.

I cannot fathom why there would be uproar over the death of such a worthless human being.

Canada is a fuck up in itself. The only people that could possibly lay claim to the country is the Natives, but the mass majority of them don't seem to be speaking up for whatever reason. It's like free for all so no one really gets jealous or upset like in the European countries, and can you really blame them?

Cerebrosus

my dutch manager said the same thing.
BTW, Utrect is a very beautiful city...

Utrecht is the greatest city in Holland. And I'm not saying that cause I've lived in it or near to it all my life

OK, I never heard about the kittens in the washing machine. That is truly disgusting. But what I worry about is that he wasn't killed for killing kittens (which doesn't warrant having your throat sliced, by the way!) but just for speaking his mind about Islam.

Maybe he was a racist. I don't know. I would expect that a lot of the anti-muslim feeling in Europe is due to racism. But I suspect cultural difference is the dominant reason for most people, whether racism is a reason for them or not.

Muslims can not co-exist in Western culture. That's the simple truth. I once had a manager who was a muslim from Morocco. One time I took a $2 tip from a customer and he shouted at me "That is forbidden!". In general, he was unusually strict. Plus, he would have to take breaks all the time during Ramadan so he could pray. It was ridiculous. He was a nice guy, and most muslims I meet are more friendly than Americans. But the culture clash is too much. Explain how we can expect muslims to intergrate?

This is a complete fallacy. It's true that orthodox and zaelous muslims will have a hard time functioning in western culture, but those are very, very rare. And What is wrong with a guy having to take a brake every so often during a relatively short period each year, just to honor his beliefs and heritage? If he'd be off half the day I could understand it, but this is not the case.

Integration does not mean throwing away your own customs and beliefs and adapting those of another culture. It means coexisting in such a way that it benefits BOTH cultures. It's true that certain elements of both cultures may clash and I agree that in such cases it should be the integrating culture whose obligation it is to adapt, but such cases are not nearly as common as people are led to believe.

You know, its a tricky situation. We may like for cultures to intergrate and learn from each other so nice and neatly, but it doesn't happen that way.

In the US we have laws that require employers allow people of various religious faiths, to properly follow their religious faith. This manager had every right to take a few breaks during Ramadan. As he should.

He took a break every hour. Meanwhile, us infidels didn't get any breaks.

Orginally, in the U.S., the seperation of church and Federal Govt allowed for diverse religious communities to form and make their own rules and customs. In the late 19th century, a secularized version of Christianity started to become part of the whole national identity. For example, Christmas became a national holiday in 1870. Before that, many Christian communities in America didn't celebrate Christmas, which they considered a Roman heresy.

So muslims should form communities and live by their customs, not demand that other communities change their customs.

Cultural diversity is stupid. Go ahead and say I'm wrong. I don't deal with opinions. I deal with facts. And the fact is, it's stupid.

By the way, I'm glad the world has many different cultures. And different cultures should learn from each other, or at least respect each other. BUT INTERGRATING CULTURES IS STUPID.

Says a guy with a chinese guy wearing a fucking christmas hat as his avatar...

Its hard to tolerate people ,in their own country, tolerate intolerate people