Dutch government to pay million Euro fine over racist data discrimination
I spent 6 months resident in Amsterdam and I have mixed feelings about Dutch attitudes to other races. On the whole it&#x27;s a very low key, mind-your-own business culture but it has a small but vocal cohort of ultra-nationalists who are vocally opposed to Islamic faith symbols, people of colour, you-name-it.<p>I routinely heard Dutch neighbours discuss the concerns the non Dutch native working in childcare centres would mean their kids &quot;didn&#x27;t learn Dutch properly&quot; or &quot;didn&#x27;t fit in&quot; -dutch people can be very welcoming of visitors but they also form strong bonds early in childhood and hold on for life. Admitting foreigners into the inner circle, the more private space, isn&#x27;t that common. (This may be an Amsterdam thing but I&#x27;m told over in Maastricht people are even more insular, yet Maastricht had a very gay tolerant local administration for years)<p>Some of this is just &quot;speak Dutch and fit in&quot; and If I lived in a state with so many expatriates who refuse to learn Dutch and rely on the states mandatory 65% pass mark in English to graduate highschool I too might carry resentment.<p>Some of this reflects the huge numbers of immigrants from former Dutch colonies in Indonesia and Surinam and a very odd mix of views about them, half pride, half embarrassment (at what was perpetrated on their culture) and all dutch: &quot;at least they mostly speak Dutch even if I am racist about them&quot;<p>Some of this is the general Dutch &quot;fuck you&quot; which goes on at all levels: try to use a 50 euro note.. fuck you. Try to order in a Cafe 45min before closing time.. fuck you. Try to call up to change your residency registration.. fuck you. It&#x27;s OK, it&#x27;s normal, they&#x27;d do it to each other too. You just ring back later, try next door, move on.<p>A lot of this is a reaction to a liberal refugee resettlement policy which caused some ghettoisation and drug gang problems (there was a shooting two doors down from my flat at a shisha lounge reflecting this and people list suburbs they think are &quot;not dutch&quot; or &quot;not safe&quot;).<p>It&#x27;s not new. The Dutch had nazi sympathisers as well as war resistors.<p>What&#x27;s admirable is that the government appears to accept the fine. My own country (australia) has similar problems and is more likely to deny this kind of finding or refuse to pay it.