In 2011, the Netherlands shifted away from its longstanding policy of allowing immigrants to lead parallel lives within society, and instead began vigorously urging immigrants to learn Dutch and abide by Dutch cultural mores.
Language Distance: The Reason Immigrants Have Trouble Assimilating – Olga Khazan – The Atlantic
Here’s how media normalizes racism: take a statement created and spread by racist politicians (first Pim Fortuijn, then Rita Verdonk, now Geert Wilders if you want the genealogy of this myth) and then repeat it as fact.
There is no actual evidence outside the racists’ minds that people ever lived these often touted “paralel lives”. There is actually, a very well documented history of Dutch white people refusing (to give one example) to send their children to schools populated by non whites. There is also a well documented history of temp agencies openly discriminating against non white candidates. There are also instances of public services reporting WoC to authorities just on the basis of their skin color and their obvious foreignness.
In short: there has never been a “paralel society” like The Atlantic would have us believe. This has always been the go to justification to further promote policies of alienation and stigmatization for minorities. Now The Atlantic presents it as “fact” and this is how a racist lie becomes an accepted truth.
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