The Netherlands as a state hosting international governmental and non-governmental organizations, and tribunals, has become a home for many migrants and refugees past decades. In this concern, the Dutch have started to consider the migration question as a challenge. I wounder how the Dutch society relates to migrants and the programs which the governmental and non-governmental organizations implement on the local level. From the one hand, these organizations could be in favor for the migration processes, from the other hand, they can be opposed to them. The WRR Report “Netherlands as Immigration Society” outlines three types of migration: family formation and family reunification, labor migration, asylum migration (WRR Report No 60: 28). The Netherlands actively collaborates with the International Organization for Migration as a facilitator and mediator between the diaspora and the institutions in the countries of origin via the Temporary Return of Qualified Nationals. Nowadays, there are more 6000 migrant organizations in the Netherlands with a different focus to work. From the governmental standpoint of view, the migrant programs are realized through different Ministries functionally and territorially while the coordination goes from another one. The contradictory issue concerns that some migrant groups are not integrated into the Dutch society and do not share common values. In general, the attitude of the Dutch citizens directly depends on their level of education: highly educated indigenous citizens examine more positively non-Western migrants than those who has a lower level of education (SCP, 2009: 29). Due to the “fear” to lose their own Dutch identity, the government of the Netherlands issues regulations according to which migrants should fulfill all the obligations: civic integration exam which includes the Dutch Language Exam and Knowledge of Dutch Society test should be passed in the home country before migrants arrive to the host country. The most vulnerable and marginalized among the migrant groups in the Netherlands belong to the “underportable” (or officially “stateless”) migrants who has illegal status, cannot come back to the country of origin, and have no any right to seek for asylum or in the Netherlands either in any other EU state (Brechenmacher S., Kapoor D., van Lindert Th., 2012). These groups of migrants cause most of the activities and challenges for the governmental and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Among the majority of the NGOs which advocate migrants’ rights and work with migrants, it is necessary to identify the following: Migrada, an interest group for Labour Migrants from the EU, Cordaid, The Dutch Council for Refugees Refugee Solidarity Committee in Amsterdam.

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(This abstract was accepted for the publication at First International Tomsk Anthropological Forum,  themed “Anthropology in search of language of description”, to be held on September 15-17, 2016. Tomsk, Russia).

 

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