ABSTRACT
The Netherlands has set an example to other EU member states in devising measures to integrate immigrants not as a goal in itself, but as part of a restrictive migration policy. This chapter describes the vicissitudes of 'integration programmes' in the Netherlands. It focuses on the legislation through which these programmes were to be enforced and its political context. Distinctive in the onset of Dutch political discourse on inburgering is the remarkable change in the tone of the debate with which it was accompanied, as well as the sudden spread of this new tone throughout the whole of the political spectrum. Once upon a time, what in Europe is now called 'integration measures' was part of social policy. In the Netherlands this was the 'minorities' policy' which was mainly the responsibility of ministers of the interior, of cultural affairs, and at a later stage also of education and social affairs.
