ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses how immigration policies in the Netherlands are related to integration policies. It studies immigration and integration policies and their changes over time on two levels: the framing and aims of policies as formulated in government documents and the embodiment of policies in regulations, organisations and budgets. Such an analysis enables us to distinguish five periods in the postwar Netherlands in which the relation between migration and integration was framed in different ways.
A comparative analysis of these periods shows that the framing of immigration policies is relatively consistent over time: the mantra is always ‘The Netherlands is not an immigration country’ and admissions policies should be restrictive and selective. The measure of restrictiveness in practice changes over time. Integration policies, on the other hand, have shown major frameshifts from non-integration and temporary stay (1960–1980) to structural integration and socio-cultural emancipation (1980–1994), neoliberal citizenship (1994–2002) and, finally, assimilation policies (2002 – present).
