asadour guzelian for time BRADFORD Hussain with his son Adnan outside an old woolen mill that once employed immigrants

	INTEGRATION

Posted Sunday, November 13, 2005; 9.20GMT
For years, the Dutch government welcomed immigrants and provided them with housing and welfare benefits. It let them assimilate or not, as they liked, and for a while, it worked. Despite their reputation for tolerance, the Dutch allowed a growing chasm to develop between whites and ethnic minorities that turned neighborhoods like De Baarsjes into separate and unequal enclaves. The school system provides state money to parents who want to set up their own schools around particular beliefs, encouraging educational — and religious — segregation. And tolerance often masked indifference to whether minorities succeeded. Today, some 1.7 million non-Western immigrants and their children make up 10% of the Dutch population. More than half are Muslims who brought with them a traditionalist culture that fits uneasily in freewheeling, secular Holland.
The façade of peaceful multiculturalism was shattered in 2002 by the rise to political prominence of Pim Fortuyn, who wanted to close the door to new immigrants, and then by his assassination in the same year. The ugly rifts in society were again laid bare two years later when a Dutch Moroccan murdered filmmaker Theo van Gogh, claiming he had "insulted Allah." In the aftermath the country made a sharp political turn. The current government has adopted citizenship exams and compulsory Dutch courses. It has also enacted one of the toughest political asylum laws in Europe.

However discouraging such laws might feel to Dutch immigrants, sociologist Godfried Engbersen says "the situation in our suburbs has not yet deteriorated as badly as in France." Even problematic areas like De Baarsjes remain comparatively better integrated than the banlieue. Authorities make a point of building well-to-do housing near poor neighborhoods to stem white flight. But a stagnant economy and cutbacks in generous welfare benefits mean fewer jobs for the poorest — like Hicham. Hatim Benjelloun, a counseler at La Rainbow youth center in De Baarsjes, says damage has already been done. The guys who come in, he says, see no future for themselves in Dutch society, "even though they're just as Dutch as Klaas or Jan."

THE GERMAN WAY
May Day celebrations in Kreuzberg, a district of Berlin known for its high density of Turkish immigrants, used to break down in open brawls between kids and police. But this year, Reda Hussein, whose parents are Palestinian, and his friends worked with police to keep the crowds in order. "This is our home," says the muscular young man in the thick accent of a native Berliner. "It's really lousy when the neighborhood you live in gets torn apart. People are frustrated. But projects like this give us hope and I think that makes things different here than in Paris."

In the streets of Kreuzberg and Neukölln, one of Berlin's toughest immigrant areas, there don't seem to be many angry young men wandering around. In these largely Turkish neighborhoods, the young are more focused on finding opportunities to improve their lives. And, after decades of neglecting the guest workers who were supposedly going home one day, Germany is beginning to help them. It was a long time coming, admits Marieluise Beck, the Federal Commissioner for Migration, Refugees and Integration: "Germany overslept by 30 years." But in 2000 the government agreed to grant citizenship to German-born children of immigrant workers. Now more immigrants are entering the professions and taking part in politics: 15 Turks or Kurds sit in various levels of the German government.

A key reason for Germany's relative success may simply be that its main minority is Turkish — one-third of the country's estimated 8 million immigrant community. Kemal Sahin, the president of the Association of Turkish Businessmen and Industrialists in Europe, says Germany's Turkish community runs 65,000 businesses, employing some 323,000 people. "Creating jobs is the very best way to avoid here what has happened in France," he says. The community's entrepreneurial culture is evident in the Turkish-language edition of the Berlin yellow pages, packed with glossy ads for Turkish businesses.

Yet there is still disadvantage. If any neighborhood was ever going to blow, it would be Neukölln. About half the population of Neukölln North and one-third of total residents are immigrants and their descendents. Unemployment reaches 25%, twice the national average, and climbs to 45% among the young. But Mayor Heinz Buschkowsky says residents are cushioned by Germany's expansive dole. A single unemployed man, he says, gets €800 a month, and families can receive a total of €2,000 a month in state payments. "We pay for our social peace," says Buschkowsky.

Germans have also come to accept that integration doesn't just happen. Under a law enacted on Jan. 1, the government is funding a raft of programs to nudge it along. One pays for "District Mothers," a program to visit immigrant women afraid to venture into the larger community; another, called Quartiersmanagement, includes résumé training and homework tutorials.

But Germany should be careful not to be complacent, says Cem Ozdemir, the first ethnic Turk to win national office and now a member of the European Parliament. The country's educational system still shuts out immigrant children. "If you don't give the young access to the best schools," he warns, "you will lose contact with these people." More young men in Neukölln, says Buschkowsky, are turning to "religiosity" and a fundamentalist lifestyle. Tackling discrimination in education and employment will help, he says, but "we must get our values into their heads."

That may be the ultimate solution. Western European nations will continue to construct different models for integrating restive minorities. Yet success requires addressing the same basic questions: What core values can be demanded from every citizen? Which areas of difference should be maintained and respected? How to ensure that economic and political disparities are narrowed? And how to make people feel part of a shared community? Difficult as the answers may be, France serves as a warning that all of Europe needs to find them.

Reported by William Boston and Andrew Purvis/Berlin, Abi Daruvalla and Joost van Egmond/Amsterdam, J.F.O. McAllister/Bradford and Ozlem Uçucu/London

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