The troubled conservatives (VVD) yesterday presented a series of tough measures intended to dam immigration and ‘Islamisation’ of Dutch society. The coalition parties reacted dismissively.
VVD MP Henk Kamp wants to reduce immigration as much as possible of people “who not speak Dutch or English”. The minimum age of a non-EU marriage immigrant should go up […]

What is the function of professional press photography today? How do images determine the way we look at the world? The citizens of Maastricht can now find out the answers to these questions at Centre Céramique, where the winning press photos of the 2006 World Press Photo Contest are currently on display. [continued…]

The Netherlands has still not received any promises from Iran that Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen’s highest civil servant will be given access to human rights activist Abdullah al-Mansouri.
Verhagen announced last week that he would send his top civil servant to Iran with the demand that he could visit the naturalised Dutchman Al Mansouri. But the […]

The Carnival season in Maastricht will open on Sunday 11 November with a big party at the Vrijthof square.
Visit http://www.sjengkraftkompenei.nl/nieuws.html for more information about the musical programme.
Related articles on Crossroads:

“Carnival is a feeling”
The history of carnival in Maastricht
Madness in Mestreech: a carnival lexicon

Share This

Very soon you will understand the special meaning of the number eleven in Maastricht and all the joyous madness and silliness that go with it. [continued…]

The average labour productivity of large, foreign-owned, non-financial companies in the Netherlands increased by 23 percent between 2000 and 2006. Their Dutch counterparts only achieved growth of 17 percent.
Over the 2000-2005 period, the average added value produced per person employed in foreign-owned non-financial companies has risen from 90,700 to 111,200 euros. The average labour productivity […]

Share This

When the Dutch foreign minister invited a group of Israeli journalists to visit the Netherlands, he expected that there might be questions about European involvement in the Middle East or his country’s commitment to economic sanctions against Iran.
What he wasn’t expecting were questions about his mother.
Over the weekend, the Dutch Foreign Ministry received […]

In her search for the answer to why academia - and academia in Maastricht in particular - is appealing to some, Crossroads’ writer Rosanne Rademaker speaks with Polish-American assistant professor Tomek Grabowski, a Polish-American “rebel” in Maastricht. [continued…]

Energy, Politics and Power: First event in the 2007/8 series of Maastricht Debates
On November 14, 7.30 pm a public debate will take place on the interrelated issues of energy and international power relations. The debate will be with Michael Klare, author of a.o. Blood and Oil, Professor of Peace and Security Studies at the Hampshire […]

Dutch inventors have installed the first automatic bike dispenser.
The futuristic-looking device was installed at Arnhem railway station to help commuters get to work with their own environmentally clean pedal power.

Source: Reuters, 1 November 2007
Share This

Maastricht University (UM) is a bilingual institution for higher education, functioning in both Dutch and English. The UM is characterised by its international orientation and innovative, student-centred teaching methods. The university has approximately 12,000 students, enrolled in seven faculties and other specialised courses.
The Language Centre of Maastricht University is an inter-faculty institute that provides […]

Almost 60 percent of the residents of The Hague consider the number of foreigners in their city too high. Remarkably, dissatisfaction is greatest among Turks, as De Telegraaf reports on the basis of a study by the municipality.
Among white Dutch people, 58 percent feel The Hague has too many immigrants. This percentage is as high […]

The subsidy rules for primary schools based on the number of pupils with poor skills are too complicated, Education State Secretary Sharon Dijksma admitted yesterday. She was not willing to speculate about possible fraud incidents.
In the past, schools received 1.9 times as much subsidy for an ethnic child as for a white Dutch child. Halfway […]

One was a Somali refugee, the other an Argentine investment banker. Both are now high profile Dutch women challenging this country to rethink its national identity.
Princess Maxima, the Argentine-born wife of Crown Prince Willem Alexander triggered a round of national soul searching about what exactly it means to be Dutch in an age of globalization […]

The proposed expat office for skilled foreign workers in Amsterdam will be opened by junior justice minister Nebahat Albayrak at the end of April next year, reports today’s Financieele Dagblad.
The office, in the southern business district known as the Zuidas, will allow foreign employees to arrange their official residence documents in one day.
The facility […]