Allochtonen Weblog Roundup

Allochtonen Weblog is a Dutch language blog that collects news about the immigrant community in the Netherlands. Here’s a few interesting stories they’ve had this week.


Moroccan Talent

State Secretary Henk van Hoof says that highly educated, talented Moroccan youngsters show that they can break stereotypes. The project “Moroccan talent” shows that after a short period they can help employers get rid of preconceptions.

During the project about 30 highly educated Moroccans were coupled with 20 executives of big companies. Thank to these connections, the youngsters were able to build up a network with which they can help other people.

The project will be extended now to include Turkish youngsters as well as kids from other backgrounds.


Trendy Maroc Star in NL

A new campaign “Trendy Maroc Star in NL” has been set off to bring about a mentality change in the Moroccan-Dutch community. Abkader Chrifi, who’s behind the initiative, wants to give Moroccan-Dutch an impulse to develop a new, stronger identity. The Moroccan community is in the grip of negativity, fear and uncertainty. “It’s time for the Moroccans in the Netherlands, and especially Moroccan kids, to dare believe again in our community.”

The starting point of the campaign is the conviction that people are able to arrange their own affairs on the basis of self-awareness, confidence, resolution, passion and pride. These are the five core values of the campaign, which uses the five point star from the Moroccan flag as a symbol.


Supermarkets and immigrants

Johan Boersma, a market researcher says that supermarkets know almost nothing about shopping patterns of immigrants. Nobody knows whether immigrants follow a shopping list or what they buy, although immigrants put out billions of euros on food. A new research is supposed to shed some light on these issues.


Imam education "next to impossible"

Muslim organizations in the Netherlands say it is almost impossible to start controlled imam training in the Netherlands. The organizations think it is better to put more effort in naturalizing imams that have been active in the country for years and faster admission of imams from abroad.

Today waiting times for approval for an imam to enter the country run up to a year and half. The result is that low-educated imams lead the prayers, while they often don’t know Dutch.
The Muslims want to free imams from the obligation to do the integration test abroad and allow them to do it in the Netherlands.

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