[wsc981]

Same in The Netherlands regarding immigration and housing. Probably same in many of the “richer” EU countries.

I believe much of the “Western” world is in slow decline and part of the problem is lax immigration policies especially when combined with a welfare state. In the long run, it’s just not sustainable.

[eropple]

"Immigration policies" are a major contributor to both economic productivity and cost-of-living stabilization within most industrialized countries in the West. They're not lax, good lord are they not, anywhere you'd want to live, and They Terk Er Jobs/Benefits is broadly untrue.

You can believe anything you'd like, you're entitled, but that doesn't mean it's real.

EDIT: And while I am generally loathe to address green-text posts, especially when rightly autokilled, this topic tends to make people think "the truth is being hidden" or whatever, no matter how obviously frothing the post is. So to the claim "four million immigrants in the last 15 years" - total migration into the Netherlands over the last twenty years is 400,000 and net is 220,000. https://www.cbs.nl/en-gb/dossier/asylum-migration-and-integr...

[tasuki]

I used to live in the Netherlands and paid quite a lot of taxes. I met a surprising number of Dutch who didn't work and lived off the welfare state.

[wsc981]

If you're an immigrant from a (north-)African country or maybe a country like Turkey, it's very easy to live like that.

I once was in financial hardship due to a depression and wanted to apply for welfare. When I visited the local government office to apply for welfare, probably 90% of people were from African countries.

The local government made it complicated for me to apply for welfare, so eventually I gave up and found other help (through family) to get my life back on track. But I am sure, for most people applying from African countries, they will not encounter many obstacles when applying for welfare.

Another thing that bothered me regarding Dutch government ... Many years later I spent a holiday in Thailand. I met my girlfriend there. We stayed together, got a daughter. When I wanted to visit The Netherlands with my girlfriend and daughter, it was a very complicated and expensive process to get my girlfriend and daughter to come on over.

While, again, people from African countries don't need papers and all to get access to the country (perhaps it's even beneficial to have no passport is such cases, as I've heard of immigrants throwing their passport away (or hiding) when moving to EU countries, perhaps to prevent background and age checks.

And I wouldn't be surprised if people from African countries would be able to get a Dutch passport in a shorter amount of time and with less effort compared to my Thai girlfriend.