News item | 04-07-2025 | 15:15
State Secretary Nobel (participation and integration) wants more female status holders to be guided to work. This fits in with the equal position of men and women in the Netherlands and the need for all newcomers to work as quickly as possible. He will make agreements about this with municipalities. That is stated in the first elaboration of the ‘Integration Action Agenda and the Open and Free Society’. On the proposal of State Secretary Nobel, the Council of Ministers agreed to send the action agenda to the House of Representatives. With the agenda, the cabinet wants to work on a less free integration policy.
State Secretary Nobel: “Status holders still have a job much less often. Certainly the women. In the Netherlands, men and women must be able to participate. Work is one of the best ways to become part of our society. The practice is that these women are now too often aside. That should be different. Precisely with communities for women is not self -evident.”
State Secretary Nobel wants to make agreements about this with municipalities, so that they actively involve women with a benefit and guide them to paid work.
Participating starts with language
Control language is necessary to participate in society. Certainly for people who use benefits. The cabinet therefore considers the language requirement in social assistance (Participation Act) necessary and has reserved extra money for more language education. According to State Secretary Nobel – who has also been about integration since last month, it must also become easier to combine language and integration education with a job. The cabinet has released extra budget for this so that municipalities can get started with this immediately.
National dialogue for an open and free society
In addition to language and work, the integration policy is also focused on the values and norms of Dutch open and free society. Unfortunately, the freedom to be yourself is not a matter of course everywhere.
State Secretary Nobel: “In the Netherlands you have to be able to be able to safely with a keppeltje or headscarf on the street. As a teenager you must be able to get out of the closet safely, whatever family or (faith) community thinks about it. The freedom to be yourself is what makes our country special. We must continue to propagate that” ”
The State Secretary wants to conduct the discussion about this in the form of a national dialogue. People from all over society who talk to each other and with the government about our open and free society, equality and equal treatment, discrimination and the meaning of Dutch nationality. The national dialogue will start in the coming year.
Research into discrimination
The freedom and security to be yourself is under pressure. This is evident from increasing discrimination against, for example, LGBTIQ+persons and the rise in anti-Semitism. That is why there will be a broad new investigation into the causes of discriminatory behavior. This research also focuses on the ‘trigger factors’ for anti -Semitism and is a follow -up to the research into this in 2015 by the Verwey Jonker Institute on behalf of SZW.
Holocaustuducation
Knowledge about our history and how it formed the Netherlands is crucial for newcomers. Since July 1, 2025, knowledge of the Holocaust has been an explicit knowledge goal of the integration exam Knowledge of Dutch Society (KNM). In addition, work is being done to make a visit to Holocaust locations possible as part of the integration process. Then it is a visit to, for example, museums and memorials. For example, the important lessons from the Second World War can be borne with more impact on newcomers.
Self -determination for women and girls
In the Netherlands, husband and wife are the same. Women are entitled to self -determination to make their own choices without coercion. That too is an explicit part of the new integration exam on 1 July 2025. The Integration Action Agenda also emphasizes the equality between men and women.
State Secretary Nobel: “For too many girls and women, the right to make your own choices is not yet given. They are not allowed to choose their partner themselves, or are even forced to marry someone. Barbaric practices such as honor killings and genital mutilation are still in shocking numbers. We don’t have to do that in the Netherlands.
Change is only possible with the help of people in communities where this occurs. An important goal in the action agenda is therefore to bet on change from within. Influential persons known in closed communities can be trained to work on a change in mentality.
Horrible practices such as marriage enforcement and female genital mutilation often take place abroad. That is why the government is also going to start a new information campaign at Schiphol about the danger of these horrible practices and to help women who are in danger of becoming victim of marriage and genital mutilation.
State Secretary Nobel: “On all these points we continue to work on protecting and strengthening our open and free society. So that the Netherlands remains a country in which everyone has the same liberties.”