Verlenging naturalisatietermijnen

Reactie

Vraag1

Dear Govt,

I respectfully write to express my concern about the proposed change to extend the naturalisation pathway from five to ten years. I arrived in the Netherlands at the start of 2023 on a highly skilled migrant visa. In the past 2½ years I have made a life here: I have built friendships, begun learning Dutch (through costly classes), progressed in my job, moved rental home twice and recently bought my first home — an achievement that matters greatly to me.

I like the Netherlands and want to contribute to its future. For these reasons I disagree with extending the citizenship qualifying period to ten years. My principal concerns are:

1. Deterrent to skilled migration: A ten-year requirement will make the Netherlands a less attractive destination for international talent. Many prospective migrants make long-term decisions about where to live and invest; a doubling of the qualifying period would dissuade people from relocating, working and buying homes here.
2. Ten years does not equal better integration: Longer residency alone will not improve integration. Targeted measures — more affordable or free Dutch language tuition, accessible civic integration courses and local community programmes — are far more effective at helping people integrate and contribute.
3. Risk of scapegoating and harming social cohesion: treating longer residency as a fix implies immigration causes problems such as housing shortages and public-safety issues, despite evidence migrants are only a small share of the population. This distracts from real policy solutions and normalises newcomers as outsiders, increasing division in the society.
4. Fairness for contributors: People come to build better lives and to contribute. Those who follow the rules, work and pay taxes should not be made to feel like second-class residents. It is unfair to expect people to spend a significant proportion of their adult life proving their belonging. Five years is sufficient, and many people already relocated here and planned their lives on that expectation.
5. Targeted exclusions are reasonable: I agree that serious criminality should disqualify individuals from citizenship. However, a blanket extension that penalises law-abiding, contributing residents is disproportionate.

In closing, I respectfully ask the govt to reconsider the proposal before adopting such a significant change.