Tolerants ?

I have always found strange that the rest of the world considers the Dutch being a tolerant people. In themes such as prostitution, homosexuality and drugs I would say "yes". Although many Dutch men prefer having  foreign women (of all races and backgrounds) as life partners, I think as a nation they are definitely not fond of most groups of foreigners, with few exceptions. Why do I have these perceptions ?  Check this research I have found on blog deepbrazil.com published today. Eye opening.

Immigration Brings Wealth

I just read  this weekend a small article on the VU Magazine that just confirmed something I have always suspected of:  according to economist Peter Nijkamp "(...)immigration is an investment that brings a lot of money to the Netherlands." Nijkamp published in April a quick scan of this situation in his work Migration in Balance. According to his research, children from immigrants get diplomas and become successful career tigers, the small companies sector flourish thanks to non-western immigrants and they save whole neighborhoods from empoverishment. Of course, immigration brings problems, and we know they are not a few. But even if you take the problems resulting from immigration into consideration there are no negative effects in the economy of the Netherlands.

Source: VU Magazinepage, issue September #3, 2010, page 21