The merits of the Dutch model
Since my first visit there many years ago, I have always liked the Netherlands and the Dutch people; the country itself is beautiful, if somewhat flat and the people are friendly.
I first went to the Netherlands to brush up on my Dutch, but I noticed that whenever I attempted to communicate in Dutch, somehow the object of my attempts would immediately recognise that I was British and reply in perfect grammatical English (far better, in fact than most Brits).
What especially caught my attention during my visits there though was that there seemed to be quite a few SE Asians and moreover, they all seemed to speak perfect Dutch. I learned that these people had emigrated from former Dutch colonies in SE Asia, such as Indonesia and South Malacca.
On investigation, I discovered that the cause of these peoples linguistic ability was the incorporation within Dutch immigration policy of compulsory language training and the mandatory attainment of a certain level of proficiency before a person could be cleared for residence.
The result of this training was that all immigrants ‘hit the ground running’ and subsequently built upon their newfound skills to a high degree: how different from most other EU countries who at that time offered voluntary classes in language skills… after the event. Clearly and demonstrably the Dutch model is superior…should all countries not all switch to that model?