[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 17]
[House]
[Page 23583]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               LEARNING IMMIGRATION LESSONS FROM HOLLAND

  (Mr. STEARNS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. STEARNS. Madam Speaker, we recently read in the newspapers of the 
murder of a prominent filmmaker, a distant relative of Vincent van 
Gogh, in the Netherlands, or Holland.
  Holland has been a very open, tolerant society for many decades. 
However, many immigrants just simply refuse to assimilate into the 
Dutch culture, and this resulted in one-sixth of the population 
rejecting that culture, western civilization and its values, and after 
the recent barbaric act, Holland has now been forced to re-think its 
immigration policy, the relaxed way that they viewed this whole process 
of letting people into their country.
  I believe frankly, Madam Speaker, that there are lessons for us here 
in America in terms of helping to assimilate our immigrants into our 
culture here in the United States.

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