THE HAGUE, 23/09/03 - The committee examining integration policy over the past thirty years started public hearings yesterday. A former minister responsible, Hans Dijkstal, admitted that the policy had not been optimally successful, but his successor Roger van Boxtel considered that the successes had not been given enough attention.

The committee was set up at the request of the socialists (SP). The inquiry is primarily intended to produce lessons for the future. Conservative (VVD) MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali recently claimed that the integration policy only promoted segregation. For example, even today, immigrants following integration courses are taught how to apply for benefit rather than for jobs.

Former Home Affairs Minister Dijkstal (1994 to 1998) agreed yesterday that integration "had not gone well on certain points. " The importance of a command of Dutch had been particularly underestimated, in his view. He admitted that under Prime Minister Wim Kok, the theme was too sensitive to be put on the agenda.

Van Boxtel was not prepared to talk of a failed integration policy. "That is taking a great risk, as groups of people will be wrongfully stigmatised. " The center-left (D66) politician, who took over Dijkstal's task in 1998 and became the first Minister for Integration, maintained that many things had gone well after the arrival of large numbers of immigrants, "But these blessings pale if you keep stressing the things that go wrong. The balance here is unbelievably important. "

In Van Boxtel's view, integration in the Netherlands has a high level of success. "Except for a few places where there are substantial problems, our country is reasonably liveable. We are prosperous and there is little tension between population groups," he believed.

Van Boxtel was responsible for integration up to 2002. The portfolio was then transferred from the Home Affairs to the Justice Ministry. Both Van Boxtel and Dijkstal stressed yesterday that this choice should be reversed, as integration takes place predominantly on the level of local authorities. "And if you think education is the key to integration, then it should go to the Education Ministry," Dijkstal pointed out. It would also fit in better in the Social Affairs Ministry than the Justice Ministry, he added.

SP MP Fenna Vergeer will take the place of her fellow party member Ali Lazrak in the temporary committee. He withdrew last week because the Verwey-Jonker Institute was involved in the committee's preliminary investigation. In the past, the same institute was closely involved in the policy that the committee is now examining.