THE HAGUE, 26/09/03 - The Verwey-Jonker Institute (VJI) is rejecting criticisms of its involvement in the Lower House research into integration policy. Former VJI director Jan Willem Duyvendak yesterday denied being predisposed towards a positive view of immigrants. He did feel he had the right to hold political views.

The VJI carried out preliminary work for a commission of MPs who are researching what 30 years of integration policy has led to in the Netherlands. Conservative (VVD) parliamentary leader Van Aartsen and socialist (SP) MPs are criticizing the institute's involvement because it helped devise the policy in the past.

During a press conference yesterday, Duyvendak denied a clash of interests and disputed being biased. The fact that he helped write the leftwing Greens (GroenLinks) party manifesto and that his brother is former activist and MP Wijnand Duyvendak is not relevant, he considered.

Duyvendak was recently succeeded by J. Bouttelier, who also claimed that the VJI was a politically independent research institute. He rejected the "nasty insinuations" and said the VJI was never actively involved in policymaking concerning integration. Bouttelier did acknowledge that the research on minorities in the past caused "tensions" within the institute.

Duyvendak feels that as a researcher, he is entitled to political views. "The Upper House is also populated with scientists that belong to a party. The important aspect is that a researcher is verifiable". Bouttelier backed him: "We must leave behind suggestions of an integration conspiracy between scientists, policymakers and opinion-makers".

Duyvendak yesterday presented the VJI report on which the Lower House commission has been basing its research. Integration policy on education and housing has proved successful, one of the conclusion reads. "At the time, the intention was that immigrants would move on to post-war districts. That has been achieved," Duyvendak explained. The fact that some of these districts have since turned into ghetto's is "A new discussion", he added.