AMSTERDAM, 18/09/09 - Turks and Moroccans in the Netherlands are more intolerant of 'white' Dutch than white Dutch are of them, says Radboud University Nijmegen sociologist Jochem Tolsma. He will receive his doctorate with research on ethnic tolerance on 28 September.

One yardstick Tolsma used for measuring tolerance is how people view an inter-ethnic marriage. Among the white Dutch, 22 percent would consider it 'problematic to very problematic' if their daughter or son would marry an immigrant. Among the second-generation Turks and Moroccans in the Netherlands, 32 and 25 percent respectively would feel this way if their children married a 'Hollander'.

Additionally, Turks and Moroccans with both high and low educational levels are equally negative. "You might expect that the higher-educated would have more and more positive contacts with the indigenous, but this is not the case," said Tolsma in De Volkskrant.

Immigrants that have studied do identify more with the Netherlands than the poorly educated. "You can thus feel completely Dutch without welcoming a marriage with a Dutch person."

Apart from this, the researcher finds that Antilleans and Surinamese are more tolerant about other groups than either Turks and Moroccans or the white Dutch.