Hub Vossen lives in the south of Holland and is 60, but feels younger. For the past 35 years he has worked in a nearby town for a welfare company. Two long running programs he has worked on are

1. re-integration into society for people who have been out of work
2. a program for people coming to Holland from abroad that aimes to imrove their Dutch language skills and their knowledge of the local culture – particularly work-place culture

At one stage this work meant that he was meeting with over 200 people from 60 countries. Some of the people are from Eastern Europe (not members of the European Union at that time) and then from Morocco and Turkey. Many came to Holland for work, but then stayed, were joined by partners, and their families grew. Children were educated in Dutch, but frequently, the adults were not fluent in the Dutch language at all.

This migration has been a political issue, and there have been a number of changes to laws relating to migration. More recelntly, it has been required that intending migrants pass a Dutch language test before getting permission to migrate. There are elections this year (2010) and migration is still an issue – depending who wins there could be further significant changes.

Meanwhile Hub has been spending more time in Bali and is keen to learn about, and respect the local culture.

There was interest and discussion which compared Holand’s experience with Sweden, Denmark and Switzerland.