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Hirsi Ali: Two realities of law and social situation in immigration debate
By Kate Huber
Posted: May 23, 2006
It’s been a tumultuous week in The Hague. VVD-parliament member, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, has been found
to have never become a Dutch citizen and she must now hand in her passport. The Minister of
Immigration, Rita Verdonk, made the announcement last week, just days after the television
programme, Zembla, aired a documentary about the originally Somalian Hirsi Ali’s application for
asylum in the Netherlands in 1992. According to Zembla, Hirsi Ali intentionally lied about her name,
age and situation in order to stay in the Netherlands. Hirsi Ali confessed to having used the disastrous
situation in Somalia in the early 1990s to gain asylum, though she herself was not actually in danger.
She was, in short, an economic refugee seeking better opportunities.
Hirsi Ali is the most controversial politician in the Netherlands. Her strong critical opinions of Islam
have helped to set the stage for a number of controversies around integration. She openly calls Islam a
'backwards' religion and Mohammed 'perverse'. Her opinions are of an emotional nature; her personal
experience has raised her to the level of an expert. Yet her voice in the integration debate is strong.
In response to the protests against the Danish cartoons she publicly called to 'defend the right to
offend'. Since the murder of filmmaker and critic Theo van Gogh, with whom she made the film
Submission, an embittered but moving monologue about the oppression of women in Islamic
countries, she has been surrounded by bodyguards and living in a protected house. Last month a
Dutch academic research report, the WRR-rapport, was published. It was based on a study of Islamic
(Sharia law) governments and their compatibility to work with European governments.
The report concluded that ideologies would not be detrimental to cooperation between the two types of
governments. Although the report appeared to be academic and unbiased to most, Hirsi Ali, among
other anti-Islamic politicians, claimed that it was nonsense and naive.
After her election to the Dutch parliament in 2003, her political career received international recognition.
She was named one of the world’s 100 most influential ‘leaders and revolutionaries’ by Time
magazine in 2005 and has been featured on both the American national radio station, NPR, and
television programme 60 Minutes. Now that she has been forced to step down from her position in
parliament, she will go to work for the conservative American think-tank, the American Enterprise
Institute, in Washington D.C.
After coming to the Netherlands in 1992 and receiving amnesty within just a short five weeks as a
result of her story, Hirsi Ali has worked her way up. She studied political science at Leiden University
and received her Dutch citizenship in 1997. Almost 10 years later, it has become public knowledge that
had her true story been known, she never would have been allowed to stay.
Although Hirsi Ali claimed to have lived through the civil wars in Somalia and to have unwillingly been
married, she actually lived with her family in Nairobi, Kenya, as a political refugee for almost ten years.
And after graduating secondary school from an Islamic girls school in 1983, she eventually married,
though it was not a forced marriage. Just before she was supposed to join her husband in Canada,
she left for Europe, stopping shortly in Germany before coming to the Netherlands.
When she came to the Netherlands, Hirsi Ali said that she was in danger because her father might
send her brother to kill her to protect their family honour. However, as the Zembla documentary reports,
honour killings are apparently not customary in Somalian culture. Because Hirsi Ali lied about where
she came from and what her situation was, Dutch immigration law considers her Dutch citizenship null
and void. In the eyes of the Dutch government, therefore, she has never been and is not a Dutch
national.
The Dutch service for refugees, Vluchtelingenwerk, resents the developments concerning Hirsi Ali’s
citizenship. That elements in Hirsi Ali’s story were distorted is not new information. Her party, the VVD,
of which the Minister of Immigration, Verdonk, is also a member, has known since Hirsi Ali became a
member of parliament that she lied about her name and birthday. However, Zembla’s story questioned
Hirsi Ali’s original request for refugee status, provoking the necessary research that has led to the
retraction of her passport.
As immigration laws are tightening worldwide, the humanitarian situation is often forgotten as
procedures are carried out. To some, a 'rules are rules' seems to be the motto for the immigration
service in the Netherlands, where facts are more important than personal situations. The story
someone tells determines their future. Within 48 hours after arriving in the Netherlands, it is decided if
an asylum seeker has a reliable enough story to warrant them protection. If not, they are sent back.
The reasons for falsifying information vary, though the motives are few. The spelling of names and
dates of birth can be incorrectly documented upon arrival, or asylum seekers may fear for the safety of
themselves or their families back home. However, in general, laws for asylum seekers are there to
help people who need it, regardless of their name and age.
But Hirsi Ali didn’t need protection. She was already a protected refugee in Kenya. She was an
economic refugee who abused the laws she would later come to make and enforce. By exploiting the
war-torn circumstances in Somalia, Dutch officials believed her tale and helped her financially with tax-
payers' money for years.
Integration and immigration in the Netherlands are thorny topics. Racism and skepticism regarding
ethnic minorities are rampant. Those who have migrated to the Netherlands or newly arriving refugees
and immigrants should not be subject to greater scrutiny and insecurity because one Dutch politician
decided to manipulate the country whose multicultural situation would later become her mission.
Hirsi Ali will continue with her self appointed 'mission' in Washington. She will go to the United States,
where they are now fortifying their borders from Mexican immigrants, to carry out her emotionally
founded ideologies. Influential though her position may once have been, Hirsi Ali deliberately lied,
exploiting the position of those in need of security, and her credibility must therefore be questioned.
### ### ###
Kate Huber has been a sailor and a wilderness emergency medical technician for three years. She is
an American and reads literary philosophy and journalism at Leiden University.
By Kate Huber
Posted: May 23, 2006
It’s been a tumultuous week in The Hague. VVD-parliament member, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, has been found
to have never become a Dutch citizen and she must now hand in her passport. The Minister of
Immigration, Rita Verdonk, made the announcement last week, just days after the television
programme, Zembla, aired a documentary about the originally Somalian Hirsi Ali’s application for
asylum in the Netherlands in 1992. According to Zembla, Hirsi Ali intentionally lied about her name,
age and situation in order to stay in the Netherlands. Hirsi Ali confessed to having used the disastrous
situation in Somalia in the early 1990s to gain asylum, though she herself was not actually in danger.
She was, in short, an economic refugee seeking better opportunities.
Hirsi Ali is the most controversial politician in the Netherlands. Her strong critical opinions of Islam
have helped to set the stage for a number of controversies around integration. She openly calls Islam a
'backwards' religion and Mohammed 'perverse'. Her opinions are of an emotional nature; her personal
experience has raised her to the level of an expert. Yet her voice in the integration debate is strong.
In response to the protests against the Danish cartoons she publicly called to 'defend the right to
offend'. Since the murder of filmmaker and critic Theo van Gogh, with whom she made the film
Submission, an embittered but moving monologue about the oppression of women in Islamic
countries, she has been surrounded by bodyguards and living in a protected house. Last month a
Dutch academic research report, the WRR-rapport, was published. It was based on a study of Islamic
(Sharia law) governments and their compatibility to work with European governments.
The report concluded that ideologies would not be detrimental to cooperation between the two types of
governments. Although the report appeared to be academic and unbiased to most, Hirsi Ali, among
other anti-Islamic politicians, claimed that it was nonsense and naive.
After her election to the Dutch parliament in 2003, her political career received international recognition.
She was named one of the world’s 100 most influential ‘leaders and revolutionaries’ by Time
magazine in 2005 and has been featured on both the American national radio station, NPR, and
television programme 60 Minutes. Now that she has been forced to step down from her position in
parliament, she will go to work for the conservative American think-tank, the American Enterprise
Institute, in Washington D.C.
After coming to the Netherlands in 1992 and receiving amnesty within just a short five weeks as a
result of her story, Hirsi Ali has worked her way up. She studied political science at Leiden University
and received her Dutch citizenship in 1997. Almost 10 years later, it has become public knowledge that
had her true story been known, she never would have been allowed to stay.
Although Hirsi Ali claimed to have lived through the civil wars in Somalia and to have unwillingly been
married, she actually lived with her family in Nairobi, Kenya, as a political refugee for almost ten years.
And after graduating secondary school from an Islamic girls school in 1983, she eventually married,
though it was not a forced marriage. Just before she was supposed to join her husband in Canada,
she left for Europe, stopping shortly in Germany before coming to the Netherlands.
When she came to the Netherlands, Hirsi Ali said that she was in danger because her father might
send her brother to kill her to protect their family honour. However, as the Zembla documentary reports,
honour killings are apparently not customary in Somalian culture. Because Hirsi Ali lied about where
she came from and what her situation was, Dutch immigration law considers her Dutch citizenship null
and void. In the eyes of the Dutch government, therefore, she has never been and is not a Dutch
national.
The Dutch service for refugees, Vluchtelingenwerk, resents the developments concerning Hirsi Ali’s
citizenship. That elements in Hirsi Ali’s story were distorted is not new information. Her party, the VVD,
of which the Minister of Immigration, Verdonk, is also a member, has known since Hirsi Ali became a
member of parliament that she lied about her name and birthday. However, Zembla’s story questioned
Hirsi Ali’s original request for refugee status, provoking the necessary research that has led to the
retraction of her passport.
As immigration laws are tightening worldwide, the humanitarian situation is often forgotten as
procedures are carried out. To some, a 'rules are rules' seems to be the motto for the immigration
service in the Netherlands, where facts are more important than personal situations. The story
someone tells determines their future. Within 48 hours after arriving in the Netherlands, it is decided if
an asylum seeker has a reliable enough story to warrant them protection. If not, they are sent back.
The reasons for falsifying information vary, though the motives are few. The spelling of names and
dates of birth can be incorrectly documented upon arrival, or asylum seekers may fear for the safety of
themselves or their families back home. However, in general, laws for asylum seekers are there to
help people who need it, regardless of their name and age.
But Hirsi Ali didn’t need protection. She was already a protected refugee in Kenya. She was an
economic refugee who abused the laws she would later come to make and enforce. By exploiting the
war-torn circumstances in Somalia, Dutch officials believed her tale and helped her financially with tax-
payers' money for years.
Integration and immigration in the Netherlands are thorny topics. Racism and skepticism regarding
ethnic minorities are rampant. Those who have migrated to the Netherlands or newly arriving refugees
and immigrants should not be subject to greater scrutiny and insecurity because one Dutch politician
decided to manipulate the country whose multicultural situation would later become her mission.
Hirsi Ali will continue with her self appointed 'mission' in Washington. She will go to the United States,
where they are now fortifying their borders from Mexican immigrants, to carry out her emotionally
founded ideologies. Influential though her position may once have been, Hirsi Ali deliberately lied,
exploiting the position of those in need of security, and her credibility must therefore be questioned.
### ### ###
Kate Huber has been a sailor and a wilderness emergency medical technician for three years. She is
an American and reads literary philosophy and journalism at Leiden University.
| (c) 2006 New Criterion Foundation, London |
| Security. Ideologies. Multiculturalism. |