The successful integration of Turkish immigrants into American, British and Australian society should make the Netherlands and other western European countries take a critical look at their own policies, Turkish government minister Faruk Celik says in an interview with Thursday’s Volkskrant.

Celik was responding to an open letter in the paper from a number of Dutch Turkish professionals who say they are ‘very worried’ about alienation among young Dutch Turks.
A growing number of young Turks feel they are ‘second class citizens and will remain so,’ the letter stated. In particular, they pointed to the current practice of addressing them as ‘immigrant, Turk or Muslim’.
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‘The fact that Turkish Dutch youngsters still feel they are second class citizens, that they are not welcome and that they are discriminated against, shows the Dutch authorities that they should revise their integration policy,’ Celik said.
Turks have been living in the Netherlands for more than a half a century and have become an ‘integral part’ of the ‘cultural structure of the country,’ the minister told the paper.
‘A part of that which the Netherlands calls integration policy has isolated immigrants, rather than integrated them.’