Racial Discrimination in Amsterdam Temp Agencies

THERE IS NO RACIAL DISCRIMINATION IN AMSTERDAM!  This must be true, as people keep saying it on Facebook.

The most common argument used is,  “look at Amsterdam, we accept people from everywhere”.  I’ve always regarded this argument as being as shaky as a Dutch girl on a bike after a night out at the Cooldown Cafe. It’s a bit like saying, “Alabama has never had any problems with racial discrimination, lots of black people live there”.

Amsterdam multicultural paradise

Amsterdam is seen by a lot of Dutch people in the rest of the country as some kind of multicultural paradise. Anouk and Monique are from a village in the Netherlands that’s so white, that when they returned from a holiday in Spain, their neighbors refused to talk to them in the street as they didn’t want to be seen socialising with ‘negers’.

Once a year, Anouk and Monique visit Amsterdam for the Huishoudbeurs, and always return home and say to their friends. “You can’t use Tinder in Amsterdam, it’s full of Negers, Turks and Moroccans, maar wij zijn geen racisten hoor”.

Anouk’s neighbors refused to talk to her after she returned to the village with a suntan

There are people from 180 nationalities living here, but that does not been that racial discrimination in Amsterdam doesn’t take place. Which brings me to the subject of today’s post, racial discrimination in Amsterdam temp agencies.

“There’s no racism in Amsterdam!”

Seventy Percent

My favorite number is 70. It fits so nicely on the tongue. (Like an ex-Tinder date I once had but let’s not go there).

The self described happy activist group Doetank Peer conducted some research into racial discrimination in temp agencies in Amsterdam. The objective was to see if the agencies would accept business from a client that asked for only white native Dutch candidates.

They pretended that they were organising a Holland festival that would celebrate traditional Dutch values. (Such as denying the existence of racism in the Netherlands, and refusing to give up seats to pregnant women). Due to this, they only wanted white native Dutch candidates.

Seventy percent of temp agencies that were asked, had no issue whatsoever in discriminating against non-whites.

We can ask some Turks and Moroccans to apply then filter them out

One of the agencies that agreed to comply with the request, made a brilliant joke, which was to make sure that Sylvana Simons, the black political activist, wouldn’t find out about the assignment. Grappig!

“You looking for a job? But you’re not native Dutch. Dat kan niet!”

Uitkering as lifestyle choice

Time and time again, I keep reading comments on Dutch social media from people who claim that minorities want to be on Uitkering (social security payments). Apart from the appalling lack of empathy, there’s no consideration of cause and effect. The action carried out by Doetank Peer, clearly shows that the majority of temp agencies in Amsterdam are happy to racially discriminate if requested to do so by a client.  It’s illegal to deny someone employment based on their color or religion, but in Amsterdam, a city that’s so tolerant, the majority of temp agencies don’t let a little thing like common decency, or the law get in the way of doing business.

Amsterdam is so racially diverse and yet…

Black schools still exist. Some neighborhoods in Amsterdam are whiter than a Klu Klux Klan christmas party. Others are blacker than a meeting of the African union. Yes there are 180 nationalities living in Amsterdam, but how integrated is the city in reality? How is it possible that so many temp agencies are prepared to casually accept racial discrimination?

Jeroen had difficulty convincing the uitzendbureau that he was a Dutch native

On the positive side

The following agencies refused to discriminate. If you’re a minority looking for temporary work in Amsterdam, my advice would be to go to one of the following listed below.

Q-Interim
Bureau Kooimeer
Uitzendbudo Doorstroom
Prima Personeel
Unique
Flexpoint Nederland
YoungCapital

Respect to the agencies above. Unfortunately, the names of the agencies that were happy to discriminate were not made public.

No native Dutch people were hurt during the writing of this post

Till next time rot op met je tolerantie!

The video (in Dutch) is below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcyXFqsHWZE