NCJ Number
157960
Date Published
1994
Length
117 pages
Annotation
This study examines the new regulations concerning the immigration of legal aliens in the Netherlands which went into effect in 1993.
Abstract
The most important change was to require resident aliens to have enough income to support the immigrating family members. The data for the study were collected by interviewing executives of 14 alien departments and a large number of civil servants; they focused on two aspects of the regulations: their introduction and their application by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND) of the Ministry of Justice. Many respondents found that the regulations were introduced too quickly without a period of necessary adaptation. Otherwise, nearly all respondents were satisfied with the new regulations because they contained more objective criteria and resulted in more refusals of doubtful applications. In the second part, a number of cases were presented to employees at aliens departments and the IND. The results indicated that, though objective, the regulations are too complicated and result in misinterpretation or subjective decisions. The survey suggests that the executives concerned should be consulted before regulations are formulated. 51 references