More migrants should become homeowners, Dutch government says

More migrants should become homeowners, Dutch government saysAmsterdam  - Immigrants in the Netherlands should purchase a home there rather than in their native countries, the Dutch government said in a new integration policy mission statement released on Tuesday.

Some 40 per cent of Moroccan and 26 per cent of Turkish immigrants are homeowners, compared with 60 per cent of native Dutch nationals.

Immigrants should make a "conscious choice" to invest in a home and future in the Netherlands, the mission statement said.

Integration Minister Eberhard van der Laan (Labour) acknowledged he cannot "force immigrants to stop saving money for a home in their native countries."

"But it is our explicit wish that people should not focus their lives on their return, but on their future in the Netherlands."

The minister said he also had an "uncomfortable feeling" about the idea immigrants often save money for a home in their native countries while local Dutch authorities and publicly subsidised housing corporations spend millions in renovation and maintenance work in neighborhoods populated by immigrants.(dpa)