The Netherlands

Key Findings overall

At a time of increasing language diversity, the Dutch government emphasises the Dutch language. This is in line with European Commission (EC) /Council of Europe (CoE) policy. On the other hand, EC/CoE policy also stresses the inclusion of minority, foreign and immigrant languages within education and in other sectors of society. Especially with regard to immigrant languages, Dutch policy could be aligned better with European policy.

Nevertheless, there are various initiatives that recognise the value of multilingualism and study or use multilingualism and its benefits. For example, there are several private schools that provide additional education in immigrant languages, and, within secondary education in particular, teaching subjects through English (CLIL) is becoming more widespread.

The ‘mother tongue + 2‘ objective is not fully met, but English being compulsory at secondary school means that most pupils will learn at least one foreign language.

Promising initiatives and pilots

An interesting innovative project as an example of good practice is carried out in the city of Utrecht, the fourth largest city in the Netherlands. Utrecht describes itself as a ’multilingual hotspot‘(City of Utrecht, 2009: 1). A large part of the population is able to speak three or more languages; the link with European policy is explicitly made in the project and the goal of ‘mother tongue + 2’ is promoted. Furthermore, the city hosts many international companies and Utrecht’s university attracts many foreign students. The city wants to take this characteristic as a starting point towards the development of Utrecht as a ‘laboratory for multilingualism’ (ibidem: 1). Various studies around multilingualism have been launched, and multilingual projects set up (ibidem). In 2011 a report was published as part of the project: ‘The Dutch City of Utrecht as a European Hotspot and Laboratory for Multilingualism’ (Martinovic, 2011).