Inburg­er­ing.  What on Earth..?

Try­ing to find a clear Eng­lish lan­guage expla­na­tion about the Inburg­er­ing Cur­sus (inte­gra­tion course) is as rare as hen’s teeth. Although it’s a require­ment for so many of us, the rel­e­vant gov­ern­ment depart­ments seem to expect that we are already inte­grated enough to under­stand all of the (Dutch) infor­ma­tion.  We often find our­selves in a Catch-22 sit­u­a­tion, need­ing to learn the lan­guage, but are expected to under­stand the lan­guage to learn the language…

Com­mon ques­tions are:  What is it?  Who has to do it?  Do I?  What do I have to do?  How much does it cost?  What is the level I need to reach? What if I’m from an EU coun­try, or have lived here for many years and already speak Dutch?  What hap­pens afterwards?

We are going to do our best to address these com­monly asked ques­tions with this quick guide to Inburg­er­ing in Almere.

What is Inburg­er­ing?

In short, inburg­er­ing trans­lates to inte­gra­tion and under many cir­cum­stances those of us who move to the Nether­lands are required to fol­low a course/take exam to prove that we have ful­filled this oblig­a­tion.  Aside from this being an oblig­a­tion, learn­ing the lan­guage and about the Nether­lands and soci­ety vastly improves the qual­ity of life of an inter­na­tional liv­ing here, it really does.  With­out learn­ing the lan­guage, even to a basic level, it is very easy to find your­self liv­ing on the fringes of soci­ety, not really par­tic­i­pat­ing in it.

Who must integrate?

Per­haps it’s eas­ier to list the peo­ple who don’t have to inte­grate than those who are obliged.  If you are an EU cit­i­zen (or from Turkey, where you are exempt under EU agree­ments), or are a highly skilled migrant, you are not obliged to learn the lan­guage or inte­grate.  Also, if you are the spouse of a highly skilled, non-EU migrant you are also exempt.

How­ever, even if you are exempt from the inburg­er­ing process, the moment you wish to become either a per­ma­nent res­i­dent or a Dutch cit­i­zen, you will need to prove that you have enough knowl­edge of the lan­guage and soci­ety by sat­is­fy­ing one (or more) of the fol­low­ing criteria.

What do I have to do?

You have sev­eral options to sat­isfy the inburg­er­ing require­ment, as follows:

The Inburg­er­ing Exa­men (the inte­gra­tion exams)

You learn Dutch to A2 level (more about the lev­els later) and learn about how Dutch soci­ety func­tions.  You can do this inde­pen­dently, or you can fol­low a course.  The Gemeente in Almere will offer you sev­eral options for courses, includ­ing both the ROC Flevoland and Ttif Com­pany (both sites iron­i­cally in Dutch).  Once you are at a level where you are con­fi­dent that you can take the exams, you enrol in the Cen­trale Exa­men (cen­tral exams), where you under­take three elec­tronic exams, the Ken­nis Ned­er­landse Samen­lev­ing (knowl­edge of Dutch Soci­ety), the Elek­tro­n­isch Prak­tijkex­a­men (elec­tronic prac­ti­cal exam) and the Toets Gespro­ken Ned­er­lands (spo­ken Dutch test).

In part­ner­ship with the above exams, you will also need to com­plete one of the avail­able prac­ti­cal exams.  One is the Bewi­jzen Verza­me­len (assem­ble a port­fo­lio), where you col­lect proof of your­self enact­ing var­i­ous sce­nar­ios in Dutch and then attend an inter­view to dis­cuss what you have put together (in sim­ple Dutch).  Check here for an exam­ple port­fo­lio.  The sec­ond option is Prak­tijk­si­t­u­aties Nadoen (role play assess­ments).  You attend an inter­view and enact four dif­fer­ent sce­nar­ios in Dutch with your exam­iner.  Or, you can also do a com­bi­na­tion of both – ten items in your port­fo­lio and two assessments.

These exams are most often rec­om­mended for those of you who don’t already speak the lan­guage flu­ently.  The focus is on under­stand­ing sim­ple Dutch and on soci­ety, not on gram­mar or pro­fes­sional communication.

Staat­sex­a­men I en II (known as NT2 exams)

This is a much more intense level.  If you pass the level one exams, you can study at a voca­tional level (ROC for exam­ple), and once you pass the level two exams, you are offi­cially at a level high enough to enter Dutch (spo­ken and writ­ten) uni­ver­sity courses.

The exams are obvi­ously much harder and the focus is strongly on lan­guage and gram­mar (within a soci­etal con­text) and it is not nec­es­sary to first take level one before level two – they are inde­pen­dent study streams.  A good deal of infor­ma­tion regard­ing the two courses can be found here (pdf).

The Gemeente Almere will also spon­sor you to under­take one of these courses if you so choose and there are sev­eral rec­om­mended schools in Almere where you can fol­low the courses; ROC Flevoland, Ttif Com­pany and Suit­case to name just three.

Het Diploma Beroepsonderwijs

Essen­tially this is voca­tional train­ing (in Dutch).  You will also receive extra lan­guage lessons as part of the train­ing, and the diploma at the end will sat­isfy your inburg­er­ing require­ments.  These courses are at MBO (trade/vocational train­ing) level.  These courses are usu­ally taken at the ROC.

De Korte Vri­jstelling­toets (short exemp­tion exam)

This is an exam that is aimed at res­i­dents who have been liv­ing in the Nether­lands for some years and who would con­sider them­selves inte­grated and flu­ent in the lan­guage.  It is a 45 minute exam that is at a higher lan­guage level than the Inburg­er­ing Exa­men (B1) and you will need to answer spe­cific ques­tions about how cer­tain aspects of Dutch soci­ety func­tions.  Often the ques­tions will focus on top­ics such as; what to do when a child is born, how to deal with the con­sul­tatiebu­reau (children’s clinic), what is the appro­pri­ate way to inter­act with your neigh­bours, how to set up a busi­ness, deal­ing with the belast­ing­di­enst (tax office) etc.

You have only one shot at this exam; if you fail you will be expected to take one of the above exams for your proof of inte­gra­tion.  Also note that the Gemeente does not spon­sor this, so the cost (cur­rently EUR81.00) is to be met your­self.  Also note that more often than not, the Gemeente will not tell you about this option unless they con­sider you to be at a suf­fi­cient lan­guage level, but every­body is eli­gi­ble to take the test.  If you are run­ning short on time or have no desire to take on the courses or other exams, per­haps this is the option for you.  You can find infor­ma­tion about the expe­ri­ences of oth­ers with this exam all over the place, for exam­ple here, here or here.  When study­ing for this exam, Google is your friend.

What does it cost?

It is very dif­fi­cult to pin down exactly how much inburg­er­ing costs across the board, but we can pro­vide a few gen­eral notes.  In Almere the Gemeente will spon­sor the lion’s share of the courses you fol­low, and you are only expected to pay the first EUR270.00.  If you opt out of fol­low­ing the city spon­sored course, they may offer you a per­sonal bud­get, where you research a course you want to fol­low and if approved, the Gemeente will pay, up to the cost of EUR6000.00.  It is well worth remem­ber­ing how­ever, if you are spon­sored to under­take inde­pen­dent study and do not pass the exams within the time frame you agree with the Gemeente (eigh­teen months usu­ally), they can insist you repay the cost of the course.

Edit:  The Gemeente in Almere no longer pays for your course up front unless you receive social ben­e­fits (uitk­er­ing) or are search­ing for work.  You can how­ever, apply for a 70% rebate if you take one of the Gemeente’s rec­om­mended courses upon your graduation.

Remem­ber, this infor­ma­tion is only for Almere.  In many other cities you must cover the cost of inburg­er­ing your­self, and as of 2014 the fed­eral gov­ern­ment will phase out all finance for inburg­er­ing, mean­ing that although it will remain com­pul­sory for many immi­grants, they will be expected to cover the full cost themselves.

What is the lan­guage level that I need to reach?

To meet the lan­guage require­ment to apply for per­ma­nent res­i­dency or cit­i­zen­ship, you are expected to reach A2 level.  For those of us who arrived prior to 2007 and have no inten­tion of ever apply­ing for either only need reach A1 level.  If you pass the staat­sex­a­men II course, you will be at B1 level.  But, the ques­tion remains, what do these lev­els mean?  The cod­ing (A1, A2, B1 etc) lev­els are decided at a Euro­pean level and relate to gen­eral lan­guage proficiency:

A1 – Begin­ner level (basic knowl­edge, use of sim­ple phrases)

A2 – Pre-intermediate level (con­ver­sa­tional level when dis­cussing famil­iar topics)

B1 – Inter­me­di­ate level (can deal with most sit­u­a­tions and can describe expe­ri­ences and events etc and explain oneself)

B2 – Upper inter­me­di­ate (can under­stand com­plex and tech­ni­cal lan­guage and can inter­act on a level that is easy for native speak­ers to follow)

C1 – Advanced (can com­mu­ni­cate spon­ta­neously and with ease on both a social and pro­fes­sional level and is able to pro­duce detailed infor­ma­tion on com­plex topics)

C2 – Pro­fi­cient (under­stands vir­tu­ally every­thing spo­ken and writ­ten in the lan­guage, effec­tively immersed)

When you look at the var­i­ous lan­guage clas­si­fi­ca­tions and realise that the level to reach to obtain citizenship/permanent res­i­dency is not par­tic­u­larly high, you may sur­prise your­self with your level of understanding.

What if I’m from an EU coun­try or I’ve lived here for many years?

If you come from an EU coun­try, you do not have to take any of the exams under the free­dom of move­ment agree­ment.  How­ever, as noted above, if you wish to become a Dutch cit­i­zen, you will need to then do one of the exams.  Not that becom­ing a cit­i­zen is nec­es­sary as an EU national any­way.  In the past there was fund­ing where EU cit­i­zens could fol­low a course and have it paid in full by the Almere Gemeente.  This fund­ing has been phased out in 2011, but if you’re will­ing to put up a big enough fight, you might be able to con­vince them…

If you have lived here for many years as an immi­grant, but have never applied for per­ma­nent residency/citizenship, it is very likely that you have been fly­ing under the Gemeente’s radar, so to speak.  Mean­ing that when the time comes to renew your verbli­jfsver­gun­ning (res­i­dence per­mit), you may be flagged and con­tacted to prove that you’re inte­grated, mean­ing that if you have never fol­lowed a course you might be asked to take one of the exams.  If you never intend to apply for cit­i­zen­ship or per­ma­nent res­i­dency and moved here prior to 2007, you only need to prove A1 level pro­fi­ciency.  How­ever, you may find it eas­ier to take the Korte Vri­jstelling­toets and be done with it.

What hap­pens afterwards?

You are offi­cially ges­laagd (grad­u­ated).  Depend­ing on how long you have lived in the Nether­lands you may be eli­gi­ble to apply for cit­i­zen­ship or per­ma­nent res­i­dency (after three years if you are a spouse or part­ner of a Dutch national or five years if you are a skilled migrant or spouse/partner of a skilled migrant).  Often the case is that you will com­plete the exams well before you are eli­gi­ble to apply, so instead of a mate­r­ial reward you instead gain a bet­ter qual­ity of life as your abil­ity to inter­act in soci­ety is vastly improved.

A final ques­tion remains:  How can I get started?  The best place to start if you want to or know that you will even­tu­ally be required to take one of the exams is to get in touch with the Almere Gemeente.  You can check their web­site Inburg­er­ing in Almere, drop into the Sociale Zaken (social affairs depart­ment) between 09.00 and 12.00 or make an appoint­ment for between 09.00 and 16.00 week­days.  To make an appoint­ment you can call 14 036.  Do not for­get to take your verbli­jfsver­gun­ning (as it dou­bles as ID) and your BSN when you go.

Some links you may find use­ful (in Dutch):

Rijksover­heid

Inburgeren.nl

IND (brochures to download)

Blog about inburg­er­ing in Almere

Adven­tures in Integration

Prac­tice exams you can take:

Elek­tro­n­isch Prak­tijk Examen

Ken­nis Ned­er­landse Samenleving

Toets Gespro­ken Nederlands

Korte Vri­jstelling­toets

Staat­sex­a­men I and II

Have you fol­lowed an inburg­er­ing cur­sus or taken one of the exams?  What tips can you offer oth­ers who will take the course in the future?

Need­ing to take the exams, but are unsure of the process?  Ask away, we are more than happy to offer advice from our own, first­hand expe­ri­ence with the courses and exams.

Here are some more links you might find handy too:

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