Dutch Policy with Respect to Integration of Immigrants: Text Analysis as a Method to Measure Changes

Text analysis might be used as a method to evaluate how policy is developing. This is shown by investigating what is said in speeches from the throne in the Netherlands with regard to the integration of immigrants. Does the government play a positive role in this process or do the immigrants have to take care of their own integration? Since in the last years anti-immigrant parties have participated in the government coalition, one might expect a move into the direction of this last view. Based on the proposals presented in the speeches from 1980 until 2011 it turns out that a only slight tendency can be observed in favor of the latter policy in the Netherlands.