Unemployment and welfare: Two stories of migrant and minority disadvantage

Mollenkopf's article argues that second-generation immigrants are not better assimilated in the Netherlands than in the USA, despite the advanced Dutch welfare system. He does not make it clear how he is using the concept of assimilation, since he essentially refers to a successful arrangement in the hosting society. In our view, this is a rather reductive use of the concept. But the indicator chosen is even more reductive: the rates of unemployment. Mollenkopf attributes particular importance to the welfare system as an explanation for the disappointing data of the Netherlands and the 'good' data of the United States. But job opportunities that are also available to immigrants are not essentially determined by welfare policies. Second-generation immigrants in the Netherlands have high rates of unemployment, but unemployment among blacks in the USA is even higher. Ethnic and social discrimination act in different ways in the two countries, in the first case hitting the blacks, in the second case hitting second-generation immigrants