New report commissioned by the Dutch government cites ethnic ghettos and ‘sink schools’ —Sydney Morning Herald [via walker]. This is a simmering social problem throughout Western Europe, fueling the appeal of xenophobic right-wing parties in a number of European nations. The Dutch contended with the fiery Pim Fortuyn until his assassination two years ago, and Jean-Marie Le Pen‘s worrisome showing in the last French election has been widely covered as has the resurgent German skinhead movement. Especially with the demonization of Islam since 9-11, hateful eyes are turned on ethnic minorities who are often Arabic. Many trace the origins of the problem to the ‘guest worker’ policies by which Western European nations imported Eastern European, Middle Eastern and North African laborers during boom times. As the economies have contracted, support for immigrant labor policies has waned and the guest workers have been seen as competing with indigenous job-seekers. American interest in this problem has been stoked by Bush’s recent immigration policy reforms which some characterize as the tantamount to turning illegal immigrants into a ‘guest worker’ underclass similar to the discredited European one.