IMMIGRANTS AND EMIGRANTS: TOWARD A DIASPORIC VIEW OF BECOMING-Dutch

IMMIGRANTS AND EMIGRANTS: TOWARD A DIASPORIC VIEW OF BECOMING-
DUTCH

General Audience Abstract

This research examines Dutch diaspora through narratives describing experiences of emigrating from the Netherlands. It also looks critically at the language of migration, examining how terms like 'globalization,' 'transnationalism,' 'multiculturalism,' are often used to reinforce nationalist-statist ideology and explores their problematic dimensions. The notion of cultural diaspora is put forth as a means for thinking and studying social life in terms of cultural contact among diverse individuals. Ethnicity is conceived in terms of becoming to allow us to go beyond thinking in terms of 'insiders' and 'outsiders;' to view contact as the basis for shared culture. Dutch Diaspora refers to the movement of people and cultural transfers identified with Dutchness; occuring as a result of social contact; without regard for where that contact takes place geographically. Emigration is viewed as one mode of becoming-Dutch, as part of a Dutch diaspora. This thesis contributes to a general understanding of ethnicity and creating more inclusive societies.

Academic Abstract

The concept of globalization implies a national world, in contrast to one that is already global(ized). In doing so it obscures the fact that nationalism, like globalism, is not a state-of-the-world at all but an ideological orientation, performed in everyday life; one that encourages us to imagine aspects of social life in terms of nations, nationality, birth-rights, geographical territorialism, and ethnic exclusion instead of inclusivity and freedom of place. Terms and the ideas they represent such as "transnationalism," "immigration," and "emigration" make reference to a nation-centered perspective while other terms such as 'multiculturalism' and 'diaspora' are more open but at the same time subject to nation-centered meaning-making. This thesis problematizes the mode of conceptualizing people in relation to the bounded nation(al)-state(ic) image of the still-globalizing world by considering the notion of a Dutch diaspora in which immigrants as well as those born in the Netherlands are accorded equal ontological status as emigrants. Although the thesis explores theoretical discourse of issues such as multiculturalism, transnationalism, (e/im)migration, and diaspora; an empirical exploration of web-based emigration narratives is also put forth. In doing so, the possibility takes shape that actors conceived of as radically different within a nationalist perspective may share experiences that are actually quite comparable in practice. Specifically Dutch emigrants to Australia are considered in parallel with refugees encountering legal pressure to emigrate from the Netherlands. The paper concludes by arguing for an expanded conceptualization of diaspora. Dutch cultural diaspora includes immigrants as well as those accorded native status by utilizing a perspective on ethnic-national society that avoids essentialistic definitions of exclusive membership in favor of one that recognizes the primacy of contact and cultural exchange in constructing diasporic societies. In doing so it allows for the possibility of envisioning a common Dutch cultural community extending beyond the regional territory of the Netherlands and a narrow view of ethnic Dutchness.


TABLE OF CONTENTS


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS _p4
ABSTRACT _p7

CHAPTER

1 INTRODUCTION: THE PROBLEM OF CONCEPTUALIZING
. (NON)IMMIGRANT SOCIETIES _p9

2 THEORY-METHOD AND LITERATURE REVIEW _p11

. Transnationalism _p12
. Multiculturalism _p16
. Demographic Constructions of Dutch Population/Demographics _p22
. Diaspora as Theoretical Framework and Social Consciousness _p29

3 TRACES OF A DUTCH DIASPORA _p35

. Operationalizing Dutch Diaspora _p36
. Use of Internet Sources of Data _p37
. Representativeness of Data and the Goal(s) of Research _p38
. Comparison versus Contrast _p39
. (Imagining) Communities behind the Data _p40
. Social Position of Researcher vis-à-vis Respondents _p41
. Influence of Emigration and Geography on Research Methods _p43
. Method of Data Analysis _p44
. Postscript on Methodological Paradigms _p48

4 PRELIMINARY SURVEY OF DATA AND SOURCES _p50

. Claiming Belonging _p51
. Struggles and Legal Procedures _p52

5 FURTHER EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION WITHIN A GROWING DIASPORIC
. CONSCIOUSNESS _p57

. Transitional Note _p57
. HetGevolg.nl Narratives _p59
. Strategic Silences _p59
. Spousal Rights _p61
. Facing Multiple Institutional Hostilities _p62
. Experiencing External Threat Inside the Border _p63
. Returning to an Estranged Past _p64
. Theorizing Borders _p65
. Bringing Immigrants and Emigrants Together _p66
. XPdite.net Narratives _p68
. Immigration ≠ Emigration _p68
. The Joy of Visa Success _p69
. Overweighing Multiple Positive Alternatives _p70
. Negotiating Migration-Possibilities through Dialogue _p72
. Migration Control as Domestic Intervention _p76

6 DISCUSSION _p81

APPENDIX

A (UNTRANSLATED) NARRATIVE DATA _p92

B ADDITIONAL NOTES _p102

. Reading Instructions _p103
. Syntheses _p111
. A Personal Note on [Dutch] _p126
. Research and Becoming _p146
. Literature and Theory _p155
. Race and Diaspora _p178
. Diaspora and American Racism _p185
. Race/racism and Social Construction _p187
. Latour’s Obligatory Points of Passage _p193
. Dutch Racism from a U.S. (National) Perspective _p198
. Dutch Racism and Discourses of National ‘Fullness’ _p202
. Racism and Soccer _p209
. Tolerance and Racism _p219
. Methodology _p224
. Some Concerns with Modeling and Data _p224
. From Data to Findings: conceptualizing data as representative _p231
. Methods and Data _p239
. Deleuzian Assemblages as an Alternative to the Statistical Population Approach _p258
. Conclusion _p264

LIST OF REFERENCES _p268

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH _p274