Beyond Dutch borders: transnational politics among colonial migrants, guest workers and the second generation

Despite widespread scepticism in receiving societies, migrants often remain loyal to their former homeland and stay active in the politics there. Beyond Dutch Borders is about such ties. Combining extensive fieldwork with quantitative data, this book compares how transnational political involvement among guest workers from Turkey and post-colonial migrants from Surinam living in the Netherlands has evolved over the past half-century. It looks at Turks seeking to improve their position in Dutch society, Kurds lobbying for equal rights in Turkey and Surinamese hoping to boost development in their country of origin. Sending-state governments, political parties and organisations are shown to be key shapers of transnational migrant politics both in opposition to, and support of, homeland ruling elites. Meanwhile, it becomes clear that migrants' border-crossing loyalties and engagement have not dented their political integration in the receiving societies - quite the opposite. Certainly in this respect, the sceptics have been wrong.Ondanks het heersende grote wantrouwen van het gastland, blijven migranten vaak trouw aan hun land van herkomst en blijven actief in de politiek. Door uitgebreid veldwerk te combineren met kwantitatieve gegevens vergelijkt de auteur de manier waarop transnationale politieke betrokkenheid zich heeft ontwikkeld onder gastarbeiders uit Turkije en postkoloniale migranten uit Suriname die in Nederland leven. Duidelijk wordt dat de grensoverschrijdende loyaliteit en betrokkenheid van immigranten hun politieke integratie in het gastland niet heeft belemmerd, maar juist heeft gestimuleerd

Beyond Dutch Borders

Despite widespread scepticism in receiving societies, migrants often remain loyal to their former homeland and stay active in the politics there. Beyond Dutch Borders is about such ties. Combining extensive fieldwork with quantitative data, this book compares how transnational political involvement among guest workers from Turkey and post-colonial migrants from Surinam living in the Netherlands has evolved over the past half-century. It looks at Turks seeking to improve their position in Dutch society, Kurds lobbying for equal rights in Turkey and Surinamese hoping to boost development in their country of origin. Sending-state governments, political parties and organisations are shown to be key shapers of transnational migrant politics both in opposition to, and support of, homeland ruling elites. Meanwhile, it becomes clear that migrants' border-crossing loyalties and engagement have not dented their political integration in the receiving societies - quite the opposite. Certainly in this respect, the sceptics have been wrong

Ethnography’s Contribution to Newspaper Analysis: Claims-Making Revisited. CES Papers - Open Forum #12, 2012

Newspaper data are a popular data source for studies across the social sciences. This paper empirically examines the widespread criticisms that this data is hampered by selection, description and researcher bias. It does so by taking one of the most authoritative European comparative research projects ‘Mobilisation on Ethnic Relations, Citizenship and Immigration’ (MERCI) as its case study given that the resulting publications have inspired many researches on both sides of the Atlantic to apply the so-called ‘claims-making’ method (e.g. Koopmans, Statham, Giugni and Passy 2005). Drawing on the author’s familiarity with the Dutch part of the data set and field specific expertise, this paper qualitatively re-analyses the claims recorded for Surinamese, Turkish and Kurdish migrants in the Netherlands and reviews the conclusions for migrant transnationalism and integration in particular. It reveals how an ethnographic approach can tackle description bias and researcher unreliability and brings selection bias into full view. While offering concrete suggestions for incorporating ethnography into newspaper analysis, it also exposes the limits of these methods for the study of cross-border activities such as migrant transnationalism

Introduction: gender in European political science education - taking stock and future directions

Major changes have occurred in the teaching of gender since the shift from women’s studies to gender studies. In some institutions gender studies became a separate and interdisciplinary track within social sciences and humanities, while in others it either lacked integration or disappeared altogether. What do these developments mean for gender in political science curricula? In this symposium scholars from different European countries, including Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom reflect on the state of gender within political science education. This introductory essay places national experiences within a broader European perspective; highlighting that gender is virtually absent from much of the political science curriculum. Gender and political science courses suffer from issues of supply (rather than demand), such as the persistent under-representation of women academics within political science as well as tight budget constraints. We argue that this is problematic and that gender should be a core part of the political science curricula for three key reasons: (i) politics is about power and power is always gendered; (ii) embedding gender in the core of political science education may positively affect gender equality in the profession and politics; and (iii) it reflects the contemporary resurgence of feminist activism across Europe. We conclude with concrete recommendations about how institutions and individuals can help address the virtual absence of gender, including: the integration of gender-related courses in politics programs; Gender & Politics related awards; big data collection projects regarding women in the profession and gender and politics teaching; and the development of leadership courses for women in politics

Intersectionality and the politics of knowledge production

Since its coinage in the 1980s, intersectionality has journeyed across borders and disciplines, which is a testament to its resonance. We examine how intersectionality has travelled within political science and the potential impact that this has had on its political project, with particular attention to the politics of knowledge production. The analysis draws on: (1) an original database of articles published in political science journals; (2) descriptive citation analysis; (3) a content analysis of the articles; and (4) an online survey of authors. We find that positionality plays an important role in shaping the field and political project of intersectionality

Representing their own? Ethnic minority women in the Dutch parliament

Ethnic minority women tend to be better represented in parliaments than ethnic minority men. What does this mean for their substantive representation? This article makes use of intersectional analysis to study how the relationship between descriptive and substantive representation differs within and between gender and ethnic groups. Drawing on written parliamentary questions and the committee memberships of MPs in seven parliamentary sessions (1995-2012) in the Netherlands, a strong link is found between descriptive and substantive representation. Female ethnic minority MPs more often sit on committees and table questions that address ethnic minority women's interests than male ethnic minority and female ethnic majority MPs. The link, however, is fragile as it is based on a small number of active MPs. This demonstrates the importance of an intersectional approach to understanding how representation works in increasingly diverse parliaments, which cannot be captured by focusing on gender or ethnicity alone

Beyond Dutch Borders : Transnational Politics among Colonial Migrants, Guest Workers and the Second Generation

Ondanks het heersende grote wantrouwen van het gastland, blijven migranten vaak trouw aan hun land van herkomst en blijven actief in de politiek. Door uitgebreid veldwerk te combineren met kwantitatieve gegevens vergelijkt de auteur de manier waarop transnationale politieke betrokkenheid zich heeft ontwikkeld onder gastarbeiders uit Turkije en postkoloniale migranten uit Suriname die in Nederland leven. Duidelijk wordt dat de grensoverschrijdende loyaliteit en betrokkenheid van immigranten hun politieke integratie in het gastland niet heeft belemmerd, maar juist heeft gestimuleerd

Women in Transnational Migrant Activism: Supporting Social Justice Claims of Homeland Political Organizations

This article studies the conceptions of social justice of women active in transnational migrant politics over a period of roughly 20 years in the Netherlands. The novel focus on <em>migrant women </em>reveals<em> </em>that transnational politics is almost completely male-dominated and -directed. Two of the exceptions found in this article include a leftist and a Kurdish women organization supporting the communist cause in the 1980s and the Kurdish struggle in the 1990s in Turkey, respectively. In both organizations gender equality was subordinated to broader ideologies of political parties in their homeland. Leftist activists in the cold war era supported a narrow definition of the "politics of redistribution," while and Kurdish activists, combined classical features of the latter with those of traditional identity politics