Amsterdam is known to be a cosmopolitan and multicultural city where newly arrived migrants find opportunities to test business ideas. Behind every business idea, there are people supporting the entrepreneurs’ initiatives and providing feedback. This chapter examines the role of those people in the process of refining business ideas being implemented in the city. The literature about the role of connections in business highlights the value of networks’ diversity for creativity and innovation. I argue that both diverse and similar business connections have their specific role in the adaptation of a business idea to Amsterdam’s context. The specific role was analyzed from 509 business connections in 41 businesses. Qualitative information and ego network maps were collected to measure similarity indexes in: place of residence, nationality, and level of education of entrepreneurs. The results show that migrant businesses in the multicultural market of Amsterdam rely on diverse and similar connections acting together: similar ones as a safety net where ideas develop and diverse ones where ideas are quickly tested. Migrant entrepreneurs actively use their business connections to carve a niche, whether strengthening relations with migrant-based markets or moving toward the high-end segments of the local market.
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Touristification of consumption spaces describes a process in which retail and hospitality businesses adapt to the tourist demand, eroding place attachment among local residents. While this is an important cause of resistance to tourism, little is known about the mechanisms that drive or mediate this process. We address this gap by interviewing entrepreneurs in Amsterdam. We found three distinct areas in close proximity where entrepreneurs responded to increasing tourism in markedly different ways; by crowd-pleasing, niche-playing and gentrifying. The resulting microgeographies of touristification of consumption spaces have not only been overlooked in literature, but also in urban policies. This causes a mismatch between the more generic, city-wide regulation and the highly differentiated effects of tourism on consumption spaces.
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Food from home can increase feelings of belonging and act as a source of comfortfor people who move to another country and their children. Nevertheless, people whomove elsewhere often start taking over dietary elements of the host culture, a dynamicprocess referred to as food acculturation. This paper argues that this process is not only related to identity negotiations and emotional connections, but that food choices are also shaped by everyday practical realities. Using a social practice theory-inspired approach, focusing on the elements of material, competence, and meaning, this study investigates the food provisioning practices of eighteen people with a migration background through semistructured interviews.Keywords: migration; acculturation; food environment; procuring; cooking; eating; social practice theory
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Indecent exposure is often regarded as a nuisance offense and detailed studies into this topic are relatively rare. However, there is consensus that relatively high recidivism rates and risk of escalation to more severe offenses can be of serious concern among these perpetrators. This cohort study aims to increase our general knowledge on the basic characteristics of these offenses and includes all registered police cases of indecent exposure in the Netherlands between 2012 and 2020, including 6741 incidents, involving 4663 suspects and 3808 registered victims. This first study of a large cohort over a long period of time describes the basic characteristics of these incidents, the perpetrators and their victims, and visualizes the results to explore trends over time. Results show that a modal indecent exposure incident is perpetrated by a 25-year-old male, on foot, on a public road, on a Wednesday afternoon in July, masturbating and directing his genitals intentionally toward a 13-year-old girl. The age distribution of victims shows remarkable similarity to victims of sexual assault. Compared to the first year of the period studied, the number of annually reported incidents gradually declined to half in the last year of the study. Findings are discussed in light of the most prominent theories on exhibitionism. Issues and suggestions relevant to apprehension and treatment of perpetrators are identified and discussed.
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English translation of the first chapter of "Negen plagen tegelijk : hoe overleven we de toekomst?" (vert.: Marije Fresacher)
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The main objective of this report is to analyse and inform about international labour mobility, particularly within Europe, from the perspective of the Dutch Health and Social Care Sector. The report starts by describing the introduction of a new care system in The Netherlands. The government does not participate directly in the actual provision of care. This is a task principally for private care suppliers. Furthermore, the legal position of the Health and Social Care professions, regulated through the Individual Health Care Professions Act, and questions like the international recognition of degrees and the evaluation of foreign diplomas are discussed. This is followed by a clarification of the Dutch education system, particularly, relating to the study of medicine, nursing education and social work education. Subsequently, some core data on the ageing Dutch population are presented. The grey pressure increases and this will have an impact on health spending, health support and the future labour market. Then what follows is a description of the development of employment in the Dutch Health and Social Care Sector, per branch as well as the professions that are engaged in it. The general picture, at this moment, is that the Health and Social Care labour market is reasonably in balance. This trend will continue in the near future; shortages are expected only in the long term. All research done on the subject indicates that international mobility of medical and social professionals is still low in the Netherlands. The question remains whether a more active recruitment policy would be a solution for the expected long term shortages. The report concludes with a look at recruitment policy and some of its developments at the global, national and local level.
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Digital surveillance technologies using artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as computer vision and facial recognition are becoming cheaper and easier to integrate into governance practices worldwide. Morocco serves as an example of how such technologies are becoming key tools of governance in authoritarian contexts. Based on qualitative fieldwork including semi-structured interviews, observation, and extensive desk reviews, this chapter focusses on the role played by AI-enhanced technology in urban surveillance and the control of migration between the Moroccan–Spanish borders. Two cross-cutting issues emerge: first, while international donors provide funding for urban and border surveillance projects, their role in enforcing transparency mechanisms in their implementation remains limited; second, Morocco’s existing legal framework hinders any kind of public oversight. Video surveillance is treated as the sole prerogative of the security apparatus, and so far public actors have avoided to engage directly with the topic. The lack of institutional oversight and public debate on the matter raise serious concerns on the extent to which the deployment of such technologies affects citizens’ rights. AI-enhanced surveillance is thus an intrinsically transnational challenge in which private interests of economic gain and public interests of national security collide with citizens’ human rights across the Global North/Global South divide.
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Across the globe, linguistically heterogeneous populations increasingly define school systems at the same time that developing the ability to communicate cross-culturally is becoming essential for internationalized economies. While these trends seem complimentary, they often appear in paradoxical opposition as represented in the content and execution of nationwide education policies. Given the differing geopolitical contexts within which school systems function, wide variation exists with regard to how policymakers address the challenges of providing language education, including how they frame goals and design programs to align with those goals. Here we present a cross-continental examination of this variation, which reveals parallel tensions among aims for integrating immigrant populations, closing historic achievement gaps, fostering intercultural understanding, and developing multilingual competencies. To consider implications of such paradoxes and parallels in policy foundations, we compare language education in the US and in the EU, focusing on the Netherlands as an illustrative case study.
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De coronapandemie heeft een enorme impact op het mentale welzijn van de Nederlandse bevolking. Gebaseerd op een grootschalig panelonderzoek (N = 22.696) naar de sociale impact van COVID-19, onderzoekt dit artikel ten eerste welke sociale groepen het meest vatbaar zijn voor de gevolgen van de pandemie op de geestelijke gezondheid. Ten tweede onderzoeken we of sociaal kapitaal bescherming biedt tegen deze gevolgen. We vinden dat de impact van COVID-19 op de geestelijke gezondheid aanzienlijk is en dat deze in de loop van 2020 is toegenomen. Vrouwen, jongeren, respondenten met lage inkomens en/of een slechte zelf ervaren gezondheid, ervaren relatief meer angst en stress als gevolg van de pandemie. We vinden geen verschil tussen respondenten met of zonder migratieachtergrond. Sociaal kapitaal (ontvangen steun, vertrouwen in mensen en in instellingen) heeft het verwachte effect: hoe meer steun en vertrouwen, hoe minder angst en stress. Er is een bemiddelingseffect. Ouderen, respondenten met hoge inkomens en/of een goede gezondheid ervaren minder angst en stress, deels omdat ze meer sociaal kapitaal hebben. Dit is anders voor vrouwen. Zij zouden zelfs meer angst en stress ervaren in vergelijking met mannen, ware het niet dat zij meer sociaal kapitaal hebben. We concluderen dus dat sociaal kapitaal inderdaad enige bescherming biedt tegen de negatieve gevolgen van COVID-19 voor de geestelijke gezondheid.
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Background: Globalisation trends such as increased migration to andwithin European countries have led to even greater cultural diversityin European societies. Cultural diversity increases the demand ofcultural competency amongst professionals entering their workfield. In particular, healthcare professionals need knowledge and skillsto equip them to work with clients from different cultural backgrounds.Within higher education (HE), the professional developmentof cultural competency should ideally feature in undergraduate educationand is often promoted as a by-product of a study abroadperiod. However, recognising that logistical and financial barriersoften exist for extended study abroad, one alternative approachcould be participation, at home or abroad, in a short-term internationalprogramme set within students’ own HE institutions.Purpose: The aim of this study was to explore HE students’ experiencesof participating in international ‘short-term mobility week’programmes at three European universities.Methods: Each university involved in the research offered short termprogrammes for healthcare professions students at their owninstitution, where both local students and students from abroadcould participate. Participants were healthcare students in theprogramme at one of the three universities. Data were collectedthrough focus group interviews (4–8 students per group; n = 25).The data were transcribed and then analysed qualitatively, usinga content comparison method.Results: The analysis identified six categories, which reflectedstudents’ journeys within the short-term international experiences.Conclusions: The analysis suggested that, for these students,engagement in a short-term mobility week programme providedvaluable opportunities for encounters with others, which contributedto personal and professional development, greater confidencein the students’ own professional identities, as well as anincreasing sense of cultural awareness.
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