In the social sciences, especially in social psychology and sociology, fear of the unknown and the tendency to favour the group one belongs to are recognised phenomena. This chapter will look at elements of these scientific theories and establish a link between these elements and the initial findings of a study of Syrian refugees on the Dutch labour market. First, this study is described, after which a glimpse into the world of social psychology is provided. This chapter concludes by taking a wide perspective on Dutch society and by discussing some lessons that can be learned for a diverse future. Research and education can support society in highlighting the importance of diversity and in training people to recognise the added value of diversity. Everyone will need to put considerable effort into ensuring people are judged for their personal qualities. Lecturers and professionals will need to examine their own judgements and biases first, before they can help to shape the perceptions of students. Together with students, lecturers can promote the benefits of the contact hypothesis and the concept of interactional diversity.
DOCUMENT
Een Duits verzorgingstehuis nodigde recent aangekomen vluchtelingen uit die geïnteresseerd waren in werken in de ouderenzorg. Het doel van deze studie was om inzicht te krijgen in hoe gevestigde zorgverleners en eerstegeneratie immigranten nieuwkomers sleutelden aan waarden om de zorg voor mensen met dementie vorm te geven. Deze etnografische studie omvatte 200 uur observatie, 24 diepte-interviews en twee focusgroepinterviews met zes immigranten van de eerste generatie en zes gevestigde personeelsleden. De gevestigde zorgverleners en immigranten van de eerste generatie toonden zich bereid en in staat om te sleutelen aan situaties waarin verschillende waarden een rol speelden. Wanneer de werklast echter te zwaar wordt, kunnen medewerkers uit beide groepen gevoelens van machteloosheid, onverschilligheid en demotivatie ervaren. Institutionele beperkingen hebben een negatieve invloed op de interactie tussen gevestigde zorgverleners en immigranten van de eerste generatie die nieuwkomers zijn en beïnvloeden hun uitvoering van de zorg voor geriatrische bewoners met dementie. In dergelijke situaties wordt het cruciaal voor het personeel om een ondersteunende supervisor te hebben die hen kan helpen om te gaan met de dagelijkse stressfactoren van hun praktijk.
MULTIFILE
Whilst until the late 1980s most migration issues developed in a parallel manner but with national specifics, important differences showed up during the 1990s and at the beginning of this decade. Since the middle of the 1990s, there has been an obvious change in policy towards migrants and foreigners in the Netherlands, and those changes have been more or less “exported” to our neighbouring countries and even to the level of the EU. Integration into society with the maintenance of the immigrant’s own culture has been replaced by integration into the Dutch society after passing an integration examination. The focus of this article is to investigate those changes and to compare the implementation of those policies in the Netherlands/Limburg and Germany/NRW, where the official understanding of not being an immigration country was dominant until the end of the 1990s, and where integration has only recently become an important political issue. Both countries are now facing similar challenges for better integration into the society, especially into the educational system. Firstly, the autors describe migration definitions, types, the numbers of migrants and the backgrounds of migrant policies in Germany and the Netherlands up until the middle of the 1990s. Secondly they discuss the integration policies thereafter: the pathway to a new policy and the Action Plan Integration in Germany, and the central ideas of the Civic Integration of Newcomers Act (WIN) in the Netherlands. Integration policy in the Netherlands is highly centralised with little differentiation on the local governmental level when compared to South Limburg. Thirdly, the autors investigate the cross-border cooperation between professional organisations and educational institutions in the Euregio Meuse-Rhine, and the involvement of social work institutions and social workers in their process of integration into the local society and the exchange of each others’ experiences (the ECSW and RECES projects).
DOCUMENT
