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.
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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.
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In January 2022 the new Dutch Civic Integration programme was launched together with promises of improvements it would bring in facilitating the ‘integration’ of newcomers to the Netherlands. This study presents a critical discourse analysis of texts intended for municipalities to take on their new coordinating role in this programme. The analysis aims to understand the discourse in the texts, which actors are mobilized by them, and the role these texts and these actors play in processes of governmental racialization. The analysis demonstrates shifting complex assemblages are brought into cascades of governance in which all actors are disciplined to accept the problem of integration as a problem of cultural difference and distance, and then furthermore disciplined to adopt new practices deemed necessary to identify and even ‘objectively’ measure the inherent traits contributing to this problematic. Lastly, the analysis displays that all actors are disciplined to accept the solution of ‘spontaneous compliance’; a series of practices and knowledges, which move the civic integration programme beyond an aim of responsibilization, into a programme of internalization, wherein newcomers are expected to own and address their problematic ‘nature’, making ‘modern’ values their own.
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