Ultimately, I want all Black, migrant, and refugee women in Holland to believe in themselves. With training and open dialogue, we come together and organize the Zami award, rewarding each other’s power and organizing that power. […] When [politicians] talk about Black, migrant, and refugee women they always [talk about] them as a problem, women with problems. But we are women with power, we are women with love, we are women with so many good things to offer this country, and we just want the rest of Holland to see and recognize this. To use this!
-Vanessa, President of Zami, member of the Black, Migrant, and Refugee Women’s Movement
Activist Vanessa’s quote demonstrates the issues important to her personally and mirrors what I have learned in interviews with thirty-eight other members of the Black, Migrant, and Refugee Women’s Movement. My thesis argues that my subjects traveled to the Netherlands as postcolonial migrants seeking recognition as full members of Dutch society but instead faced marginalization as the embodiments of the problems of cultural difference. In response to this marginalization, the members of the movement used their networks within the Black, Migrant, and Refugee Women’s Movement to create spaces of belonging where they found the acceptance and recognition they have desired as postcolonial migrants to the Netherlands. I contended that my subjects’ racial, gender, and postcolonial identities were transformed from markers of exclusion to the basis of inclusion within the Black, Migrant, and Refugee Women’s Movement, where they could be recognized as individuals who have much to contribute to the Netherlands. Ultimately, they transformed their collective identity as Black, migrant women into an affirmative identity that promotes change and acceptance.
My thesis engages with theories of adaptation and critical race studies to examine the role held by gendered, racial, and postcolonial identities in the interpretation of and reaction to marginalization in the Dutch integration process. Theories of adaptation lay the framework for discussing migrant perceptions of the incorporation process and their reaction to its negative experience. These theories largely interpret racial discrimination as the root of these negative experiences; however, I use critical race theory to argue that migrants’ gender and postcolonial identities are equally as important to how they interpret their negative experiences of incorporation. Moreover, the shared gendered, racial, and postcolonial experience holds such significance that it defines their reaction to the incorporation process, as these identities have become important markers of their activism to overcome oppression in Dutch society.
These ideas have been inspired, shaped, and created with my thirty-nine subjects in mind. The thesis rests on a qualitative, anthropological study, conducted with the use of an oral history methodology. Oral history concentrates on analyzing life stories or personal histories, which give a researcher access to questions of memory, individuality and subjectivity. The use of this methodology was inspired by Trinh T. Minh-ha’s “The Language of Nativism: Anthropology as a Scientific Conversation of Man with Man.” She attests that anthropology must take responsibility for silencing the Other and perpetuating the systems it attempts to expose.[1] She calls for a reversal of roles to facilitate greater awareness of this silencing. In recognizing these concerns, I have placed my subjects at the center of inquiry, privileging their interpretation of events.
The first chapter is a revisionist history that places Black women at the center in order to fill in the absence they have in the Dutch historical canon. It examines the history of colonialism and postcolonialism, providing the relevant context needed to understand the experiences of my subjects. I argue that Dutch colonialism, decolonization, postcolonial migration, and integration have historically marginalized Black, migrant women. Analyzing these themes provides evidence that contemporary women’s experiences are directly impacted by the past, and that Black women’s exclusion is customary rather than exceptional in the history of the Netherlands.
The second chapter moves beyond the general analysis of the first and uses the voices of Black, migrant women to portray how they interpret their past and present marginalization. It examines the exclusion my subjects feel in the integration process and how their racial, gendered, and postcolonial identities are inherently tied to the perception of this marginalization. This chapter considers the themes of colonialism, education, employment, identity, discrimination, and integration, those most important to my subjects. Ultimately, these women perceive that their marginalization prevents them from obtaining the sense of belonging they desire and are entitled to as Dutch citizens and former colonized people.
The third chapter presents how these women create new spaces of belonging for themselves in reaction to their exclusion. Within the spaces of belonging my subjects provide each other the recognition and acceptance they are denied from the greater Dutch society. I attempt to reverse the common narrative of victimhood that surrounds Black female migrants by exhibiting how these women have been the key agents in creating their own acceptance. I argue that my subjects use their racial, gender, and postcolonial identities as markers of their activism and a foundation for creating shared spaces of belonging.
In the conclusion, I contend there is value in the inclusion of Black, migrant women’s experiences in the discussion on immigrant integration in the Netherlands. Their experiences prove that Black, migrant women’s actions can promote the individual and collective integration of minorities in Dutch society. Additionally, recognizing their achievements could have potential benefits for the Netherlands; however the recent political and economic developments could threaten their efforts unless there is continued investment in this population and a reassertion of the Dutch commitment to tolerance.