What is Be[com]ing Dutch? What does becoming Dutch mean in this Age of Global Democracy? The first guest-speakers of the Caucus, professors Paul Scheffer and Louk Hagendoorn have a very different approach to answering this question. Is there even an answer, seems to be the general idea.

According to Paul Scheffer, professor at the University of Amsterdam and author of the book ‘Land van aankomst’, the Dutch are in the midst of a very difficult process of re-imagining their identity. He illustrates this with the history of America. ,,America as a nation has continuously reinvented itself. What is it to be American? In the mid 19^th century Irish people were the immigrants and were looked down upon. They were catholic and America wanted to be an protestant country. So, Catholics were discriminated against. It took 120 years to finally have a catholic president, John F. Kennedy. But over the course of the century public perspective changed. The Irish weren’t the ‘bad’ guys anymore, but others were. From 1882 until 1943 there was even a legal Asian Excluding Act, banning Asians from becoming legal citizens of America.”

As for the Netherlands, Scheffer believes that mass migration always leads to conflict. You can’t have one without the other. ,,Immigration and keeping your own traditions and culture is not something that can go together,’’ Scheffer says. ,,Both countries, the one where the migrant comes from and the land where he’s going, need to understand that there is a sense of alienation and loss on both sides.” How can we, in the Netherlands, incorporate our differences and believes? ,,The Netherlands have lost their connection to their original believes. We’re not religious anymore, we don’t feel like we belong to a particular group. Right now, we’re confronted with many people coming to Holland who are religious, namely Muslims. They have a strong sense and history of religion. They don’t want to loose this. Are we able to re-imagine our country again with the inclusion of the Islam?”‘

Louk Hagendoorn thinks that Dutch Nationalism is nonsense. ,,We travel a lot, go everywhere and think we are cultured and cosmopolitan, but are we? We are the champion of the lowest score of Nationalism. We don’t admit that we’re nationalist, we’ll rather call ourselves cosmopolitan.” Dutch people have always been interested in other cultures. The Dutch have a history of interacting and living with migrants. But Hagendoorn is quick to say that the Dutch are proud of their country. He calls this the ‘Horseshoe’. As he explains:,,I once asked someone if he believed in throwing a horseshoe over his shoulder for good luck. He said; no, I don’t believe, but it works! It’s the same with the Dutch. If anyone offends them or their country, the Dutch are quick to defend their country. So, they do care about their country but don’t want people to know.”

Paul Scheffer is a prominent member of a Dutch political party, Partij van de Arbeid, professor at the University of Amsterdam and author of the newly released book ‘Land van Aankomst’.

Louk Hagendoorn is now a retired Professor of Social Sciences of the University of Utrecht. In the past Hagendoorn has researched the relations between the Dutch and non-Dutch living in the Netherlands (migrants).

For more information on Paul Scheffer and his article on multiculturism which ignited a huge storm of criticism please visit here (Dutch)

For more on Louk Hagendoorn please visit here (English)