Confidence in government is low, especially among Dutch people with a Surinamese and Caribbean background

Dutch people with a Turkish, Moroccan, Surinamese or Caribbean background do not have much faith in the government and often feel discriminated against because of their origin. This is evident from the report Established but not at home of the Social and Cultural Planning Office, which will be published on Tuesday. Refugees from Somalia and Iran, on the other hand, have a remarkable amount of trust in the government and experience less discrimination.

Dutch people with a Surinamese and Caribbean background experience the most discrimination and feel the least represented by politics. They are most pessimistic about the possibility that they will really feel part of the Netherlands. Those feelings are also strong among Turkish and Moroccan Dutch people.

“It seems that the more rooted people are, the greater their unease and sense of exclusion,” the report says. This is a well-known phenomenon and we know it as the integration paradox, says lead researcher Jaco Dagevos. “We see it especially in second-generation migrants. Especially when you have the feeling that you really participate in all areas, being excluded is extra painful. We were surprised that it applies so strongly to Surinamese and Caribbean-Dutch backgrounds. You would expect strong feelings of exclusion especially among Muslim groups.”

Somali and Iranian Dutch have (a lot of) confidence in the Dutch government, although this is declining among the second generation. “They have the regime of the country they fled from as a benchmark,” says Dagevos. “The Dutch can experience the political debate here as quite disturbed. They then say: but at least they talk to each other and listen to each other.” 60 percent of Dutch people without a migration background have (a lot of) confidence in the government – ​​slightly less than Polish migrants (66 percent).

Not very welcoming

It is also second-generation migrants who find the Netherlands a less hospitable country for people with a migration background. Dutch people without a migration background and refugees with an Iranian or Somali background who have lived in the Netherlands for a relatively short period of time consider the Netherlands to be a hospitable country for ‘others’. Migrants with a Polish background also relatively often find the Netherlands hospitable.

The fact that the Netherlands is now a multi-ethnic society is a demographic fact, the researchers write. More than two-thirds (71 percent) of people without a migration background – also surveyed for this study – think it’s a good thing (‘mostly positive’) if a society is made up of people from different cultures. Among people with a migration background, 90 percent are positive about a diverse society.

The feeling of unease is cause for concern, says Dagevos. “It is important that discrimination is taken seriously. Steps are being taken. The coalition agreement states that institutional racism must be tackled. That was unthinkable five years ago. It is important that it is felt by the people it affects.”