L.A. Brouwer

Dutch Moroccan Websites: A Transnational Imagery?

In the last few years, second-generation migrants in the Netherlands have started to set up their own websites, in particular Dutch Moroccan youth. These developments have changed the old phenomenon of migration, making new communication technology a special feature of the concept of transnationalism. For migrants, the Internet is an excellent tool to ally themselves with compatriots throughout the world. This paper focuses on how the second generation of migrants uses discussion boards of websites to express their ties with their country of origin; thus websites are examples of cultural artefacts that can be seen as a virtual way of keeping alive the image of Morocco. Two websites, Maroc.nl and Maghreb.nl, show how Dutch Moroccan youth express their loyalty and belonging to Morocco. They use these websites as a source of information and imagination, therefore the sites function as a binding factor in a Dutch social context. In fact, what these particular websites keep together is not the transnational but the national network of Dutch Moroccan youths.

The Women's Movement and the 20 February Movement in Morocco: An Akward Relationship

On Saturday 8 December 2012, all kinds of different organizations from all over Morocco organized a human chain to demand more rights, and to end violence against women. Women of all ages, but also some men, gathered in front of the Parliament in Rabat with their banners. It was an impressive image, because of the masks some women were wearing, as they did not want to be recognized, women were also wearing banners around their head with the French text printemps de la justice, relating to the Arab Spring. I was very curious, who are these women and why are they protesting? I had a few very interesting talks with women activists who came from as far as Fez, Meknes and Casablanca. Their stories were quite similar. What was striking is that although their banners referred to the Arab Spring, they were all very critical of the 20 February movement (which led the protests in Morocco). They were also very critical of the new Islamists-led government in Morocco. Some young female activists were criticizing the old – women organizations, which they did not feel associated with. This chapter tries to understand these differences of female activism and what they reflect. Not excluding the possibility of a generation gap, they are a good example of emancipation, carving a space for all kinds of different subjectivities.

Sociale media in en rondom de vluchtelingen-noodopvang bij Nijmegen

Social media in and around the emergency shelter for refugees near Nijmegen, the Netherlands To cope with the limited capacity of the established reception centres during the refugee crisis of 2015, the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) set up emergency reception centers for refugees such as Heumensoord nearby the Dutch city of Nijmegen. At the peak of the crisis, the Heumensoord centre hosted about 3,000 asylum seekers. COA’s organizational approach to manage reception centers was characterized by a top-down policy. At the same time, host communities of local residents around the emergency reception center developed horizontal relations within and beyond the walls of the center, actively using available social media platforms such as Facebook. These horizontal relations enabled the development of social relations, and facilitated the exchange of goods and services. This article demonstrates the different communication strategies used by the stakehol- ders at Heumensoord, and how the different worlds of asylum seekers and the receiving, host communities came together. It also presents bottom-up alternatives to the top-down crisis approaches by unravelling cooperation options and the use of social media platforms that can lead to a more resili- ent interaction between asylum seekers and local communities.

“I’m Not Different—Because Everybody Is Different”: Notions of Belonging among Muslims in the Netherlands

According to public media and policy debates, the multicultural society has failed. In these debates, people who hold dual citizenship are criticized for their lack of loyalty to their new country, because it is assumed that a person can feel at home only in one country and in one place. Although the focus on the group and the country can vary, the content of the discourse in Western countries is almost always the same (Andersen and Biseth 2013: 10). Migrants are seen as a threat to national security and social cohesion if they are not willing to respect Western values such as freedom of speech and human rights (Bouras 2013: 1228; Glick Schiller 2013: 32).