We've all heard the debate: that Dutch society has come to associate the term "allochtoon" (meaning migrant) with socio-economic problems and social polarisation.

Expats, on the other hand, are referred to as 'kenniswerkers' (knowledge workers) and are the subject of a determined government-led recruiting drive.

But new moves are afoot to end any misuse of the word allochtoon: the training centre for employers association VNO-NCW is urging for the use of bilcultureel (bicultural) instead. It said the word would be a positive counterpart to allochtoon.

"You are bicultural if you are enriched with at least one other culture," the training centre De Baak said last week.
 
The training centre said it wanted to support successful immigrants - sources of bicultural inspiration - to climb even higher.

De Baak, however, is not the first to try and change the use of the word allochtoon: several parties in the Dutch Parliament tried last year to convince the Cabinet to discard the word. The government refused.

In ordinary language, there have been several different terms used in the past 40 years to describe migrants.

These included gastarbeiders (guest labourers), buitenlanders (foreigners or aliens), immigranten (immigrants), medelanders (non-natives) and nieuwe Nederlanders (new Dutchmen or women).

In the 1980s, the government was still primarily using the term etnische minderheden (ethnic minorities). The term allochtoon became increasingly 'integrated' from the start of the 1990s.

And according to the Van Dale online dictionary, allochtoon simply means someone who originates from elsewhere. Its literal meaning is foreign.

But rising rates of immigration, Muslim extremism, waves of asylum seekers, social pressures, ethnic crime, economic troubles and a tightening of Dutch immigration policy in the past five years have all served to tar allochtonen with the same brush.

The result: discrimination.

Though said in jest, I recall a football teammate who called from the bar as I was leaving one afternoon: "Kom hier terug allochtoon" (Come back here migrant). Taken aback, I joked (perhaps wrongly): "But I'm not black". He laughed and said it didn't matter.

But the emphasis was on that word allochtoon, the emphasis was on difference and it was used like an accusation rather than a celebration and unlike this occasion, the word is not always used in jest.

No wonder our former (ethnic) Turkish teammates no longer line up with us on Sundays. And I've also seen Moroccan Muslims turned away from bars simply because of their ethnicity.

Now, I'm not sure what word should be used, though I remember what an old colleague of mine once suggested, that perhaps allochtonen should simply be called Dutch.

The Labour PvdA is not prepared to go so far, but urged the Amsterdam City Council in September to stop using the word, claiming that third generation migrants are still being referred to as allochtonen.

Amsterdam PvdA leader Manon van der Garde said the word is no longer appropriate and that ethnic groups should be more specifically identified, such as Irakese Amsterdammers (Iraqi Amsterdam residents). Van der Garde said scrapping the word would end the 'us and them' attitude.

The proposal was part of city council debates around the programme 'Wij Amsterdammers II' (We Amsterdam residents II) that was designed to combat discrimination, intolerance and extremism after the murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh in 2004. 

PvdA Alderman of Diversity Ahmed Aboutaleb was receptive to his party's plan, but said "semantic solutions are no solution for real problems".

And when I think of conversations with some Dutch people who are willing (only reluctantly) to let immigrants into the country "but not next door to me", I am certain that Aboutaleb is right.

Changing the word allochtoon, however, is still a good first step away from the negative connotations that being foreign is currently associated with.

But what will we replace it with?

Aaron Gray-Block
Editor
Expatica Netherlands

16 October 2006

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[Copyright Expatica 2006]

Subject: allochtoon, immigration, foreigners in the Netherlands