Young migrants and discourses on young migrants in the Netherlands

Abstract

This article compares the perspectives of young migrants in the Netherlands with the dominant discourse on ‘migrants’ at present. The integration of young ‘migrants’ have been studied in the European research projects TRESEGY and PROFACITY with the help of a number of ethnographic studies and a questionnaire in the Netherlands. At present, the dominant discourse on ‘migrants’ in the Netherlands is called ‘new realism’; this discourse adopts particular positions and strategies, and historically speaking, has replaced former dominant genres of discourses on ‘migrants’. There are some limited areas of convergence between the discourse of new realism and the perspectives of ‘migrants’ themselves. This article discusses how the perspectives of young ‘migrants’ have taken over many points of former dominant discourses on ‘migrants’ in the Netherlands; however, at present, divergences between their perspectives and the actual dominant discourse are rather increasing.