24 research outputs found
Micro labour, ambivalence and discomfort: how people without a migration background strategically engage with difference in a majority–minority neighbourhood
No full textIn contemporary West European cities, people without migration background are increasingly faced with a new demographic reality in which they have become a numerical minority in the neighbourhood. This majority–minority make-up calls for an understanding of how people without migration background partake in the reciprocal practice of ‘living together with difference’, within this new reality. Drawing on interviews conducted in Amsterdam, we show a rather complex picture, including both avoidance of difference, as well as the small, strategic, quotidian ‘work’ some people put into their engagement, that we call: micro labour. With this micro labour lens, we further the discussion on conviviality, by identifying two forms of labour performed by people without migration background: managing conflict and adapting to difference. We show that micro labour remains a messy practice: it is infused with ambivalence, discomfort and is always implicated in power dynamics
The fine art of boundary sensitivity: Second-generation professionals engaging with social boundaries in the workplace
Get PDFCrul, M.R.J. [Promotor]Ghorashi, H. [Promotor]Timmerman, C. [Promotor
Revisiting the established-outsider constellation in a gentrifying majority-minority neighbourhood
No full textThe phenomenon of majority-minority cities refers to increasingly ethnically diverse neighbourhoods where everybody belongs to a minority group.Simultaneously, another phenomenon parallels this majority-minority formation and that is gentrification, leading to an inflow of white middle-class residents into neighbourhoods which were previously predominantly occupied by residents with a migration background. Neighbourhoods that 30 years ago experienced a ‘white-flight’ and were subsequently almost exclusively inhabited by migrants and their descendants are now experiencing a ‘comeback’ of young urban professionals and middle-class young families who purchase (un)affordable housing in these gentrifying neighbourhoods. This creates an interesting condition for not only the migrants, but also their descendants who were often born and raised in these neighbourhoods and have lived there for over 30 years. Using Elias and Scotson’s established–outsiders model, this article shows that, while claiming the neighbourhood as their own, descendants of migrants are experiencing a loss of their established status and feeling like an outsider in the face of the changes brought about by gentrification. Using semi-structured interviews with residents with and without a migration background, this article shows how gentrification has different implications for people living in majority-minority settings at the intersections of social class and ethnicity
Are “Weak Ties” Really Weak? Social Capital Reliance Among Second Generation Turkish Lawyers in Paris
No full textThe chapter studies social capital development and application among highly educated Turkish second generation working in the law sector in Paris. Previously we have demonstrated how social capital was a crucial resource in the professional pathways of Turkish second generation lawyers in Sweden, the Netherlands, France and Germany. In this chapter we take our inquiry a step further analyzing the strong and weak ties that descendants of migrants relied upon in their professional pathways. We use biographical interviews conducted with descendants of migrants in France in which they explicate their entire educational and professional trajectories. We concentrate on Turkish second generation with low-educated parents hence young people who did not receive direct professional resources from their parents. We see for this group the development of professional networks already begins in tertiary education and continues into their labour market careers. The paper aims to make contributions to several strands of the literature. Firstly, it contributes to the debate on temporality of networks by showing how distinct forms of social capital became crucial in different phases of their careers and how they relied on both weak and strong ties strategically to overcome the glass ceilings in their sectors and move upwards in their pathways. Secondly, we aim to problematize the concepts of “strong” and “weak” ties in relation to their ethnic connotations. Our study shows that second generation lawyers were able to develop relations of trust with their so-called “weak ties” while the ethnic “strong ties” represented useful clientele.</p
Practices of change in the education sector: professionals dealing with ethnic school segregation
No full textThis article looks at second-generation professionals in the education sector in Sweden, France and the Netherlands, whose parents were born in Turkey. In their stories, ethnic school segregation appears as an important topic that coincides with other inequalities in society and signals educational injustice. This so-called wicked problem is used to understand how second-generation professionals assert influence in their quest for educational change. The analysis, based on semi-structured interviews, shows that influence and change are conditional. Second-generation professionals are constrained by the structural boundaries of the sector, which seem particularly fixed because of the way in which the education sector is entangled with state policies. Simultaneously, they are aware of these boundaries, and of the nation-specific change-opportunities existing within them. Using their “in-betweenness” as second-generation social climbers, with their knowledge of the education system, they apply varying practices of change focused on moderating the negative effects of ethnic school segregation
Editorial: Navigating Social Boundaries and Belonging: People Without Migration Background in Majority-Minority Cities
Get PDFThis editorial introduces the articles in this thematic issue, which revolves around the ERC Advanced research project Becoming a Minority (BaM), carried out between 2018 and 2023. The aim of the project was to understand how people without a migration background think about and live in diversity. Through this aim, the BaM project has tried to advance our thinking about the concept of integration
Urban space and social cognition: The effect of urban space on intergroup perceptions
Get PDFCities and neighborhoods are key sites of migration-related diversity. Differences in lifestyle, class, ethnicity, or religion become visible in urban spaces, such as neighborhood bars, shops, or cafes. This article applies a social cognitive approach to explore how urban spaces shape the relationship between ethnic encounters and intergroup perceptions. Theoretical work on urbanism suggests that public and private spaces have different effects on people’s perceptions of group interdependence and relative group status. This article contributes to the ongoing debate between conflict and contact schools of thought by defining how contextual conditions promote ethnic diversity’s positive or negative effects on intergroup perceptions
The ability to deal with difference: Turkish-Dutch professionals as go-betweens in the education sector
Get PDFBased on sixteen semi-structured interviews, this article examines how second-generation Turkish-Dutch education professionals experience their professional position in the ethnically homogeneous upper echelons of the Dutch education sector. The analysis shows that second-generation education professionals, being newcomers to higher-level positions in the sector, have to engage with diverse cultural repertoires at work. Instead of being stuck in-between these repertoires, second-generation education professionals actively “go-between” repertoires, employing their ability to deal with difference. In the increasingly super-diverse Dutch classrooms, this “go-between” attitude functions as a second-generation advantage and is conceptually better suited than in-betweenness to describe the position of second-generation professionals
Discrimination of second-generation professionals in leadership positions
Get PDFThis article, based on interviews from the Dutch Pathways to Success Project, investigates how Turkish-Dutch and Moroccan-Dutch second-generation professionals in leadership positions experience and deal with subtle discrimination at work. We argue that subtle discrimination in organizations remains a reality for second-generation professionals in leadership positions. Because organizations are penetrated by power processes in society at large, these professionals are perceived not only on the basis of their position within the organization, but also on the basis of their marginalized ethnic group background. We show this through the existence of subtle discriminatory practices at three organizational levels -that of supervisors, same- level colleagues and subordinates - which may take place at one or more of these levels. When dealing with subtle discrimination, Turkish-Dutch and Moroccan-Dutch second-generation professionals in leadership positions show an awareness of organizational power and hierarchies. This awareness amounts to various forms of "micro-emancipation" by the second generation -adapted to the organizational level (supervisors, same- level colleagues and subordinates) they are dealing with - that question and challenge subtle discrimination in organizations
Setting the stage:Being successful and negotiating new (mainstream) identities
No full textThis chapter focuses on self-definitions among professionally successful members of the second generation in four European countries: Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium. The analysis departs from a concept of identity that allows for simultaneous and intersecting references to different categories of belonging, and looks for the ways in which second-generation professionals in Western Europe position themselves in relation to three main relevant aspects: (a) being successful professionals in their specific fields; (b) being socially mobile, thus having achieved a middle-class status; and (c) being ‘second generation’, i.e. being raised in a country to which their parents had migrated from another country. The analysis looks at personal strategies for navigating the discursive challenges and external ascriptions between feelings of home and success, on the one side, and Othering experiences and ‘home country’ references in their families etc., on the other. The results indicate that high levels of education and professional and middle-class positions open up a range of possibilities to make more active choices in self-defining their belonging and individual ‘life worlds’ – including places of residence, the intensity of family relations, choice of social relations and preferred working environments.</p
