The Netherlands is home to one million citizens with roots in former Dutch colonies, such as Indonesia, Suriname, and the Antilles. Due to this influx of non-Western immigrants, a nationwide debate over multiculturalism has been waged over the past decade.Postcolonial Netherlandsaddresses themes of multicultural integration, such as state-sponsored financial gestures towards first-generation immigrants, and their subsequent results. Taking on a controversial thesis, Gert Oostindie claims that children of immigrants feel diminishing ties to their international origins and that for newer Dutch generations, multiculturalism has less and less importance.
Gert Oostindieis director of the KITLV/Royal Institute of Linguistics and Anthropology in Leiden and professor of Caribbean history at Leiden University.
Introduction
1. Decolonization, migration and the postcolonial bonus From the Indies/Indonesia
From Suriname
From the Antilles
Migration and integration in the Netherlands
The disappearance of the postcolonial community and bonus
2. Citizenship: rights, participation, identification The right to remain Dutch
Postcolonial organizations: profiles and meaning
Political participation
Ambivalent identities
3. The struggle for recognition: war and the silent migration From war to exodus
War and
bersiap The 'cold' reception
The uprooting of the Moluccans
Veterans and the Indisch community
Memorial culture
West Indian and Dutch stories and silences around war and exodus
4. The individualization of identityl£i