The Complex Role of Ethnicity in Urban Mixing: A Study of Two Deprived Neighbourhoods in Amsterdam (original) (raw)
Related papers
Ethnic segregation in The Netherlands: An analysis at neighbourhood level
International Journal of Manpower, 2009
Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to describe the degree of ethnic residential segregation and diversification in Dutch neighbourhoods. Design/methodology/approach -Using data on neighbourhood level, the authors calculate segregation and diversification indices, and illustrate the distribution of main origin groups by cumulative distribution functions. A preliminary analysis is conducted to quantify the relationship between neighbourhood ethnic composition and economic outcomes (income and welfare dependency). Findings -No evidence is found on the existence of mono-ethnic neighbourhoods in The Netherlands. The higher concentration of non-Western immigrants in the large cities occurs in neighbourhoods with a high degree of diversity from several origins. An apparent strong correlation between the concentration of non-Western immigrants and the prevalence of social benefits is likely due to the composition effect. The findings counter the public opinion that ghetto-like neighbourhoods are dominant. They suggest that neighbourhood housing composition plays possibly an important role to attract immigrants with a weak socio-economic position, who are often from a variety of non-Western countries, rather than from a single origin. Practical implications -Social policies aimed at improving neighbourhood quality affect non-Western immigrants from different source countries simultaneously, as they tend to live together in immigrant neighbourhoods. But integration policies targeted at neighbourhoods are insufficient, as many immigrants live in areas with low immigrant density: policies targeted at individuals (and families) remain indispensable. Originality/value -This is the first paper to document segregation and diversity in The Netherlands, using unique neighbourhood level data. Applying cumulative distribution functions to these issues is also novel.
Love thy neighbor? Remnants of the social-mix policy in the Kolenkit neighborhood, Amsterdam
Journal of Housing and the Built Environment
In the mid-1990s, one of the main objectives of housing policy in the Netherlands was to stimulate the integration of diverse socioeconomic groups through housing strategies, with the goal being to create social cohesion and to address the problems encountered in low-income neighborhoods. Existing literature has studied the impact of social mix policies and policy interventions, concentrating on such outcomes as the spatial consequences of these policies in postwar neighborhoods; macro scale transformations in social mix areas; or shared perceptions of community in gentrifying neighborhoods. Taking a different perspective, this paper studies the impact of such policies at the individual interaction level to assess whether social mix policies can lead to new forms of interaction between the existing residents and newcomers, and consequently, to further cohesion in the area or city from a broader perspective. The paper studies the interaction between new and former neighbors inside out in a special area, Amsterdam Nieuw West neighborhood, Kolenkitbuurt Zuidelijk Veld 1-2, which is recognized as being one of the most deprived neighborhoods in the country. The research of the Kolenkitbuurt case shows clearly that social interactions between the Dutch-Turkish and the new native Dutch residents have been limited to more casual or neither positive nor negative interactions.
SUCCESSFUL MIXING? EFFECTS OF URBAN RESTRUCTURING POLICIES IN DUTCH NEIGHBOURHOODS
2011
Concentrations of poverty in urban neighbourhoods are generally unwanted, because of all kinds of presumed negative consequences for the social mobility and the quality of life of the residents. Because of these negative associations, policies in Western European countries are often aimed at breaking up these poverty concentrations by mixing the population composition through changing the housing stock. However, whether
Ethnic Segregation in the Netherlands: New Patterns, New Policies?
Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, 2002
An impressive set of welfare state arrangements has kept ethnic segregation and concentration in Dutch cities to a relatively low level. Indices of segregation have also been relatively stable over the last two decades. This does not mean, however, that concentrations of ethnic minority groups are stable. Some types of neighbourhoods seem to have become less important as housing areas for ethnic minority groups, while others are becoming their main housing areas, especially for Turks and Moroccans. While in some cities this shifting pattern has already been characteristic for more than a decade, in other cities it is of more recent origin. We describe these shifting patterns of ethnic minority groups in the largest cities in the Netherlands (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht). We then focus on the policy response to these patterns and we briefly evaluate this response. Our main conclusion is that ethnic concentrations are not problematic in themselves, but that policy can significantly enhance the situation of (the inhabitants of) specific neighbourhoods.
Tetrahedron Letters, 2008
A wide variety of segregation measures are used in scientific research. However, the usual measures are not suitable for use at micro-geographical scale level, for example, to evaluate the magnitude of spatial attraction or separation between pairs of ethnic groups within multi-ethnic residential neighbourhoods in Amsterdam. In this paper we examine the social importance of possessing such knowledge for these areas, we discuss the deficiencies of the usual segregation measures as regards this level of analysis, and we draw attention to a recently developed spatial segregation measure, the so-called M measure, which does happen to be suitable for this goal. We apply the M measure to some of these residential neighbourhoods which existed in Amsterdam on 1 January 2003. The conclusion is that although neighbourhoods can have a very similar ethnic mix, the spatial attraction or avoidance between certain pairs of groups may be quite different between these neighbourhoods.
European Sociological Review, 2011
It is frequently supposed that the ethnic composition of a neighbourhood affects ethnic minorities' social contacts with natives, co-ethnics and other ethnic minorities. Research to date, however, falls short in several ways. First of all, previous studies often did not consider social contacts with co-ethnics and other ethnic minorities. Second, although different mechanisms (i.e. meeting opportunities, ethnic competition theory, 'third parties' and constrict theory) point to different dimensions of the ethnic composition of the neighbourhood (the percentage of ethnic minorities, the percentage of co-ethnics, and ethnic diversity), there is a lack of research that systematically studies these different dimensions of the ethnic composition of the neighbourhood in relation to ethnic minorities' social contacts. Third, other relevant neighbourhood characteristics (economic disadvantage and residential mobility) are often neglected. The present study sought to address these three unresolved issues. Results of multivariate multilevel analyses of survey data on ethnic minorities in the Netherlands (N ¼ 4,216) show that both the percentage of ethnic minorities and the degree of ethnic diversity relate to less contact with natives, but more contact with co-ethnics and other ethnic minorities. The percentage of co-ethnics is only related to more contact with co-ethnics. Results and policy implications are discussed.
Just as urban renewal policies in the USA and many European countries, Dutch policies today aim to create a housing mix for different income groups in working class neighbourhoods. By building 'expensive' housing units, the middle classes are encouraged to settle in these neighbourhoods. These more affluent people are expected to bring more social capital into the neighbourhood, leading to stronger social cohesion, improved trust relations and increased participation in civic organisations. Moreover, the better-off are expected to prevent the poorer sections of society from falling into a culture of poverty by providing more positive role models. In other words, a new population mix is thought to lead to the increased liveability of the neighbourhood.
City & Community
In this paper, we investigate the ethnic politics of commercial gentrification. We discuss how ethnicity is conceived of, managed by, and integrated into urban policy; and how the changing ethnic composition of the neighborhood is perceived and lived by entrepreneurs with different ethnic and class backgrounds. We employ the notion of "mixed embeddedness," coined by Kloosterman et al., to understand the changes gentrification brings about for ethnic minority entrepreneurs and to explain their responses to these changes. Using the case study of a gentrifying street in Amsterdam, namely, Javastraat in Indische Buurt, we draw on an analysis of ethnic packaging at the policy level as well as in depth interviews with ethnically Dutch and ethnic minority entrepreneurs. Our findings shed light on how ethnic minorities survive and manage commercial gentrification on their doorsteps as well as the complexity of social mixedness in gentrifying neighborhoods.
Urban Studies, 2008
Ethnic segregation is consolidated by differences between ethnic groups with regard to their moving decision. Using unique registration data on population flows between neighbourhoods we show that native Dutch living in neighbourhoods where ethnic minorities are overrepresented are more likely to move than minority ethnic residents. Moreover, they move much more often to ‘white’ neighbourhoods. Urban policies in the Netherlands focus on countering this tendency of segregation, but are based on simplified assumptions with regard to the causes of residential segregation. Next to that, the optimism about the positive effects of social mix is hardly substantiated by empirical research.