Bolzano September 29th 2006:
Bilingualism in The Netherlands
Jacomine NortierUtrecht Institute of Linguistics
Topics in this paper
• The Netherlands – demography• Political developments• Linguistic practices of Turks and
Moroccans in NL• Mother tongue/Community
language teaching: rise and fall
The Netherlands
• North-South: 300 km• East-West: 150 km• 16 million inhabitants• Capital: Amsterdam, almost 1
million• (Rotterdam: 600,000; Den Haag
400,000;Utrecht: 275,000)
The Netherlands (cont.):
1.7 million non-Western320,000 Moroccan (= 2%)365,000 Turkish (= 2.28%)330,000 Surinamese (=2.06%)130,000 Antillean392,000 Indonesian
Reason for migration:
• Surinamese, Antillean, Indonesian: post-colonial. Antillean: most recent.
• Turks, Moroccans: came as guest workers in the sixties, chain migration
Important recent history:• May 6th 2002: Pim Fortuyn killed: he was the
voice of the white Dutch ‘anti-immigrants-movement’. Became a hero after his death. 2 weeks later: elections.
• Nov 2nd, 2004: Theo van Gogh killed by Moroccan muslim fundamentalist Mohammed B. Discussion about ‘freedom of speech’.
• Mohammed B: member of ‘Hofstadgroep’: Moroccan fundamentalists who planned assaults.
• At the same time: problems with Moroccans, mainly teenage boys. Marginalization. Increasing fundamentalism.
• Consequences for society: strong polarisation; immigrant = muslim = dangerous.
Politics in 2006
• The “Rotterdam-code”: Pim Fortuyn-city• One of the new rules: Dutch is our
common language in public• Minister Verdonk (integration) in
January 2006: whole country protest. • Last week: wish everyone would speak
Dutch everywhere (cauliflower in stead of chickpeas)
• She is the most popular minister
Linguistic practices of two groups:
• Turkish: strong vitality, high status. In-group orientation. 2nd generation: Turkish and D/T CS is unmarked in-group language.
• Moroccans: L1s (Berber and Moroccan Arabic) have low status. Main shared value: islam. 2nd generation: Dutch is unmarked. Mix with others.
Linguistic practices of two groups (cont.):
• Newspapers: Turks read Turkish papers
• Moroccans don’t read Moroccan papers. Not available
• Both: Internet and satellite-tv
Websites (‘Ethno-Portalen’)
(Androutsopoulos)
Turkish:• Lokum. nl• Turskestudent.nl
Moroccan:• Maroc.nl• Maghreb.nl• Amazigh.nl
Moroccan websites:
• Islam plays a role in many topics• Culture = Islam• Main language: Dutch. Arabic
mostly in formulaic expressions. • Berber: identity construction• Fun and jokes; play with language:
gataarlijk (gataar = dangerous Ar.; gevaarlijk = dangerous Nl)
Typical on a Moroccan website:
• Je bent nog mooier dan onze remra7 gezien vanuit onze sta7 bij het krieken van de sba7.
• (You are even prettier than our court yard seen from our roof at the dawn of morning)
Community Language Teaching
• OET(C): Onderwijs Eigen Taal (en Cultuur) ‘Education Own Language (and Culture)’
• Since late sixties• Government took over
responsibility• 1974: official
Original goals of OET(C)
• Maintenance of contact with original country and language
• Remigration: easier to (re-)enter school
• Help newly arrived L1 speakers to integrate in Dutch school system
How was it organized?
• Large groups: 2.5 during school hours and 2.5 hours outside
• Small groups: 5 hours outside school hours
• Voluntary basis• Poor material; from country of
origin
Late seventies:
• Stay in NL turned out to be permanent• Later: OETC not a goal in itself anymore, but a
means to achieve other goals, such as - a- avoid identity problems of ‘foreign’
children;- b- integration into Dutch society - c- bridge gap between home/school- d- increase selfrespect to get better results
Difference with early years:
• In the early years, OETC was in the interest of the minority group.
• Later: integration in minority group was considered undesirable; development of individual children; Dutch society
• From 1991: OETC OET; support learning of DSL
2004: the end
• Position of OET-teachers: bad• Schools wished to pay more
attention to DSL• Sociopolitical climate: don’t give
‘them’ a chance to segregate
2006: Moroccans have gone back to the mosques to learn Arabic. Opposite of what the gvt. did in the seventies.
And further?
• Small initiatives. Turks: language classes
• Some municipalities: language schools; not only for children who learn their group’s L1, also adults. Other Ls as well.
• Political interest and will is lacking, most political parties have other priorities. Not ‘hip’