Diversity and Unity – Politics and Migration in the Netherlands

This course examines the political institutions and developments that have led to the current Dutch model of democracy and the rise of Rotterdam as a global city. It focuses on the formal and informal structures of Dutch politics, and it will introduce students to the most important issues in the country’s political and policy debates today. The course also takes a historical look at the political and economic rebuilding of the Netherlands after World War II and through the present day, focusing particularly on the city of Rotterdam. How did the country rebuild itself after the war? How did older divisions such as class and religion continue into modern times, when did they disappear, and what new divisions have defined society in the last several decades? Topics will include the decline of religious “pillarization,” the Provo and student movements in the 1960s, environmentalism, multiculturalism, the Maastricht Treaty and the 2005 referendum on a Constitution for Europe. Students will also spend time examining how local institutions in Rotterdam and its neighborhoods mediate responses to national and global phenomena.

This course will look at how immigration has affected Dutch society and will focus on the political and social developments that may follow from demographic changes in the context of a relatively wealthy and open society. A large number of immigrants came to the Netherlands from former colonies such as Suriname and Indonesia following the end of the Dutch Empire, as did many from other countries (such as Turkey and Morocco) in response to labor shortages in the mid-to-late 20th century. Today, a large percentage of Dutch residents and citizens are either immigrants or the descendants of immigrants, and questions of migration and integration have been central to many political debates in the last two decades. Students will learn more about the everyday experience of first- or second-generation immigrants in the Netherlands, the ways in which the Dutch state has responded to questions of migration and integration, and the different understandings that exist today of what it means to be “Dutch.”