Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-jr42d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-15T20:19:32.844Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Assimilation of Ethnic-Religious Minorities in the Netherlands: A Historical-Sociological Analysis of Pre–World War II Jews and Contemporary Muslims

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 July 2017

Peter Tammes  and
Peter Scholten
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article examines what assimilation trajectories were manifest among present-day Mediterranean Muslims and pre–World War II Jews in Dutch society. Alba and Nee conceptualized assimilation in terms of processes of spanning and altering group boundaries, distinguishing between boundary crossing, blurring, and shifting. This study carves out to what extent assimilation processes like boundary crossing, shifting, and blurring had taken place for those two non-Christian minority groups in Dutch society. This research is based on findings of recent (quantitative) empirical research into the assimilation of pre–World War II Jews in the Netherlands and on the collection of comparable research and data for the assimilation of contemporary Mediterranean Muslims. Our study suggests that processes of boundary crossing, such as observance of religious practices and consumption of religious food, and blurring, such as intermarriage, residential segregation, and religious affiliation, are much less advanced for Mediterranean Muslims in the present time. Though several factors might account for differences in boundary-altering processes between pre–World War II Jews and contemporary Mediterranean Muslims such as differences in length of stay in the Netherlands, the secularization process, and globalization, Jewish assimilation might provide us some reflections on assimilation of Mediterranean Muslims. The continuous arrival of Muslim newcomers might affect attitudes and behavior of settled Mediterranean Muslims, while policy to restrict family migration might be insufficient to stimulate Muslims to integrate in Dutch society given the quite negative mutual perceptions, the slow process of residential spreading, the continuation of observance of religious practices, and the low intermarriage rate.

Type
Articles
Information
Social Science History , Volume 41 , Issue 3 , Fall 2017 , pp. 477 - 504
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association, 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alba, Richard (2005) “Bright vs. blurred boundaries: Second-generation assimilation and exclusion in France, Germany, and the United States.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 28 (1): 20–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alba, Richard (2006) “On the sociological significance of the American Jewish experience: Boundary blurring, assimilation, and pluralism.” Sociology of Religion 67 (4): 347–58.Google Scholar
Alba, Richard, and Foner, N. (2015) Mixed unions and immigrant-group integration in North America and Western Europe. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 662 (1): 38–56.Google Scholar
Alba, Richard, and Nee, Victor (1997) “Rethinking assimilation theory for a new era of immigration.” International Migration Review 31 (4): 826–74.Google Scholar
Alba, Richard, and Nee, Victor (2003) Remaking the American mainstream: Assimilation and Contemporary Immigration. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Anderson, Benedict (1983) Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. Rev. ed. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Bloemraad, I., Korteweg, A., and Yurdakul, G. (2008) Citizenship and Immigration: Multiculturalism, Assimilation, and Challenges to the Nation-State. Annual Review of Sociology 34: 153–79.Google Scholar
Blom, Johannes C. H., and Cahen, Joël J. (1995) “Joodse Nederlanders, Nederlandse joden en joden in Nederland (1870–1940),” in Blom, Johannes C. H., Fuks-Mansfeld, Rena G., and Schöffer, Ivo (eds.) Geschiedenis van de joden in Nederland. Meppel: Tenbrink: 247–312.Google Scholar
Boekman, Emanuel (1936) Demografie van de joden in Nederland. Amsterdam: Menno Hertzberger and Co. N.V. Google Scholar
Brasz, Chaya (1985) “De Joodse stem in de Nederlandse gemeentepolitiek (1851–1940).” Studia Rosenthaliana 14 (2): 299–311.Google Scholar
Bergstein, Philo, and Bloemgarten, Salvador (1999) Herinnering aan Joods Amsterdam. Amsterdam: De Bezige Bij. Google Scholar
Brubaker, Rogers (2001) “The return of assimilation? Changing perspectives on immigration and its sequels in France, Germany, and the United States.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 24 (4): 531–48.Google Scholar
Brubaker, Rogers (2009) Citizenship and Nationhood in France and Germany. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Brubaker, Rogers (2014) “The return of assimilation? Changing perspectives on immigration and its sequels in France, Germany, and the United States,” in Christian, Joppke and Morawska, Ewa (eds.) Toward assimilation and citizenship: Immigrants in liberal nation-states. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK: 39–58.Google Scholar
Buijs, Frank J. (2009) “Muslims in the Netherlands: Social and political developments after 9/11.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 35 (3): 421–38.Google Scholar
Bureau Onderzoek en Statistiek (O+S) (2003) De Staat van de stad Amsterdam. Amsterdam: Stadsdrukkerij Amsterdam N.V. Google Scholar
Bureau Onderzoek en Statistiek (O+S) (2005) De Staat van de stad Amsterdam. Amsterdam: Stadsdrukkerij Amsterdam N.V. Google Scholar
Bureau Onderzoek en Statistiek (O+S) (2007) De Staat van de stad Amsterdam. Amsterdam: Stadsdrukkerij Amsterdam N.V. Google Scholar
Bureau Onderzoek en Statistiek (O+S) (2008) Ramadan Enquete 2008. Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Bureau Onderzoek en Statistiek (O+S) (2009) De Staat van de stad Amsterdam. Amsterdam: Stadsdrukkerij Amsterdam N.V. Google Scholar
Bureau Onderzoek en Statistiek (O+S) (2011) De Staat van de stad Amsterdam. Amsterdam: Stadsdrukkerij Amsterdam N.V. Google Scholar
Bureau van statistiek der gemeente Amsterdam (1921) “Mededeling no. 67.” Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek (2009). Religie aan het begin van de 21ste eeuw. The Hague: CBS. Google Scholar
Centrum onderzoek en statistiek Rotterdam (COS) and Bureau Onderzoek en Statistiek Amsterdam (O+S) (2012) De staat van integratie in Amsterdam en Rotterdam. Rotterdam: Medaicenter Rotterdam.Google Scholar
Daalder, Hans (1978) “Dutch Jews in a segmented society.” Acta Historiae Neerlandicae 10: 175–94.Google Scholar
De Jong, Fransje, and Thissen, Judith (2010) “Joodse identiteit en ondernemerschap in het Nederlandse bioscoopbedrijf tot 1940.” Tijdschrift voor Sociale en Economische Geschiedenis 7 (1): 63–87.Google Scholar
de Vries, A. G. (1996) “The election of Jews to the ‘Provinciale Staten’ of North Holland, 1850–1919.” Studia Rosenthaliana 30 (1): 41–56.Google Scholar
Engelen, Theo, and Puschmann, Paul (2011) “How unique is the Western Europe marriage pattern? A comparison of nuptiality in historical Europe and the contemporary Arab world.” The History of the Family 16 (4): 387–400.Google Scholar
Flap, Henk, and Tammes, Peter (2008) “De electorale steun voor de Nationale Socialistische Beweging in 1935 en 1939.” Mens en Maatschappij 83 (1): 23–46.Google Scholar
Foner, Nancy, and Alba, Richard (2008) “Immigrant religion in the U.S. and Western Europe: Bridge or barrier to inclusion.” International Migration Review 42 (2): 360–92.Google Scholar
Gans, Herbert J. (1992) “Comment: Ethnic invention and acculturation, a bumpy-line approach.” Journal of American Ethnic History 12 (1): 45–52.Google Scholar
Gans, Herbert J. (2007) “Acculturation, assimilation and mobility.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 30 (1): 152–64.Google Scholar
Glazer, Nathan (1997) We Are All Multiculturalists Now. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Glazer, Nathan, and Moynihan, Daniel P. (1963) Beyond the Melting Pot: The Negroes, Puerto Ricans, Jews, Italians and Irish of New York City. Oxford: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Gordon, Milton M. (1964) Assimilation in American Life: The Role of Race, Religion, and National Origins. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Grewel, Frits (1955) “De joden van Amsterdam.” Mens en Maatschappij 30 (6): 338–50.Google Scholar
Hofmeester, Karin (2004) Jewish Workers and the Labour Movement: A Comparative Study of Amsterdam, London and Paris, 1870–1914. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate Publishing.Google Scholar
Hofmeester, Karin (2011) “Jewish parliamentary representatives in the Netherlands, 1848–1914 : Crossing borders, encountering boundaries?,” in Frishman, Judith, Wertheim, David J., Haan, Ido de, and Cahen, Joël (eds.) Borders and Boundaries in and around Dutch Jewish History. Amsterdam: Aksant: 65–80.Google Scholar
Instituut voor Publiek en Politiek (2010) Allochtonen in de Politiek. www.prodemos.nl/Media/Files/Allochtonen-in-de-politiek Google Scholar
Joppke, Christian, and Morawska, Ewa (2003) Toward Assimilation and Citizenship: Immigrants in Liberal Nation-States. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Kalmijn, Matthijs (1998) “Intermarriage and homogamy: Causes, patterns, trends.” Annual Review of Sociology 24: 395–421.Google Scholar
Kivisto, Peter J., and Faist, Thomas (2009) Beyond a Border: The Causes and Consequences of Contemporary Immigration. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.Google Scholar
Kruijt, Jakob P. (1933) De onkerkelikheid in Nederland: Haar Verbreiding en Oorzaken: Proeve eener Sociografiese Verklaring. Groningen-Batavia: P. Noordhoff N.V. Google Scholar
Kruijt, Jakob P. (1939) “Het Jodendom in de Nederlandse samenleving,” in Hendrik, J. Pos (ed.) Antisemitisme en Jodendom. Een bundel studies over een actueel vraagstuk. Arnhem: Van Loghum Slaterus: 190–231.Google Scholar
Kruijt, Jakob P. (1957) “Levensbeschouwing en groepssolidariteit in Nederland,” in Sociologisch Jaarboek XI. Nederlandse sociologen vereniging: 29–72.Google Scholar
Kullberg, Jeanet, and Kulu-Glasgow, Isik (2009) Building inclusion. The Hague: The Netherlands Institute for Social Research-SCP.Google Scholar
Leydesdorff, Selma (1987) Wij hebben als Mens geleefd. Het Joodse Proletariaat van Amsterdam 1900–1940. Amsterdam: Meulenhoff.Google Scholar
Leydesdorff, Selma (2002) “The veil of history: The integration of the Jews reconsidered,” in Israel, Jonathan and Salverda, Reinier (eds.) Dutch Jewry: Its History and Secular Culture (1500–2000). Leiden, The Netheralnds, Boston, and Cologne: Brill: 225–38.Google Scholar
Lucassen, Jan (1994) “Joodse Nederlanders 1796–1940: een Proces van Omgekeerde Minderheidsvorming,” in Berg, Hetty, Wijsenbeek, Thera, and Fischer, Eric (eds.) Venter, Fabriqueur, Fabrikant. Joodse Ondernemers en ondernemingen in Nederland 1796–1940. Amsterdam: Joods Historisch Museum: 32–47.Google Scholar
Lucassen, Leo (2005) The Immigrant Threat: The Integration of Old and New Migrants in Western Europe since 1850. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Lucassen, Leo, and Laarman, Charlotte (2009) “Immigration, intermarriage and the changing face of Europe in the post war period.” The History of the Family 14 (1): 52–68.Google Scholar
Lucassen, Leo, and Lucassen, Jan (2011) Winnaars en Verliezers: een Nuchtere Balans van Vijfhonderd Jaar Immigratie. Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Bert Bakker.Google Scholar
Maliepaard, Mieke, Lubbers, Marcel, and Gijsberts, Merove (2010) “Generational differences in ethnic and religious attachment and their interrelation: A study among Muslim minorities in the Netherlands.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 33 (3): 451–72.Google Scholar
Massey, Douglas S., and Denton, Nancy A. (1988) “The dimensions of residential segregation.” Social Forces 67 (2): 281–315.Google Scholar
Maussen, Marcel (2012) “Pillarization and Islam: Church-state traditions and Muslim claims for recognition in the Netherlands.” Comparative European Politics 10 (3): 337–53CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Michman, Jozeph (1995) Dutch Jewry during the Emancipation Period 1787–1815: Gothic Turrets on a Corinthian Building. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.Google Scholar
Morawska, Ewa (1994) “In defense of the assimilation model.” Journal of American Ethnic History 13 (2): 76–87.Google Scholar
Morawska, Ewa (1996) Insecure Prosperity: Small-Town Jews in Industrial America, 1890–1940. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Morawska, Ewa (2009) A Sociology of Immigration: (Re)making Multifaceted America. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Park, Robert E. (1914) “Racial assimilation in secondary groups with particular reference to the Negro.” The American Journal of Sociology 19 (5): 606–23.Google Scholar
Park, Robert E., Burgess, Ernest W., and McKenzie, Roderick (1984) The City. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Poorthuis, Marcel, and Salemink, Theo (2006) Een donkere spiegel. Nederlandse katholieken over joden. Tussen antisemitisme en erkenning. Nijmegen: Valkhof Pers.Google Scholar
Portes, Alexander, and Zhou, Min (1993) “The new second generation: Segmented assimilation and its variants.” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 530 (1): 74–96.Google Scholar
Ramakers, Jan (2006) “Conservatisme en antisemitisme. Nederlands katholieken als ‘medestrijders’ en ‘tegenstanders’ van de joden 1796–1940.” Trajecta 15: 61–75.Google Scholar
Reijnders, Carolus (1969) Van “Joodsche Natiën” tot Joodse Nederlanders. Een onderzoek naar getto- en assimilatieverschijnselen tussen 1600 en 1942. Amsterdam: Joko.Google Scholar
Rijksinspectie van de Bevolkingsregisters (1942) Statistiek der bevolking van joodschen bloede in Nederland samengesteld door de Rijksinspectie van de bevolkingsregisters aan de hand van de formulieren van aanmelding ingevolge verordening no. 6/1941. The Hague: Algemeene landsdrukkerij.Google Scholar
Schöffer, Ivo (1981) “The Jews in the Netherlands: The position of a minority through three centuries.” Studia Rosenthaliana 15: 85–100.Google Scholar
Schrover, Marlou (2010) “Pillarization, multiculturalism and cultural freezing: Dutch migration history and the enforcement of essentialist ideas.” BMGN-Low Countries Historical Review 125 (2–3): 329–54.Google Scholar
Sniderman, P. M., and Hagendoorn, A. (2007) When Ways of Life Collide: Multiculturalism and Its Discontents in the Netherlands. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Sociaal en Cultureel Planbureau (2009) Jaarrapport Integratie 2009. The Hague: Sociaal en Cultureel Planbureau.Google Scholar
Sociaal en Cultureel Planbureau (2011) Jaarrapport Integratie 2011. The Hague: Sociaal en Cultureel Planbureau.Google Scholar
Sociaal en Cultureel Planbureau (2012) Moslims in Nederland 2012. The Hague: Sociaal en Cultureel Planbureau.Google Scholar
Sonnenberg-Stern, Karina (2000) Emancipation and Poverty: The Ashkenazi Jews in Amsterdam 1796–1850. New York: St. Martin's Press.Google Scholar
Tammes, Peter (2010a) “Jewish-Gentile Intermarriage in Pre-war Amsterdam.” History of the Family 15 (3): 298–315.Google Scholar
Tammes, Peter (2010b) “Demografische Ontwikkeling van Joden in Nederland vanaf hun Burgerlijke Gelijkstelling tot aan de Duitse Bezetting,” in Matthijs, Koen, van de Putte, Bart, Kok, Jan, and Bras, Hilde (eds.) Leven in de Lage Landen. Historisch-Demografisch Onderzoek in Vlaanderen en Nederland. Jaarboek 2010. Leuven: Acco Uitgeverij: 239–70.Google Scholar
Tammes, Peter (2011a) “Residential segregation of Jews in Amsterdam on the eve of the Shoah.” Continuity and Change 26 (2): 243–70.Google Scholar
Tammes, Peter (2011b) “Sabbatsontwijding onder joodse families in Amsterdam in 1900,” in Kraaykamp, Gerbert, Levels, Mark, and Need, Ariana (eds.) Problemen enTheorieën in Onderzoek. Een staalkaart van de hedendaagse Nederlandse empirisch-theoretische sociologie. Assen: Koninklijke van Gorcum BV: 345–59.Google Scholar
Tammes, Peter (2012a) “Abandoning Judaism: A life history perspective on disaffiliation and conversion to Christianity among prewar Amsterdam Jews.” Advances in Life Course Research 17 (2): 81–92.Google Scholar
Tammes, Peter (2012b) “‘Hack, pack, sack’: Occupational structure, status and mobility of Jews in Amsterdam, 1851–1941.” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 43 (1): 1–26.Google Scholar
Tammes, Peter, ed. (2013) Oostjoodse Passanten en Blijvers: Aankomst, Opvang, Transmigratie en Vestiging van Joden uit Rusland in Amsterdam en Rotterdam, 1882–1914. Menasseh ben Israel Instituut Studies nr. 9. Amsterdam: Menasseh ben Israel Instituut.Google Scholar
Tillie, Jean (2004) “Social capital of organisations and their members: Explaining the political integration of immigrants in Amsterdam.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 30 (3): 529–42.Google Scholar
Tilly, Charles (1990) “Transplanted networks,” in Yans-McLaughlin, Virginia (ed.) Immigration Reconsidered: History, Sociology, and Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press: 79–95.Google Scholar
Ultee, Wout, and Luijkx, Ruud (1998) “Jewish-Gentile intermarriage in six European cities 1900–1940: Explaining differences and trends.” The Netherlands’ Journal of Social Sciences 34 (2): 165–96.Google Scholar
Van der Paauw, Marnix, and Flache, Andreas (2012) “Lokale concentratie van allochtonen en steun aan de PVV.” Mens en Maatschappij 87 (4): 371–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Engelsdorp Gastelaars, Rob, Vijgen, Jacqueline, and Wagenaar, Michiel (1985) “Jewish Amsterdam 1600–1940: From ‘ghetto’ to ‘neighbourhoods,’” in Francois, Étienne (ed.) Immigration et société urbaine en Europe occidentale, XVIe–XXe siècle. Paris: Editions Recherche sur les Civilisations: 127–41.Google Scholar
Van Zanten, Jakob H. (1926) “Eenige demografische gegevens over de joden te Amsterdam.” Mensch en Maatschappij 2: 1–24.Google Scholar
Vermeulen, Hans (2010) “Segmented assimilation and cross-national comparative research on the integration of immigrants and their children.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 33 (7): 1214–30.Google Scholar
Wallet, Bart (2005) “Political participation of Dutch Jews in the first half of the nineteenth century, 1814–1848.” Zutot 3: 173–77.Google Scholar
Waters, Mary, and Jiménez, Tomas (2005) “Assessing immigrant assimilation: New empirical and theoretical challenges.” Annual Review of Sociology 31: 105–25.Google Scholar
Zwiep, Irene E. (2000) “Yiddisch, Dutch, and Hebrew: Language theory, language ideology and the emancipation of nineteenth-century Dutch Jewry.” Studia Rosenthaliana 34 (1): 56–73.Google Scholar