Most
nations have ways to define themselves to not only their people, but the rest
of the world, in which they point out how they want to be known and how they
want to be seen as unique compared to any other nation in the world. These ways
of self-definition and distancing are used to build a national identity. As an
American, The United States is a good nation to use as clarification. The U.S.
often promotes itself as being a nation that wholly stands for justice and
freedom, like most other countries, but also prides itself on its leadership and
position as a global superpower. An important concept involved in forming a
national identity is ‘othering’. ‘Othering’ is a way of defining oneself in
contrast with someone or something else. No one would be surprised if a
Canadian started an introduction by saying that they not American. Using ‘othering’,
Dutch culture, and Dutch history, I hope to form an outline of Dutch national
identity from the point of view of an outsider.
To start
forming an outline of another nation’s national identity, one should dive into
basic information and history first. The Netherlands borders the North Sea,
Belgium, and Germany, and Dutch is the official language. While 78.6% of the
total population is Dutch, 5.8% is from other nations in the European Union, 2.4%
is Turkish, 2.2% is Moroccan, 2.2% is Indonesian, 2.1% is Surinamese, and another
6.7% is from other nations. The people of The Netherlands are mostly nonreligious,
with 42% having no religion, 28% being Roman Catholic, 19% being Protestant, 5%
being Muslim, and 6% have other religions ("The
World Factbook: NETHERLANDS." ). Though the Kingdom of the
Netherlands as it today was not formed until 1815, the Dutch people have been
mostly independent since they declared impendence from Spain in 1579 (excluding a twenty year period under French rule). William
of Orange, a sort of founding father for lack of a better term, helped lead the
Dutch people to independence and form the Dutch United Provinces ("Timeline Dutch History - Rijksstudio."). The House
of Orange-Nassau makes up the Dutch royal family and even though orange is not
on the nation’s flag, many Dutch sports fans, or in this case, Eurovision fans,
can be seen showing national spirit by wearing orange. In slightly more recent
history, The Netherlands was neutral during both world wars, but was occupied
by German forces in the second ("The World Factbook”). This led to a tense relationship
between the Dutch and Germans that still lasts today. Politically, the
Netherlands is portrayed as having what Sarah Bracke, an assistant professor in
sociology of religion and culture at K.U. Leuven, calls “‘Dutch exceptionalism’
in terms of its reputed tolerance”, particularly related towards “secular and
sexual politics” (Bracke 29). This means that the Netherlands includes open-mindedness
towards religion and gender differences in their national identity. Although parts of a nation’s national identity
can be pieced together by looking at statistics and history, the use of an ‘other’
is even more useful because the sharp contrast helps to point out what a nation
is not, rather than what it is.
Broadly, a
nation can have both internal and external ‘others’ that they use to clarify
their own national identity. An important internal ‘other’ for the Netherlands
is the Muslim immigrant community. Since the Netherlands is a largely secular
nation, Bracke theorizes that “Islam could not be integrated into Dutch society”
because it is “a sharp discontinuity needed to be asserted on the level of the
very secular arrangement of Dutch society” (Bracke 32). This is not for a lack
of trying to be accepting, though. Ideas of deporting refugees and doing away
with asylum laws, even backing out of the European Union, are considered
drastic. According to Erik Larson, an Associate Professor of
Sociology at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, Wibo van Rossum, an
Assistant Professor in Socio-Legal Studies at the Utrecht University School of
Law in Utrecht, and Patrick Schmidt, a Professor of Political Science at
Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, “Anti-European leader Geert Wilders’
suggestion that the Dutch should change or withdraw from the treaties [from the
European Court of Human Rights concerning the expulsion of asylum seekers] sent
a shock through legal circles that largely accept the superiority of human
rights law” (Larson, Van Rossum, and
Schmidt 112). Even though Wilders’ opinions are not those of the majority of
Dutch politicians, they, and less extreme right-wing opinions, are common
enough to label Muslim immigrants and refugees as an internal ‘other’ used to
emphasize the secular structure of Dutch society. More specifically, Muslim
immigrant/refugee men are also an internal ‘other’ used to reinforce the
difference between “an emancipated ‘us’ and non-emancipated (sexist,
homophobic) ‘them’” (Bracke 34). In an article about immigrant men and their
portrayal in Dutch politics by Marleen van der Haar from the Institute for
Management Research in Radboud University Nejmegen, van der Haar describes a
video shown to potential immigrants before they take their integration exams
and how it explains that things like women’s education and intolerance for radical
practices like genital mutilation as a punishment, saying “the film appears to
be a warning to male Muslim migrants and a message to Muslim girls and women that
Dutch laws will protect them” (Van Der Haar 216). By focusing on radical
practices by certain Muslim communities in the Middle East, Muslim immigrant
men are used as an ‘other’ to emphasize the more liberal treatment of women in
the Netherlands. External ‘others’ are also useful in solidifying a national
identity. One of the most important external ‘others’ to the Netherlands is
Germany. Although the Dutch and Germans have similar languages and cultures and
have close ties in politics and trade, many Dutch people strongly dislike, even
loathe, Germans. In an article for the New York Times, journalist Stephen
Kinzer explains that the anti-German sentiment is due mainly to the German
occupation, and treatment under said occupation, of the Netherlands during World
War II (Kinzer). This strong dislike of Germans makes up a simpler part of
Dutch national identity: non-German. Even though there may be many surface
similarities, it is important to the Dutch identity to separate themselves from
the Germans.
Dutch
national identity is complex and based off of many components, including
history, statistics, and both internal and external ‘othering’, but through
examining those components, we can see that Dutch national identity is one
expressing liberal beliefs and rights, tolerance of others, secular politics,
and uniqueness and separation from their German neighbors.
Works Cited
Bracke, Sarah. "Subjects of Debate:
Secular and Sexual Exceptionalism, and Muslim Women in the Netherlands." Feminist Review.98
(2011): 28-46. ProQuest. Web. 24 Jan. 2017.
Kinzer, Stephen. "For Dutch, It's O.K. To
Despise Germans." The New York Times. The New York Times, 07 Feb. 1995. Web. 24 Jan.
2017.
Larson, Erik, Wibo Van Rossum, and Patrick
Schmidt. "The Dutch Confession: Compliance, Leadership and National
Identity in the Human Rights Order."Utrecht Law
Review. Universiteit Utrecht, 31 Jan. 2014. Web. 22 Jan.
2017.
"The World Factbook: NETHERLANDS." Central Intelligence
Agency. Central Intelligence Agency,
12 Jan. 2017. Web. 19 Jan. 2017.
"Timeline
Dutch History - Rijksstudio." Rijksmuseum. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Jan. 2017.
Van Der Haar, Marleen. "‘Coming down from
Their Thrones’? Framing Migrant Men in Dutch Politics." ScienceDirect. Elsevier Ltd, 2013. Web. 22 Jan. 2017.
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