Working Paper
TPCS 38: Low Intensity Ethnic Cleansing in The Netherlands
Any intent to connect debates about Dutch migration and integration policies to abhorring events like the Balkan massacres or those of the Holocaust, is considered inappropriate in the Netherlands. However, when we take a closer look, we can no longer avoid the uneasy question whether there is in fact a conceptual connection between the blue helmets in Srebreniça and current Dutch policies and debates on migrants. In this working paper, Paul Mutsaers and Hans Siebers introduce the notion of ‘low intensity ethnic cleansing’ to establish whether we have reached a stage in The Netherlands where the concept of ethnic cleansing has become applicable.
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
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2 minutes
By Paul Mutsaers and Hans Siebers
Abstract
This article can be read as a trenchant discussion of current migrant-hostile politics in the Netherlands. Analogous to the notion of low intensity conflict it introduces the term ‘low intensity ethnic cleansing’ and explores whether it can be applied to improve our analysis of Dutch migration and integration politics. Taking into account both Dutch migrant-hostile policies and voices of the most outspoken politicians, as well as the broader European context, this text shows an increasing and mainstreamed call for ethno-territorial homogeneity of the European and national space. While comparisons of European migration and integration regimes and signs of cleansing largely fall on deaf ears, the inconvenient truth is no longer avoided in this text.
Keywords: Ethno-territorial homogeneity, low intensity ethnic cleansing, culturism, cultural fundamentalism, migrant-hostility, Dutch migration and integration politics
How to quote: Mutsaers, P. & Siebers, H. (2012). Low Intensity Ethnic Cleansing in The Netherlands. (Tilburg Papers in Culture Studies; No. 38).
Read the full working paper here: Low Intensity Ethnic Cleansing in The Netherlands.
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