People out of place: allochthony and autochthony in the Netherlands' identity discourse - metaphors and categories in action

Author： Yanow Dvora

Publisher： Palgrave Macmillan Ltd

ISSN： 1581-1980

Source： Journal of International Relations and Development, Vol.16, Iss.2, 2013-04, pp. : 227-261

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Abstract

As with much of Europe, the Netherlands has no explicit `race' discourse; however, the state, through its public policy and administrative practices, does categorise its population along `ethnic' lines, using birthplace - one's own or one's (grand-) parent's - as the surrogate determining factor. The contemporary operative taxonomy has until recently been binary: autochtoon (of Dutch heritage) and allochtoon (of foreign birth). Used earlier at the provincial level in respect of internal migration, the taxonomy was expanded in 1999 to demarcate between `Western' allochtoon and `non-Western' allochtoon, with the latter being further subdivided into first and second generation. Informed by a `generative metaphor' approach (Schon 1979) that links cognition to action, this article subjects the allochtoon/autochtoon binary to metaphor analysis and the Western/non-Western taxonomy to category analysis. The work done by `birthplace' in the term pair suggests that they are, in their everyday usage, surrogates for a race discourse, carrying the same (ancient) assumptions about individual identity and the earth-air-sun-water of the spot on which one was born that underlies definitions-in-use of `race'. Their meaning in contemporary policy discourse derives from the interaction of metaphoric and category structures, with implications for policy implementation.