This innovative mixed methods network study with young refugees in the Netherlands disproves integration policy assumptions that language acquisition is key to social integration and that social integration is about gradually increasing contact with native citizens, or when integration is lacking, about limiting contact to one's own ethnic group. The study connects the research approaches of government-commissioned quantitative integration studies, which generally reflect the above assumptions, and qualitative studies with migrants, which reveal an 'integration paradox' and a 'doubleness' of language acquisition generating both inclusion and exclusion. First, it includes the use of languages and countries of origin in ego network data to examine the relationship between language acquisition and social integration. These network data show that participants speak Dutch with most of the diverse non-Dutch people in their networks and have relatively few connections with Dutch natives. Second, to help us understand these findings, participants were asked to share their 'network stories'. These stories place the network findings within the context of contradictory asylum and integration policies and negative discourse, thereby revealing that with regard to learning Dutch, participants are caught not in a paradox but in an aporia: damned if they do, damned if they don't.
This article contributes to the critical literature on child participation discussing the positionings of young asylum seekers (aged 12-23) residing in a Dutch asylum centre. It queries participation as an institutional measure, outlining the informants' perspectives on the creation of a youth council within the confines of an asylum centre. Contradictions and tensions in the wider societal context, in the asylum centre, and in the functioning of the youth council are identified. They demonstrate the gulf between theory and practice in the fulfilment of children's participation rights. The authors scrutinize concepts such as 'methodological immaturity', 'voice', and 'recognition' and argue for the integration of the perceptions and practices of young asylum seekers through dialogue. This can assist in creating an atmosphere conducive to an ethically responsible and meaningful collaboration with young asylum seekers and adapted policy interventions to enhance participation against an on-going backdrop of insecurity, exclusion, and forced inactivity.
This article explores the linguistic strategies of young refugees (ages 12–23) in the Netherlands. The study takes place within a societal context in which new migrants and refugees are increasingly pressured to learn Dutch as key to their integration, but English is becoming more and more dominant, and in which learning Dutch is not considered necessary for other newcomer groups such as exchange students and expats. It starts from a puzzling finding in participants’ use of languages within their personal networks (collected 2016–18): their decreasing use of Dutch and increasing use of English while integrating into Dutch society. Participants’ ‘network stories’ reveal that they shifted from Dutch to English to distance themselves from the identities ascribed to them by the Dutch dominant negative discourse and to imagine their futures and belonging in more inclusive environments.
This article explores the multilingual creativity of young refugees in the Netherlands and the social contexts and situations in which it develops. Because these young refugees form an under-researched group, the authors build on different discipline-based studies on (young migrants’) multilingualism, super-diversity, conviviality, liminality and networks. The authors start with the collection of personal network data including languages used with each network member. These data show that participants use and combine the Dutch language with the majority of non-native people in their networks. To explain this, the network data are connected with participants’ ‘network stories’. In these stories, participants refer to the asylum seeker centres, where they began their lives in the Netherlands, as the breeding ground for their multilingual creations with the Dutch language. The authors show how, in the liminal and super-diverse context of these centres, young refugees’ multilingual practices and innovations enhanced conviviality and connectedness. The authors also delineate how ‘oldcomer’ and ‘newcomer’ participants’ distinct multilingual innovations relate to their different present networks. In both groups, however, these innovations are a source of belonging among the non-natives in their networks.
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