National day participation among immigrants in the Netherlands: the role of familiarity with commemorating and celebrating

Abstract

This study explores to what extent varying levels of host national day participation among immigrants can be explained by previous participatory experiences related to their country of origin, in addition to socio-cultural factors related to the current country of residence. Utilising data from a large online immigrant panel, we concentrate on two prominent national days in the Netherlands: Remembrance Day and Liberation Day. On these days, Dutch society commemorates victims of the Second World War and celebrates freedom, respectively. Our results indicate that Dutch national day participation among immigrants is determined largely by previous familiarity with commemorating and celebrating through participation in holidays specific to immigrants' country of origin. These findings highlight the need to place more emphasis on the role of previous participatory experiences when examining immigrants' current patterns of participation in the host society. ARTICLE HISTORY

The post‐war generation remembers: A mixed‐method study exploring children’s attitudes towards World War II commemoration

“…This matches findings of Imber and Fraser (2011) and Pennell (2018), about the importance children attribute to commemoration. In congruence with prior research, we found that participation of children and the importance they attribute to it was positively related to participation of parents (Coopmans et al, 2016, 2017). Besides family involvement, lessons in school about commemoration were associated with more participation and a more positive attitude among children as well.…”

“…What experiences do children have with WWII commemoration and how important is it for them to commemorate? In line with prior research (Coopmans et al, 2016(Coopmans et al, , 2017De Regt, 2019), we expected that children had experience with WWII commemoration, associated with family involvement and prior lessons about commemoration at school, and rate the commemoration as important. 2.…”

“…Four research questions were formulated: What experiences do children have with WWII commemoration and how important is it for them to commemorate? In line with prior research (Coopmans et al, 2016, 2017; De Regt, 2019), we expected that children had experience with WWII commemoration, associated with family involvement and prior lessons about commemoration at school, and rate the commemoration as important. What reasons do children give to engage in, or disengage from commemoration? Literature gives insights in possible reasons to commemorate but, to the authors’ knowledge, no research has investigated the reasons from a child's point of view in the Dutch context. Which forms of commemoration, for example which specific rituals or elements, are valued by children?…”

‘It’s like a double-edged sword’: understanding Confucianism’s role in activity participation among first-generation older Chinese migrants in the Netherlands and Belgium

“…From these studies it turns out that activity participation -religious participation in particular (Fleischmann et al, 2016;Smits et al, 2010) -protects Turkish and Moroccan migrants from loneliness (Klok et al, 2017). Moreover, national day participation among older adults of Moroccan, Turkish, Surinamese and Antillean origin living in the Netherlands is determined mostly by their experience with commemoration and celebration in their country of origin (Coopmans et al, 2016). In this article we aim to broaden the activity scope towards Chinese migrants, and towards everyday participation inside and outside the home, including caring for grandchildren, going to dinner with friends and club activities based on membership.…”

Unified in remembrance: reflections on collective war commemoration by war-affected immigrants in the Netherlands

“…Having a personal connection to WWII (either directly or indirectly via family members) did not affect the likelihood for immigrants to participate in commemoration. Attendance was mostly determined by previous familiarity with commemoration in the country of origin (Coopmans et al 2016).…”