Impressie research seminar christelijke migranten
Op woensdag 30 november hield het KDC een studiebijeenkomst over de praktische kanten van onderzoek naar christelijke migranten in Nederland: 'Building trust: conducting research among and with Christian migrants'. Het seminar werd ondersteund door Radboud University Network on Migrant Inclusion (RUNOMI) en trok belangstelling uit verschillende richtingen. Er waren sociaalwetenschappelijk onderzoekers, erfgoeddeskundigen, voorgangers, en medewerkers van migrantenorganisaties en archiefinstellingen. Een van de deelnemers was Cornelis Hulsman, die zich onder andere als senior adviseur bij het Center for Intercultural Dialogue and Translation (CIDT) al jaren inzet voor de interculturele en -interreligieuze dialoog tussen christenen en moslims. Een verkorte weergave van zijn impressie vindt u hieronder.
De presentaties van de bijeenkomst vindt u onderaan op deze pagina
Researching Christian immigration to the Netherlands
Dialogue Across Borders participated on November 30 in a research seminar, “Building Trust: Conducting Research Among and With Christian Migrants,” at Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. Since immigrants to the Netherlands also include Muslims and adherents of other religions, participants also spoke about these communities.
Speakers were Anneloes van Kuijk, theme leader for International Diversity at the Catholic Documentation Centre at Radboud University, Madelon Grant, coordinator of Samen Kerk in Nederland, Fr. Michael Bakker, rector of the St. Irenaeus Orthodox Theological Institute in the Netherlands, Martijn de Koning, researcher on Islam at Radboud University, Leen Sterckx, advisor for qualitative research at the Netherlands Institute for Social Research, Ron Blom of the Amsterdam City Archives, and Frans Wijssen, professor of Religious Studies at Radboud University. Hans Krabbendam, director of the Catholic Documentation Centre, described Anneloes van Kuijk as the ‘mother of this event,’ and not without good reason because of the enormous effort she put into organizing this seminar.
The seminar discussed immigrants coming from all parts of the world to the Netherlands, including from the Caribbean, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. Migrants include both Muslims, Christians, and other religious and cultural traditions. Many came as refugees from the 1960s onward, but we also find those who were able to settle with their own businesses or who were employed by Dutch companies.
The participants agreed that there is insufficient data on the experience of immigrants in the Netherlands. Information is very often fragmented according to different religious and cultural communities coming from different countries. Of course, immigrants keep relations with their home countries and divisions in their home countries are often taken to the countries where they migrate. The historical narratives of their communities and also personal experiences contribute to their identity. The narratives carried by immigrant communities in Europe may be very different in ways from the way their stories are understood in their countries of origin.
Anneloes van Kuijk highlighted that much research about Muslims in the Netherlands has a focus on Muslims being problematic to our society. This tendency is unfair because it ignores the many Muslims who integrated well in society. What happens when researchers and authors put the spotlight on specific groups in society because we see them as problematic? What does this do to the wider faith community?
Fr. Michael Bakker is priest at the former Russian Orthodox Church in Amsterdam. His church came into public view with the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war earlier this year and their decision to place their parish under the authority of the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople. This was presented in Dutch media as a ‘split’, but this reveals a lack of understanding of church history and ecclesiastical law. It was not actually a split but rather a move to a different church jurisdiction. Fr. Michael Bakker received Dutch officials at his church who had very little understanding of religion. Continuously religion gets into the limelight if something happens that government and secular media see as problematic. The brunt of such negative attention sadly goes to Muslims, Fr. Bakker explained. There are so many good things happening, but this is hardly seen. That is not the way it should be.
Martijn de Koning spoke about the importance of personal interviews, which are highly valuable for our understanding of the experience of immigrants. However, they can contain sensitive information and, at times, Dr. de Koning had to make the difficult decision not to publish material until a later date. One of the subjects he worked on was about Dutch women who had married Muslim activists who had gone to Syria to join the Islamic State. They came back to the Netherlands and were immediately interrogated by security. He understands this, but for good qualitative research, relationships of trust are needed, and this is not the focus of security.
The participants agreed that the way the Dutch government and wider public often sees immigrants in a negative way can greatly impact these communities. Researchers are needed to present the wider context.
(Bron: ‘Dialogue across borders Newsletter'; 2022/40)