“Moroccan youngsters”: category politics in the Netherlands
| Author | Marleen der Haar,Conny Roggeband |
| Date | 01 August 2018 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12419 |
| Published date | 01 August 2018 |
“Moroccan youngsters”: category politics in
the Netherlands
Conny Roggeband* and Marleen van der Haar**
ABSTRACT
The article analyses the categorization of “Moroccan youngsters”as a problem group in the
Netherlands. Since the 1990s Dutch-Moroccan boys and young men are set apart as a prob-
lematic group that presents a social and security threat and an emblem of the failure of multi-
cultural society. We analyse the intersectional “category politics”of Dutch politicians to
situate Moroccan-Dutch youngsters as problematic outsiders. Our analysis makes clear how
national origin, culture, class and gender intersect in the categorization of “Moroccan young-
sters”constituting a national-cultural category, which is also defined in terms of a disadvan-
taged socio-economic position. This categorization has important implications for policy
arrangements and proposed measures. Existing schooling and training measures are seen as
inadequate to end incessant intergenerational patterns of dependence and poverty. Intervention
in the sphere of the family and parenting are deemed necessary to transform “Moroccan
youngsters”into “good citizens.”
INTRODUCTION
Since the late 1990s, Dutch-Moroccans have been singled out as a particularly problematic group in
Dutch society and are often represented as the least “integrated”ethnic minority group. Dutch resi-
dents of Moroccan background have become emblematic of integration problems and the alleged fail-
ure of multicultural society in both public and political discourse. In particular Dutch-Moroccan boys
and young men are set apart as a problematic group that presents a social and security threat. Media
and politicians portray young Moroccan-Dutch men, referred to as “Moroccan youngsters”as trouble-
makers who misbehave and “terrorize”urban neighbourhoods (Koning, 2015).
1
In this article we anal-
yse the “category politics”(Bacchi, 2000) that Dutch politicians use to situate “Moroccan youngsters”
as a particular problematic category. We argue that politicians are powerful “identifiers”, because they
have the “material and symbolic resources to impose the categories –with which bureaucrats, judges,
teachers, and doctors must work and to which non-state actors must refer”(Brubaker & Cooper, 2000,
p. 16). So, what do Dutch politicians represent as the policy problem and what political solutions do
they favour? What are the implications of prevailing problem definitions? To answer these questions
we analyse a number of Dutch political debates that explicitly focus on “Moroccan youngsters”over
time. We argue that these debates and their outcomes exercise an important constitutive function in
drawing sharp delineations between “Dutch”and “Moroccan,”adding to existing distrust, exclusion
and stigmatization of Moroccan-Dutch citizens. Our analysis of four central parliamentary debates on
“Moroccan youth”makes clear that the exclusion and othering of this group cannot be uniquely
* University of Amsterdam, P.O. Box 15578,1001 NB, Amsterdam,The Netherlands
** Radboud University Nijmegen, The Neterlands
doi: 10.1111/imig.12419
©2017 The Authors
International Migration ©2017 IOM
International Migration Vol. 56 (4) 2018
ISSN 0020-7985Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
contributed to the rise of populist parties. “Moroccan youngsters”were already positioned as a prob-
lem category before the emergence of populist parties. While newly emerging right wing populist par-
ties effectively mobilized the issue after the turn of the millennium to create a “moral panic”and
indignation in the public and political debate (Pakes, 2016), our analysis makes clear that other “main-
stream”parties across the political spectrum actively contributed to the problematization and stigmati-
zation of “Moroccan youth.”Overall, there is a remarkable consensus in categorizing “Moroccans”as
a deviant group, representing a major problem for Dutch society that requires more repressive and
punitive policy interventions.
As Brubaker (2013) suggests, it is important to scrutinize and critically reflect on the categories
in use to represent “others”in the public debate. We use intersectionality theory to analyse how
multiple, intersecting markers of difference are invoked in constructing the policy category of
“Moroccan youngsters”and what meanings that are attached to these. While the category princi-
pally refers to nationality/ethnicity and age, gender, religion and class also appear under the sur-
face. Our analysis makes clear how implicit notions of gender and religion are invoked to draw
sharp boundaries between “Moroccan youth”and Dutch society. In addition, class figures centrally
in the construction of the problem. “Moroccan boys”are represented as a social economic under-
class that disproportionately relies on welfare state services and that needs to be reintegrated into
Dutch society through re-education, disciplining and repression. The way nationality, ethnicity and
class are combined in the process of categorization essentializes the problem of “Moroccan young-
sters.”The trouble and nuisance caused by some youngsters is taken as the symptom of a wider
problem of failed integration of “Moroccans”as a group. The behaviour of “Moroccan boys”is
attributed to the low socio-economic position of “Moroccans”which subsequently is represented as
the product of intergenerational cultural transmission. An essentialist and static image of “Moroccan
culture”as “backward”and “traditional”is invoked to explain the current marginal and problematic
situation of “Moroccan youngsters.”Class in this representation becomes the product of culture.
This intersectional categorization, we argue, has important implications for the policy arrangements
and measures that are proposed to deal with the “Moroccan youngsters”. Existing schooling and
training measures are seen as inadequate to end incessant intergenerational patterns of dependence
and poverty. The “problematic”or “potentially problematic”behaviour of youngsters is attributed
to a parenting “deficit”. Incapable and irresponsible parents are targeted with measures like forced
educational assistance and family coaches. Intervention in the private sphere is deemed necessary
to transform “Moroccan youngsters”into “good citizens”.
CATEGORIZATION AND CATEGORY POLITICS
Categories and category-making are central to human action and society. Individuals makes concep-
tual distinctions in their daily lives based on institutionalized cultural repertoires, publicly available
categorization and national stereotypes (Lamont, 1992, p. 350-351). These daily categorizations (re)
produce durable and institutionalized social differences (ibid.). Categorization is used for political
and policy purposes. Analyses of integration policies make clear how the subjects of such policies
are identified and targeted as members of groups like “non-western”,“Moroccans”or “Muslims”
(Korteweg and Triadafilopoulos, 2013; Yanow and van der Haar 2013). Korteweg and Tri-
adafilopoulos (2013) note that “the designation of group membership continues to be a key practice
in formulating integration policies.”(p. 117).
Starting from an interpretative policy tradition which sees policy not as a response to existing
conditions and problems, but “more as a discourse in which both problems and solutions are cre-
ated”(Goodwin, 1996, 67; Bacchi, 2000, Yanow, 2003), we view categorization as a social prac-
tice the purpose of which is to create or give shape to the policy proposals that are offered to deal
80 Roggeband and van der Haar
©2017 The Authors. International Migration ©2017 IOM
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