Making Sense of Belonging: An Exploration of Everyday Racism in the Lives of Dutch Citizens with an Asian Background

Abstract

Discrimination and racism are part of the everyday lives of many people from the Southeast – and East Asian communities in the Netherlands for quite some time. Only in the last few years, the second generation started speaking up by creating an activist foundation. This research will look through Essed’s (2001) concept of everyday racism and Antonsich’s (2010) framework that presents belonging as the interplay between the politics of belonging and the feeling of home. By using these frameworks, an image is constructed of how racism operates through everyday life and affects the sense of belonging. I will argue and add to these frameworks that the concept of belonging is also about creating your agency and sense of belonging or freedom in a country that continuously questions if you belong. While everyday racism affects the way you identify yourself and the extent to which you feel like you belong, the feeling of home is still quite solid because many are born and raised in the Netherlands. Feeling like the Netherlands is still your home is perhaps the base for many activists to become “activist citizens” (Isin 2009) and “knowing subjects” (Ortner 2005) to reposition themselves and claim their right to be treated equally. It shows the ability of the activists to construct their agency and create a sense of belonging in a country that continuously expresses forms of everyday racism and questions their belonging.