Colorful urbanites : ethnicity and becoming Asian Dutch urban middle class

URBANITES

URBANITES

COLORFUL

ETHNICITY and BECOMING

ASIAN DUTCH MIDDLE CLASS

Colorful Urbanites

Ethnicity and becoming Asian Dutch urban middle class

Author: Aridan Mećava Student number: 10370986

E-mail: aridanmecava@gmail.com Date: June 27, 2016

Place: Amsterdam, the Netherlands University of Amsterdam

Department of Anthropology

Contemporary Asian Studies master program Supervisor: dr. O.K. (Olga) Sooudi

Second reader: dr. S. (Shanshan) Lan

Third reader: dr. ir. M.W. (Marieke) Slootman Word count excluding references: 27.783 Page count: 94

PREFACE

Abstract

This research examines the ways in which young 1.5 and second generation Asian-Dutch individuals give meaning to their ethnic background, how they deal with discrimination and how they imagine their future as middle-class individuals in the city by placing their life-stories at the front and center. From an early age, these individuals have imagined and aspired to a common Dutch middle-class lifestyle that was achieved mostly through their high education. Their high educational achievement, which put them in a relatively privileged social position, enabled them to downplay every-day forms of discrimination. However, subtle forms of discrimination as well as occasional encounters with severe forms of discrimination were experienced by these individuals. Throughout their lives, their ethnic background was abandoned and embraced at

specific times and in specific places and was sometimes used to specific strategic ends. In their pathway to middle-classness, urban culture and city life is important in enabling them to overcome discrimination, climb the social ladder and become the cosmopolitan individuals that they are today.

Key words: ethnic minorities, ethnicity, ethnic identity, discrimination, social class, middle-class, city culture, Asian-Dutch

Personal introduction

It was the summer of 2011 and I had just graduated from secondary school. Embarking from Lufthansa’s double-decker aircraft in Singapore, I set foot in Asia for the first time. During my stay in Singapore, I was impressed by Singapore’s cosmopolitan population, its cultural diversity, the vast suburbs of HDB high-rise flats, and the underground networks of interlinked air-conditioned malls and corridors. Besides being fascinated by Singapore, Asia and its languages, cities, public transport systems, foods, architecture and fashion trends have always interested me from a very early age. In 2013, I visited Japan. I spent two days with my Serbian great aunt and her Japanese husband, in Kawasaki and another two weeks with their son, my great uncle, and his family in Tokyo. Here, I experienced Japan from a native perspective, living with my great uncle’s family in a

the 246 elevated highway that I had read about in Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84 prior to my visit. For two weeks, I was living with the Imatoki family as a true family member. With them, I experienced many new things, but a lot of the things, places and practices around me were still familiar to me. Due to our annual family gatherings in Croatia (in a coastal town where my family has spent their summers for generations), where all family members, coming from Japan, Croatia, Serbia, Italy and the Netherlands, shared anecdotes and stories about daily life, I was familiar with everyday life in urban Japan. Their stories made me feel like I knew what it was like to wait for the crowded morning Den-en-toshi line train at Komazawa-daigaku station, wake up to earthquakes during the night and go window-shopping around Omotesandō on Saturdays. Hearing my great aunt’s stories about moving from Serbia to Japan in the 1970s, my parents’ stories about migrating from Croatia to the Netherlands and many more family stories about travel always fascinated me, but also made foreign cultures feel not so foreign anymore. Cultural difference became interesting rather than strange. In retrospect, my interest in East and South East Asia was undoubtably sparked by my great aunt’s and uncle’s stories about Japan and their travels around Asia.

It was just ten months ago, in September of 2015, when I was looking for a topic for my research. Obviously, this master program provided me with the best opportunity to study Asia. Unlike most students in the course, I decided to study Asia from a European perspective in which I can navigate as a native. Fascinated by the concept of ‘model minority’, I was naturally guided into this study of Asian-Dutch minority middle-classness in the city as the year progressed. Besides my native position in Dutch society, I, as a second generation Croatian-Dutch individual was able to understand my 1.5 and second generation Asian-Dutch informants very well. I found out we share many experiences, habits and encounter similar questions,

remarks, privileges and disadvantages. All in all, I can say that this research has been very close to my heart.

Acknowledgments

This thesis, my first ethnography, is the product of ten months of literature review, fieldwork, analysis and ethnographic writing. During these ten months, I learned a lot about social science research in practice and about myself. The path that lead me to this thesis was bumpy and full of curves and with the help of several people, this thesis would have not

seen its completion. First of all, I would like to thank my supervisor, dr. Olga Sooudi, for her effort in guiding me through all stages of my research, from beginning to end. I would also like to thank Dr. Tina Harris and Dr. Shanshan Lan for introducing me to anthropology and ethnographic research in 2015 during the Asian Studies minor program I followed at the University of Amsterdam, and Dr. Tina Harris for giving me the

opportunity to apply for the Contemporary Asian Studies master program and for her constructive and thoughtful comments during the writing process of this thesis. Furthermore, I would like to thank my fellow-students Ida, Ha and Koen for their help during fieldwork. I would also like to thank all my friends who supported me during the last ten months. I would also like to thank all the people that shared their personal life-stories with me, even though my ethnographic style confused some of you. Lastly, I want to thank my partner and my parents for their ever-lasting support and love. I dedicate this thesis to my parents who left Yugoslavia in 1991 in order to provide me a safe place to grow up and have a bright future. This thesis had not been possible without their courage and dedication for which I am eternally thankful.

Thank you Dank je wel Cám ơn rất nhiều

Gran tangi Terima kasih banyak

非常谢谢 唔該晒 اًرْك ُش ہیرکش تہب Teşekkür ederim ब"त ब"त धnवाद Hvala

Thank you to all of my informants, their parents and my own parents in their first and/or second language: English, Dutch, Vietnamese, Surinamese (Sranang), Bahasa Indonesia, Mandarin, Cantonese, Arabic, Urdu, Turkish, Hindi and Croatian.

CONTENTS

PREFACE

6

1 INTRODUCTION

12

1.1 Relevance and academic embedding 13

1.2 Research question 14

1.3 Migrating Westwards 14

1.4 Methodology and population 20

1.5 Positionality as the author 23

1.6 Thesis outline 24

2 IMAGINING DUTCH MIDDLE-CLASSNESS

26

2.1 Moving upward 30

2.2 Aspiring to university 36

2.3 Conclusion 40

3 FLEXIBLE ABOUT ETHNICITY

42

3.1 We are just very Dutch! 45

3.2 Activism as a class luxury 52

3.3 Conclusion 55

4 DOWNPLAYING DISCRIMINATION

58

4.1 Letting it pass 60

4.2 Being better off 63

4.3 Conclusion 69

5 IMAGINING THE AUSPICIOUS CITY

70

5.1 Towards the city 73

5.2 Living a cosmopolitan life 78

5.3 Conclusion 82

6 CONCLUSION

84

REFERENCES

88

Academic articles 88

Books and book chapters 91

Dissertations & websites 92

APPENDIX

94

1

1.1 Relevance and academic embedding

This research offers an ethnographic perspective on, mostly Asian Dutch, ethnic minorities in the Netherlands. In doing so, I attempt to provide an alternative perspective on ethnic minorities in the Netherlands, that goes beyond the conventional insider-outside and autochtoon-allocthoon binary that is dominating public discourse. This binary, prone to

Eurocentric essentialization of ethnic sub-groups and marginalizing non-Western ethnic minorities in Dutch society is part of the “minority research industry”, is dominating Dutch migration studies. Essed & Nimako (2006) argue that this minority research industry on Dutch ethnic minorities emphasizes “about their migration and their degree (or lack) of economic, social and political integration in the Netherlands”. As so, Dutch ethnic minorities are reproduced as problematic. Furthermore, Essed & Nimako (2006) argue that Dutch mainstream minority research downplays the ramifications of Dutch colonial history, and presumes a European (Dutch) cultural superiority. Lastly, the interconnectedness between governmental policy and minority and migration research in the Netherlands results in research that serves the dominant majority interest that lacks critical reflection and produces research that is mostly concerned with ‘how the ethnic minorities are performing’ vis-a-vis ethnic Dutch.

By offering an insight into ethnicity and urban middle-class formation among, mostly, Asian Dutch minority individuals, these binaries, along with their essentializing and marginalizing tendencies, are disrupted and challenged. With this research, I want to show that there are indeed ethnic minority individuals who climb the social ladder and who are socially and spatially involved in society, rather than segregated, which the prevailing assumption (Dagevos et al, 2006). Furthermore, I challenge the linear integration model that proposes that in order to join the ‘mainstream’ host society, one has to let go of their ethnic background, which Slootman (2014) describes as “culturalization of citizenship” (pp. 235). I show that, while climbing the social ladder, the individuals I studied have not abandoned their ethnic background. Ethnicity is sometimes a reminder of ‘being different’ and my informants are sometimes reduced to their ethnicity, while at the same time, ethnicity is also seen as an asset while also sometimes downplayed as unimportant. Furthermore, by showing their diverse life histories and personalities, I challenge the tendency to view ethnic categories as representations of bounded and homogeneous groups (Slootman, 2014).

This research is strongly embedded in the Dutch national context. Therefore, it is important to briefly reflect on Dutch migration and integration policy as well as migration to the Netherlands in recent decades. Dutch migration and integration policy were long characterized by the promotion of ethnic and religious identity preservation among immigrants in what was called ‘multi-cultural society’ (multiculturele

samenleving). Uitermark et al (2005) argue that since the 2000s, this notion of

multiculturalism came under attack. Ever since, Dutch immigration policy has moved towards a more assimilationist that expects immigrants to adopt Dutch culture, rather than maintaining the culture of their ethnic

background. I have found that public discourse on race and ethnicity of the last five to ten years is characterized by the production and reproduction of an insider-outsider binary in Dutch society. New, first generation

immigrants, and longer standing, second and third generation Dutch citizens are defined by their parent’s or grandparent’s ethnicity.

Furthermore, the government categorization of ethnic minorities holds a Eurocentric character that differentiating strongly between Dutch citizens of non-Western descent from those of Dutch, or ‘Western’ descent,

including (Western) European, North-American, Indonesian, Japanese or Oceanian immigrant. Here, the tendency is to perceive non-Western immigrants as a threat to Dutch society and culture. This thesis will

contribute to a more rightful understanding of young Asian Dutch minority individuals, not as outsiders of Dutch society, but as complex, diverse and adaptive individuals.

1.2 Research question

The main research question that will be answered in this research is:

How do young Asian-Dutch minority individuals experience their ethnicity as they are becoming part of an urban middle class?

1.3 Migrating Westwards

In order to understand the ethnic background of my informants and their stories, it is important to shed some light on migration from Asia and Suriname to the Netherlands in recent decades. In general, migration to the Netherlands has been a significant phenomenon for centuries (Mandin & Gsir, 2015; Paulle & Kalir, 2014) and still is today as, on January 1st, 2016, the Netherlands had a population of 16,980,049 people, with 3,753,685

people born to at least one parent of non-Dutch descent (Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek, 2015). Thus, non-Dutch individuals make up a

significant part of the Netherlands’ population. In what follows, I will provide a very brief background to migration from Asia (China, Vietnam and Indonesia) and Suriname to the Netherlands, in order to contextualize the presence of Chinese, Indonesian, Hindustani Surinamese and

Vietnamese diaspora in the Netherlands. Besides individuals belonging to these ethnic groups, this research also considers several individuals from Ghanian, Turkish, Surinamese Creole ethnic backgrounds that are not directly related to Asia, although the focus of this research remains on Asian Dutch individuals. An overview of my informants and their ethnic backgrounds will be provided in a later section of this chapter and in the appendix.

This historical overview of migration from Asia to the Netherlands starts in 1911. This is when Chinese migration to the Netherlands started when a group of Chinese seamen was assigned to replace Dutch seamen in the port of Rotterdam that were on labor strike (Huang, 2015). Today, the Chinese Dutch are the fifth largest, so-called ’non-Western’ minority group in the Netherlands and the largest Asian group in the Netherlands

consisting of 71.500 members and growing (Sociaal Cultureel Planbureau, 2011). Whereas Turkish and Moroccan migration to the Netherlands is almost exclusively linked to labor migration and family reunification, Chinese immigrants arrived in the Netherlands in various individual contexts, namely those of decolonization, asylum seeking and labor

migration (Huang, 2015; Mandin & Gsir, 2015, pp. 10). Before World War II, Chinese sailors, particularly from the Guǎngdōng province, were employed in Dutch navigation companies and landed in the Netherlands, mostly in Rotterdam and to some extent in Amsterdam. During the 1930s, as the Dutch navigation companies were in their downfall, most Chinese returned to China, although some remained in the Netherlands (Keuzenkamp, 2010). Another group of Chinese who landed in the Netherlands at this time came from the Zhèjiāng province and were hired to dig trenches in World War I. After the war had ended, some of them settled in European countries, including the Netherlands. The influx of Chinese into the Netherlands that continued after World War II was fueled by South-Asian Chinese that migrated due to the decolonization of Indonesia and Suriname and Chinese asylum seekers from China itself who were migrating due to political reform in China or due to socio-economic reasons (Mandin & Gsir, 2015; Keuzenkamp, 2011). After Indonesia’s independence from the Netherlands

in 1949, around 10.000 Chinese Indonesians, who were highly educated and were on equal foot with Europeans in terms of social status (Oostindie, 2011, pp.28) and whose children often went to Dutch schools and

universities, immigrated to the Netherlands. Similarly to these elite Indo-Chinese, Chinese Surinamese, although often lower educated than the Indo-Chinese, immigrated to the Netherlands after Suriname gained independence from the Netherlands in 1975. During the 1960s and 1970s, Chinese from Hong Kong, Malaysia, Taiwan and Singapore migrated to the Netherlands in search of a more prosperous future. Here, they started working in the upcoming Dutch catering and restaurant sector, opening Chinese and Cantonese restaurants throughout the Netherlands (Mandin & Gsir, 2015). This so called “restaurant culture”, with its long working hours and intensive manual labor, is something Chinese Dutch are still well known for (Sociaal Cultureel Planbureau, 2011). In recent decades, Chinese immigration continues to play a significant part in Dutch immigration and is growing rapidly in volume. Chinese migration to the Netherlands is now characterized by students and highly skilled workers from the People’s Republic of China. In current public discourse, it is assumed that the Dutch Chinese are doing extremely well, socially as well as economically (Sociaal Cultureel Planbureau, 2011; Chow et al, 2008; Chow, 2007). While the first generation of Chinese migrants from China and Indonesia is seen as somewhat problematic in this regard, with high levels of spatial and social segregation, low command of the Dutch language and relatively high poverty rates, the second generation is believed to have taken a great leap forward from the first generation in those respects (Oostindie, 2011; Sociaal Cultureel Planbureau, 2011). To some extent, this second generation of Chinese Dutch is seen as the Dutch ‘model minority’, along with the Indonesian Dutch.

Migrants from Dutch colonies of Suriname, Netherlands Antilles, Indonesia, and New Guinea followed the early waves of Chinese

immigration to the Netherlands as they first arrived during the 1940s and 1950s (Mandin & Gsir, 2015; Vink 2007). Oostindie (2011) identifies three series of migratory movements to the Netherlands: from Indonesia, Suriname, and the Netherlands Antilles. The former two will be discussed here as my informants’ parents belong to these two groups, but not the other. Migration from Suriname, Netherlands Antilles, Indonesia, and New Guinea followed each other in a sequence. Migration from Indonesia to the Netherlands was at its highpoint between 1945 and 1950 and continued

of post-colonial migration (Oostindie, 2011). Those migrating from Indonesia to the Netherlands were ethnic Europeans, Chinese, Arabs, Indonesians, and Indo-Europeans, the latter being the largest sub-group of migrants. These Indo-Europeans or Indos were often knowledgable about the Netherlands, although few had been to the Netherlands. They enjoyed a relatively high social status in Indonesia, along with the Dutch, who migrated to Indonesia where their offspring was born (totoks). However, during World War II and the Japanese occupation, the Indos and totoks suffered as well. Migrating to the Netherlands after the war, the Indos and

totoks were greeted with little enthusiasm by the Dutch. Under the idea that

the Dutch East Indies could be retained, migration to the Netherlands was seen as defeat (Oostindie, 2011, pp. 28). At the same time, the Netherlands struggled with a housing shortage and post-war reconstruction and there was a prevailing belief that the country was not able to welcome

newcomers. As the Dutch minorities debate became more concerned with rising immigration from the 1970s onwards, and concerns rose over Islamic immigrants, the Indonesian immigrants became a rarely mentioned

minority group, almost invisible in government minority policy as well as in public discourse on minorities.

A distinct category within Indonesian colonial migrants are Moluccans, who migrated from the Maluku Islands, located in the eastern part of the Indonesian archipelago. The Moluccan migrants share a common history of migration to the Netherlands as well as genetic difference to Indonesian people from the other Indonesian islands (Wittermans & Gist, 1961). In 1945, after the end of the Japanese occupation of Indonesia, the Republic of Indonesia claimed its independence (Verkuyten et al, 1999; Wittermans & Gist, 1961). In order to maintain control over Indonesia, the Dutch

established a Royal Dutch Indian Army (KNIL), which recruited many Indonesians from the Moluccan Islands to fight on the Dutch side. After Indonesia gained its independence from the Netherlands in 1949, the Moluccans, as they had fought on the Dutch side against Indonesian nationalists, found themselves in a ambiguous position. As the Republic of Indonesia was established as a unitary state, the Moluccans proclaimed independence in East-Indonesia in what they called the Republik Maluku

Selatan (Republic of the South Moluccans), to which the Indonesian

government responded with a violent military invasion of the new

republic. In this situation where the Moluccans claimed independence, but Indonesia denied their claim, the Netherlands agreed after difficult

Netherlands. Around 12,500 Moluccans arrived in the Netherlands in 1951 (Oostindie, 2015, pp. 28). As their stay was initially seen as temporary, most Moluccan immigrants were housed in former World War II camps across the Netherlands. Later, as it became evident their stay would be permanent, the Moluccans were moved to specially allocated ‘Moluccan

neighborhoods’ across the Netherlands which consisted of several streets that were only inhabited by Moluccan Dutch people.

The 1970s were characterized by increased migration from Suriname to the Netherlands (Oostindie, 2011, pp. 33). Although the total population of Surinamese migrants in the Netherlands is lower than that of the

Indonesian Dutch, migration from Suriname to the Netherlands was significant for Suriname as more than a third of its population migrated to the Netherlands (Oostindie, 2011). In order to tackle the colonial image of the Netherlands and to halt further migration from Suriname and the Antilles to the Netherlands, independence was negotiated with Suriname and the Antilles. Suriname’s independence at the end of 1975 was the final impetus for the large-scale migration to the Netherlands, fueled by feasible immigration terms for the Surinamese that were negotiated prior to

Suriname’s independence. Surinamese migrants were received with suspicion, and concerns rose about the ability of Surinamese migrants to integrate into Dutch society and they were perceived as low educated and low skilled, especially in a time when the Netherlands was not in need of new labor force (Emmer, 1986, pp. 428). Despite the negative reception of Surinamese migrants in the Netherlands, their integration is generally regarded as successful. The Surinamese Dutch have the highest

employment rate of all non-Western migrant groups and they are relatively successful in terms of educational attainment and employment. However, Oostindie (2011, pp. 35) identifies a “gulf” between the Surinamese and Dutch populations. However, the Surinamese migrants are a diverse ethnic group consisting of two major ethnic groups that both make up around half the population of Suriname: Afro-Surinamese and Asian Surinamese. The Afro-Surinamese are sub-divided in two groups; urban Creoles and Maroons, where the urban Creoles were considered most ‘Dutch’ in terms of religion, language and culture and Maroons were considered least ‘Dutch’. Asian Surinamese originate mostly from India, Java, and China. This ethnic diversity within the Surinamese migrant population makes it hard to speak of a single Surinamese migrant population in the

the Surinamese migrant population is common among my informants as well, as many of them are from mixed ethnic backgrounds.

Not greatly represented within the wide range of Dutch ethnic

minorities, but well represented in this research are Vietnamese Dutch. On January 1st, 2015, there were 20,987 Vietnamese Dutch citizens living in the Netherlands (CBS, 2015). Compared to the population of 66,088 Dutch Chinese in the Netherlands, Vietnamese Dutch are a relatively small ethnic minority that is understudied in academia, especially in social science. Despite being a small, understudied minority in the Netherlands, Dutch Vietnamese are well represented in this research which will contribute to filling the gap the academic social science understanding of Vietnamese Dutch. Most Vietnamese Dutch are boat refugees that came to the

Netherlands after the Vietnam War ended in 1975 and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam was declared in 1976 (Pho Vietnam, 2016; Tang, 2012). Those refugees who fled Vietnam by boat and that were noticed by American and European marine and trade vessel were taken onboard and were brought to nearby islands of Malaysia, Thailand and China where they awaited their asylum application in America, Australia and Europe (Pho Vietnam, 2015; NPO, 2004). This first wave of Vietnamese migration to Europe and the Netherlands, was followed by another significant wave of migration from Vietnam to the West. This second wave of Vietnamese migration to the West occurred during the 1980s. Many Vietnamese (male) migrants

migrated East-Europe, and former Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union in particular to work in order to pay off Vietnam’s state debt. After

communism fell in Europe, many of these male refugees relocated to other (West) European countries with their families. The Dutch Vietnamese informants in this research are descendants of migrants from both these two migration waves.

Migrants from Turkey, Morocco and the Mediterranean arrived in the Netherlands in the 1960s and 1970s (Crul and Doomerik, 2003). Although they are not (all) represented in this research, Turkish and Moroccan ethnic minorities are among the four largest ethnic minority groups in the

Netherlands and their presence is worth mentioning. A significant influx of Moroccan and Turkish ‘guest workers’ commenced after the Netherlands signed official labor migration agreements with Turkey and Morocco in the mid-1960s. As the guest worker recruitment terminated in 1974, return migration did not occur. Instead, family reunification became widespread and government policies were implemented in order to promote

integration among the guest worker groups as well as the colonial

immigrants. As said before, in the 1990s, Dutch integration policies shifted. More focus was put on citizen duties, such as gaining a good command of the Dutch language and embracing Dutch norms and values, and on integration into the educational system and labor market participation. Today, Turkish and Moroccan minorities are perceived most negatively, followed by Surinamese and Antillean (Van Niekerk, 2004).

1.4 Methodology and population

This research is about the lives of a diverse group of young, mostly Asian Dutch individuals who are all born to one or two parents of non-Dutch descent. They have moved to the Netherlands before they reached the age of 4 years (1.5 generation), or they were born in the Netherlands and lived here for most of their lives (second generation). What they have in common is that they are well educated, city-oriented prospective Dutch middle-class citizens. Some of them have been born into middle-class families, with of one or two highly educated parents, and will be middle-class individuals themselves, while others have been born into lower-middle-class families, with parents who are lower educated manual workers or whose education and diploma has not been valid in the Netherlands, but also have a middle-class prospect. Their stories are not only about ethnicity and ethnic experiences but also contain narratives on aspirations, education, identity, family life, friendship, moves across space, lifestyle, culture, love, relationships, and Amsterdam. By listening to their life-stories, I attempt to understand what ethnicity means to them and how ethnicity relates to their upward social mobility and middle-class formation.

This research was conducted between February and March of 2016. In the first week of the research, I conducted a critical discourse analysis in order to supplement my personal understanding of Dutch public discourse on the ethnically non-Dutch population in the Netherlands. This was done in order to have a firm grasp on the discursive status on ethnic minorities in the Netherlands in order to be able to contextualize my findings later on. The analysis comprised around 200 articles from mainstream tabloid and broadsheet newspapers (Algemeen Dagblad, De Telegraaf, De Volkskrant,

Trouw, NRC Handelsblad, Nederlands Dagblad, Het Financieele Dagblad and nrcnext) published between the years 2005 and 2015. However, most of the

data in this research is drawn from 27 semi-structured interviews that were conducted among 24 individuals. The interviews were between 30 minutes

and 160 minutes in length and were all conducted in Dutch. Two interviews were 30 minutes long while the rest were all 60 minutes or longer. The vast majority of interviews were recorded and then transcribed while a few interviews were not recorded. In those few cases, notes were taken and transcription followed immediately after the interview in order to preserve as many details from the interview as possible. Three follow-up interviews have been conducted with informants that had expressed particular interest in contributing to my research and showed great enthusiasm in

participating. The follow-up interviews were more unstructured, although some specific questions were asked regarding statements made in the first interview in which I was interested and wanted to know more about.

All informants, except for one 60-year-old informant, were between the ages of 20 and 35. At the time of the interviews, all informants had finished secondary school. All but one informant were in tertiary education, or had previously attended tertiary education at a hogeschool (higher school) or at university level; 7 (29%) informants had finished their education and are now working full-time jobs in the service sector or in the creative industry. Two informants are planning on studying at the university level in the future and now work full-time jobs, one in a designer clothing store and one in a café. Of the total of 24 informants, 6 (25%) are male and 18 (75%) are female. Regarding Asian related relevance, only 4 (17%) out of 24 informants have no direct ethnic connection to Asia as their parents are ethnically Ghanian (1), Turkish (1) and Surinamese mixed with non-Asian (2) ethnic backgrounds. The rest (83%) of the informants’ parents are ethnically Vietnamese (5), Surinamese mixed including Chinese and/or Indonesian (4), Surinamese Hindustani (2), Surinamese mixed including Chinese and/or Indonesian and Dutch (2), Indonesian, including

Moluccan (2), Dutch Pakistani mixed (1), Vietnamese Moroccan mixed (1), Chinese (1), Indonesian Dutch mixed (1) and Moluccan Dutch mixed (1). In total, 4 of my informants were born outside the Netherlands, in Ghana (1) and in Vietnam (3). All my informants currently live in cities: 19 (79%) of my informants currently live in the Netherlands’ capital Amsterdam, the rest live in a small city in the southern part of the Netherlands (2), the Netherlands’ second largest city of Rotterdam (1), Haarlem (1), a medium-sized city in the greater Amsterdam metropolitan area, and Delft (1), a medium-sized city half an hour train ride away from Rotterdam. During the research, like in the rest of my life, I lived in Amsterdam. Most

Utrecht, one in a small city in the southern part of the Netherlands and one in the city of Rotterdam.

Most informants were contacted through my personal social network of friends and co-students. My informants were selected if one or both of their parents or grandparents have come to the Netherlands from abroad. As my research progressed, I focused on selecting individuals with an Asia-related ethnic background, but I did not exclude others if interview opportunities emerged. My informants were first contacted either directly, by myself, or by a mutual friend, through WhatsApp chat, e-mail or Facebook Messenger chat. I contacted some individuals directly who I know vaguely from primary school or secondary school but with whom I had never been friends in order to maintain a certain distance and formality. I got to know one of my informants at a public lecture and another one of my informants is a regular customer at the specialty coffee bar where I work. Other

informants I contacted were through informants’ siblings or partners whom I knew personally, or through a mutual friend. My friends and co-students contacted individuals who they thought would be open to talk to me. As they introduced my research to the potential informants, they also

provided my contact details and left it to the potential informants to contact me. With those who contacted me, a date and time for an interview were set by me and the informant together.

Early on in my research, I found that my informants all share a middle-class urban lifestyle. This bias is at the heart of why my research is

concerned with social climbing and middle-class formation. Rather than focusing on creating a diverse mix of informants based on class, I decided to make my informants’ common middle-class lifestyle part of my

analytical focus and explore their middle-class-ness in relation to ethnicity. As said before, since all of the participants have been contacted through my, mostly Amsterdam-based, personal social network, a large part of this research concerns individuals who live in the city of Amsterdam. Moreover, most of my informants live within the Amsterdam ring-road where the older parts of Amsterdam lay. A small part of this research concerns individuals (5) who live outside of Amsterdam, in other large and smaller cities in the Netherlands. Three interviews were conducted outside of Amsterdam, in the cities of Utrecht, Rotterdam and a smaller city in the southern part of the Netherlands, the rest of the interviews were conducted in Amsterdam.

1.5 Positionality as the author

Explaining my positionality as the author of this ethnography is

important as my personal background contributes to my understanding of the research matter. I was born in Amsterdam in 1992 to two parents of (former) Yugoslavian descent. Growing up in Amsterdam, in an ethnically diverse neighborhood in the south-eastern part of the city more specifically, I have always been surrounded by people of various ethnic backgrounds. In school and in the neighborhood, ethnicity was something that was often talked about by parents and children alike. Spending my childhood and teenage years in this ethnically diverse environment exposed myself, other children and their parents to different languages, cuisines, and cultural practices. Many of my informants who grew up in ethnically diverse neighborhoods share such multicultural experiences growing up. Being accustomed to an ethnically mixed environment made ethnicity something ‘fun’ for me. I enjoyed having dinner at my Surinamese neighbor’s house. Over the course of the years, my mother learned how to make Surinamese food as well, and we had roti for dinner on a weekly basis. During the course of my teenage years and later, I found myself interested in different cultures more than my peers.

Having grown up in the Netherlands, my position as the researcher was highly local and I was able to gain a deep understanding of my informants. As my informants were aware of my position as a local being native to their national and even local lived reality, my informants were able to use

colloquial terms, references to Dutch society and culture and references to specific meaningful places. In turn, I could use this detailed, highly localized data in my analysis. If I had not understood the Dutch context from the native perspective, my interview questions and my informants’ answers would have been more general and my analysis and conclusions would remain at a more cursory level as my understanding of the local context would have been limited. However, I would like to point out that I have attempted to find a balance between personal accounts of field experiences and personal cultural understandings of the field with objective description and ethnographic writing (Pratt, 1986, pp. 32).

1.6 Thesis outline

To illustrate my findings, various quote from the interviews are used. These quotes are translated from Dutch into English during the

transcribing process. Particular meaningful expressions are translated literally to English and the original Dutch expression is put between parentheses in order to protect the authenticity of the data. Place-specific meanings of words and phrases is explained between brackets when relevant. My informants are never mentioned under their real given name. Instead, pseudonyms are used with respect to the ethnic origin of their original given name and the respondents’ sex. For example, Vietnamese female given names are replaced with a pseudonym that is also a

Vietnamese female given name. Small town and village names are changed to other Dutch small town and village names in order to protect my

informants’ privacy.

The further content of this thesis will be structured as follows. In the first chapter (2), I will explore the ethnic experiences and middle-class trajectory of my informants by looking at their memories and aspirations, rooted particularly in schools, neighborhoods and in the home-sphere. In the second chapter (3), I will explore the flexible nature of ethnicity and ethnic identity of my informants. I will look at their complex ways in which my informants are letting go of their ethnicity while simultaneously

reaching back to it. In the third chapter (4), I will explore the workings of downplaying mechanisms my informants use to deal with discrimination, what the limits of their ability to downplay discrimination is and how ethnic flexibility, class and ethnic position in the field of racial position influence their ability to downplay discrimination. In the final chapter (5), I will place my informants' ethnic experiences and middle-class trajectory in the context of the auspicious city, illustrating the central role of urban culture and city life, in the lives of my informants.

2

IMAGINING DUTCH

MIDDLE-CLASSNESS

Memories and imaginings take a central role in this chapter, illustrating my informants’ diverse ethnic experiences and pathways to urban middle-class-ness. Although I have not asked my informants about class

specifically, their stories do reveal the workings of their process of upward social mobility and their fantasies about a common Dutch middle-class ideal. Being that literature considering middle-class formation mostly examines White, and to some extent Black, middle-class, particularly in the US and UK and not in the Netherlands (Archer, 2010; Archer, 2011; Archer, 2012), I attempt to contribute to this research gap by examining the

trajectory towards urban middle-class-ness of young Asian Dutch individuals. The scarce literature on young minority individuals in the Netherlands that is available is concerned mostly with Surinamese, Antillean, Moroccan and Turkish minorities, rather than Asian Dutch minorities that are understudied, presumably due to their relatively small population and their perceived unproblematic position in the Netherlands. Some research on upwardly mobile young minority individuals in the Dutch context has been conducted by Slootman (2015; 2014) which,

similarly to this research, considers their (ethnic) identification practices. As my informants are from various ethnic and social backgrounds, mostly Asian and Surinamese, stories about family, ethnic experiences, and school provide a close, personal insight into the workings of their upward

mobility trajectories for Asian Dutch minorities, with respect to their individual differences. Some of my informants’ parents were born in the Netherlands, others arrived in the Netherlands as refugees or as

international students. The life trajectories of my informants’ parents and their social status vary to a great extent. Some of my informants are from less affluent working class families where the parents are manual laborers in factories or work as domestic care workers and cleaners. Others have highly educated parents who studied at Dutch universities and now have well-paying jobs as legal advisors, professional dancers, fashion designers, architects, videographers, and entrepreneurs. Despite these family

differences, my informants share a common class status. They are college or university educated and most of them lead a cosmopolitan urban life.

In terms of class, my informants either transcend their parents’ lower social class status and experienced upward social mobility, defined by Barber & Barber (1965) as the (upward) movement across social positions and social roles: described by Saran (2011) as “obtaining a college degree, a decent to high paying job and securing higher status in society” (pp. 164), or they manage to reproduce their parents’ previously achieved

middle-class status. Here, I challenge Bourdieu’s line of reasoning that working class ‘social agents’ are less likely to attend university education than middle-class ‘social agents’ by illustrating my informants’ middle-class aspirations and pathways (Maton, 2008, pp. 58). In the Netherlands, class status is intimately tied to education and educational attainment of

individuals (Cain, 2007), similarly to the above defined upward mobility by Saran (2011). Middle-classness in the Netherlands is thus produced and reproduced through higher (HBO) or university education which enables individuals to get a ‘decent’ job and a secure pay at a later age. The

valuation of high (university) education by many of my informants, which will become apparent throughout the coming chapters, supports this and should not only be seen as an immigrant preoccupation but as a vehicle for social mobility for Dutch individuals in general.

Besides education, which is commonly seen as the most important way in which my informants climb the social ladder and to which my

informants indeed attach great value as they define themselves as middle-class individuals, lifestyle and habits are also significant in how my informants define themselves and how they attempt to fit in the mainstream Dutch middle-class strata. By paying attention to my

informants' stories about their lifestyle (ie. how they spend their free time, where they work and their general personal interests) and considering their way of dressing and their manner of speech, a deeper understanding of their perception or individual interpretation of Dutch middle-classness can be revealed that goes beyond the conventional understanding of class in the Netherlands that is based strongly on education and occupational (Cain, 2007). Hence, I will not understand middle-classness only in terms of educational or socio-economic status, but also as a lifestyle and a set of values that are bound together in the middle-class fantasies. Additionally, it must be recognized that middle-classness, as is fantasized about by my informants, overlaps with a white Dutch ideal of ‘normalcy’ in which the ethnically Dutch middle-class lifestyle is imagined as the mainstream middle-classness. Thus, middle-classness in the Netherlands intersects with notions of middle-class ethnicity and race as intrinsic elements that co-define classness. Middle-classness is a native Dutch middle-classness, but, this is not exclusive to native Dutch individuals, as I will show by illustrating the ways in which my informants are able to achieve their imagined Dutch middle-class ideal through education, jobs, and lifestyle.

In this chapter, I will show that informants from both middle-class as well as working-class backgrounds have a similar fantasy about a Dutch middle-class. During the interviews, I first asked my informants about their childhoods. The earliest memories that were brought up by most of my informants were related to school. My informants' educational career guided them through their life-story as they talked about childhood, puberty, adolescence and adulthood. Because my informants spent

significant time at school during their childhood and teenage years, many, but not all of their aspirations and imaginings are naturally related to education. Their aspirations and imaginings are often formed in school, through interaction with peers and teachers. As Clerge (2014) and Archer (2010) have recognized, schools are indeed important sites of memories, experiences and aspiration making. In her study of 1.5 and second generation Haitian middle-class youth in New York City, Clerge (2014) showed that schools are important sites where immigrant youths are socialized in regards to their position in the American social hierarchy and that school type is an important determinant of Haitian youth experiences in terms of ethnicity and race. So, not only are schools sites of memories but also of ethnic experiences. Numerous scholars have illustrated that schools are also important in social mobility trajectories of immigrants. This has also become evident in this research. I have found that schools, but also neighborhoods and family dynamics, are important themes in my informants’ memories and imaginings regarding ethnic experience and middle-class formation.

My informants' story telling was guided by their educational career. I will illustrate in this chapter that schools, neighborhoods and the domestic sphere are key sites in memories and aspirations about ethnic experiences and middle-class formation as my informants' lives revolve around those three sites the most, especially during their early childhood. By focusing on memories and aspirations that are formed in school, in the neighborhoods and the domestic sphere, individual ethnic experiences and pathways to middle-class-ness can be understood. In this chapter, I argue that ethnic experiences and middle-class formation vary, based on individual geographical, family and educational context. While recognizing these individual and contextual differences, my informants’ memories and aspirations point towards a similar urban middle-class outcome.

The life-stories of Lành and Shai will take the center stage in illustrating the meaning of schools and education through memories and aspirations, as well as ethnic experience and middle-class formation.

2.1 Moving upward

I met Lành on a Monday evening in a café in the eastern part of Amsterdam. Lành had worked at a microbrewery and restaurant that weekend and she was still tired. Besides working at the microbrewery and restaurant, she is also studying and doing an internship on the side. On the evening of the interview, Lành wore a monochrome gray hooded sweater, dark tight jeans and she carried a white canvas tote bag with the name of the microbrewery she works at printed on the side in a simple yet

fashionable font. Lành’s life-story starts in South-East Asia. Lành, who is now in her mid-twenties, was born to Vietnamese parents in Hải Phòng, Vietnam’s third largest city, situated in the Red River delta. When she was born, her father was working abroad as a (manual) labor migrant in the former Czechoslovakia. Her parents were married before they moved to Europe with Lành and her younger sister. After Lành’s sister was born, her parents realized the situation in Vietnam is “totally fucked up [helemaal

kut]”. Vietnam was poor and life was difficult. Lành’s father decided to

move his family to the Czech Republic. After living in the Czech Republic and moving to Germany for a short period, Lành and her family landed in the Netherlands. In 1997, they sought asylum. Lành and her family were relocated twice before they were moved to a small city in the Friesland province, located in the north of the Netherlands. Here, Lành and her family spent 3 years in an asylum seeker center.

“The asylum seeker center was in the middle of a pasture. I can only recall grass, sand and fence. […] A lot of grass. Sand hills. I can only recall sand for some reason. […] It was actually a fun time. A nice childhood.” (Lành)

Although she was not allowed to go beyond the asylum seeker center perimeters without her parents’ permission, Lành looks back on her time in the asylum seeker center with a smile. It was at a later age that Lành

became aware of her ethnicity. During her early childhood, Lành was in an ethnically mixed environment, in the asylum seeker center as well as in school. Lành told me about the wide range of ethnic people lived asylum seeker center and about her ethnic friends in school.

“It was a Christian school but there were white kids and Surinamese kids. Pretty diverse. We played a lot, I had a nice teacher. A really motherly type. My best friend was Sri Lankan.” (Lành)

On occasions, Lành did feel she was different than her classmates. She remembers she did not engage in many leisure activities which set her apart from her classmates who had many fun activities on weekends. During group discussions in class, that are held every week on Monday morning, Lành pretended she had done many activities during the weekend in order to fit in with the rest of her peers who often went to amusement parks. Lành told me her parents had little money as her father works as a cleaner and her mother is a domestic care worker. The feeling of difference Lành experienced in school had to do with her parents’ financial situation, rather than ethnicity as she was not yet aware of her distinct ethnic background. In general, Lành remembers her childhood as a nice time, however, she also remembers her parents were often stressed which is why they did not give Lành a lot of freedom to move around the city.

After their time in the asylum seeker center, Lành and her family were granted Dutch citizenship and they moved to a small village near the Netherlands’ second largest city, Rotterdam when Lành was still in primary school. Although Lành enjoyed her time in the asylum seeker center, she expressed great joy as she talked about moving to the village. With a broad smile on her face, almost chuckling with laughter, Lành tells me about their new house.

“[…] my parents got a house in a village near Rotterdam, and we had stairs. That was awesome. With a garden. It was so awesome! […] We had a house with a front- and backyard, a super large barn, a large garden. I remember there were only town houses [rijtjeshuizen] and it was picturesque and idyllic. […] And we had an attic that you could reach with those pull-down stairs.” (Lành)

Moving to the village signifies that Lành and her family were moving up in terms of social class. They were able to become homeowners and buy a row house (rijtjeshuis). A Dutch row house is often situated in a row of multiple identical houses, all attached to each other by the side walls. These fairly narrow houses often have a front and a back yard and they are two to four stories tall. Usually, these row houses are often built in brick and

sometimes feature wood paneling around the windows. This type of house, often built after the 1970s, is an iconic marker of Dutch middle-class

(sub)urban family lifestyle (Karsten et al, 2013). The rijtjeshuis is often used as a measure of ‘normalcy’ in conversations when referring to one’s social status. When asking someone about the type of house they live in, the

rijtjeshuis is commonly referred to as “gewoon een rijtjeshuis”, gewoon

meaning ‘just simply’ or ‘ordinarily’. Living in a rijtjeshuis means being normal, in contrast to living in a high rise apartment block or a detached house, which points to significantly lower social class and higher social class respectively. This notion of ‘normalcy’ relates to middle-classness as normal often includes a middle-class lifestyle. Moving to a row house, Lành experienced more freedom. After living in their first bought row house for several years, her parents moved to a larger house in the same village. After their move, as Lành got older, she engaged in more activities and she moved around more freely.

“Only cycling, climbing, building huts. It was really a farmers village [boerendorp]. […] I had a lot of friends. It was very chill. Spent a lot of time in nature. I did jazz-ballet. I did gymnastics. I played

guitar.” (Lành)

Instead of being restricted by fences, Lành experienced great freedom and new social encounters with ethnically Dutch peers in the new ethnically Dutch dominated environment. By being free to cycle around, making friends and engaging in extracurricular activities, in contrast to the restrictions Lành faced in her early childhood, Lành experienced the benefits of middle-class-ness that was achieved through Lành’s family being able to move physically, from the asylum seeker center to a place of their choice, being able to buy a middle-class house in an “idyllic”

environment and being able to invest in Lành’s personal development through extracurricular activities. Moving to a rijtjeshuis, the iconic marker of a Dutch middle-class nuclear family lifestyle, and as Vincent & Ball (2007) and Holloway & Pimlott-Wilson (2014) have argued, engaging in extracurricular activities, or “the enthusiasm for ‘enrichment’ activities,

extra-curricular sports and creative classes” (Vincent & Ball, 2007, pp. 1062) is a

privilege that is available to middle-class families, rather than working-class families. It is a means of social reproduction (Pimlott-Wilson 2014; Vincent & Ball, 2007) and it shows Lành’s parent’s investment in

investments in their children. In other cases, my informants' parents had already established themselves as middle-class in previous generations and they are able to reproduce their middle-classness through their children as they send them to university.

Moving up the social ladder, ethnicity remained a recurring theme in my informants life-stories. Like all of my informants, Lành still

encountered limitations due to her ethnic background throughout her life, in school and in public. Occasional bullying occurred and she was

sometimes made fun of her ethnic background. During her time in primary school, she got remarks about how good her command of the Dutch

language was. Initially taking this as a compliment, Lành thought she was better than her peers at Dutch. Only later, Lành realized it was due to her Vietnamese ethnic background that people commented on her language ability and it was actually not better than her peer’s. Lành continued her life-story by telling me about the differences she experienced between herself, her family versus ethnically Dutch people. Lành says she always felt like Dutch people were very open and treated their children like equal to themselves. She felt that Vietnamese parents always treated, and still treat her, as a child.

“I had a lot of arguments with my parents. I wanted to go out more often than they would let me. My parents were never chill about it. Especially when I told them that I stayed with a friend whose mother was never home. After that, it was more difficult. […] My roommate has not seen her mother in Maastricht for three months. My parents would not accept that. ‘You have to come now!’. It’s not how it works. If I would have lived in Vietnam, I would have still lived with my parents.” (Lành)

These subtle, yet noticeable differences between the self and ethnically Dutch others is something all my informants have told me about. Some of my informants share similar experiences of strict parents while others always experienced great freedom. These kinds of memories show the limitations my informants' ethnic background poses in which ethnicity remains an intrinsic element of their lives that prevents them from becoming fully Dutch that all of my informants have experienced. They were something my informants ‘sensed’ and it was not something others would point out to them. All of my informants noticed subtle, mostly cultural, differences between themselves and their family in relation to

Dutch people throughout their lives. This is in line with Landry & Marsh’s (2011) finding, that despite their upward social mobility, ‘middle-class blacks’ in the US are still affected by their ethnicity in daily life and that “in spite of having attained success in objective terms, represented by a college or advanced degree and a middle-class job, probably the majority of

middle-class blacks experience some degree of anger, frustration, hurt, or anxiety” (pp. 390-391). My informants provided numerous examples of cultural difference between them and the dominant ethnic Dutch society, as well as concrete limits that are posed by their ethnicity. Cultural differences cover a wide array of cultural aspects such as food, social norms, parent-child relations and parenting practices and limits of ethnicity take the form of discrimination and racist encounters, however, these are not always experienced in a negative, stigmatizing way as Landry & Marsh (2011) found in the case of ‘middle-class blacks’ in the US, as I will point out in the following chapters.

In the case of Lành, these every-day reminders of ethnicity continued as Lành went to secondary school in Rotterdam and to university in

Amsterdam later on. Like several of my informants, Lành went to a

categoriaal gymnasium, a school that offers only the highest level of

secondary education in the Netherlands. These kinds of schools that are generally regarded as prestigious fit my informants’ high educational aspirations on their way to middle-classness. In order to be admitted to the school, students were required high primary school grades and they were invited to do an interview with the school principal in order to explain their motivation and preference for that school. Lành speaks positively about her secondary school, that according to her, actively promoted multiculturalism and ethnic diversity in the student population.

“I do have the idea that there were a lot of allochthonous kids. Kids from lesser (less affluent) [mindere] neighborhoods of Rotterdam. A lot of kids came from good neighborhoods, played field hockey, their parents were wealthy. But actually, I had a lot of friends that were like me. Whose parents were just, not from that background. But whose children were just smart.” (Lành)

In school, Lành found friends among people that were ‘like her’, also born to ethnically non-Dutch parents from middle-class or lower-class

“I don’t know… I belonged to an allochthonous friend group. My best friends’ parents were from Cape Verde, a lot of Surinamese friends, Indian friend, Javanese friend, Chinese. Super diverse. And you talked together about your perceptions on that level, and we were really ‘off the streets’, sort of, even though I was from the village. I shared a sense of humor and a connection with those people, rather than with the kids from the Amsterdam Zuid (affluent neighborhood in Amsterdam) of Rotterdam. Hillegersberg and Kralingen (affluent neighborhoods in Rotterdam). I could connect to my friends in such a different way than with them. A different sense of humor.” (Lành)

Being surrounded by mostly autochthonous during her late childhood, and experiencing more ethnic diversity in secondary school in Rotterdam, Lành became aware that she “has a skin color”. In the village she lived, she just ‘followed along’ whereas in Rotterdam she came to realize she is ethnically different than Dutch people.

“[…] a new world opened up to me. ‘Oh yeah, there are people that look like me and have the same humor because they went through the same things’. I had a Chinese friend, and she also had strict parents. And we could talk about how greedy our mothers are. Very recognizable, that recognition because you have the same background. I did not have that in primary school, and in secondary school I suddenly did. I really liked that. I learned a lot about different cultures, but also it was about not being alone anymore. Those things were also recognizable for other people, not only me and my sister. It was really nice.” (Lành)

In contrast to Shai’s mostly negative educational experience, ethnic diversity was an important aspect that Lành valued throughout her educational career.

After Lành went to university in Amsterdam, her parents often complain about her not visiting them frequently enough. They do not express their love for her by saying ‘I love you’, which bothered Lành. Lành’s parents were rather strict about going out and sometimes invaded her privacy by going through her desk drawers and her father would sometimes give here a “correcting flick [a light slap or flick to ‘correct’ a child that is behaving in a deviant way, corrigerende tik]”. Despite these seemingly negative characterization of Vietnamese parents, Lành also

explains her parents taught her to have respect for the elderly, behave nicely in public spaces. Lành looks back positively on her upbringing, although she wishes she had been raised more freely and in a “two way instead of one-way” fashion.

I illustrated how Lành and her parents climbed the social ladder through physical mobility, moving into an iconic middle-class rijtjeshuis, education and extracurricular activities. Lành’s ethnic experience shows a perceived ‘normal Dutch’ ideal, a self-imagined homogenized Dutch lifestyle that includes being middle-class, which she aspires. This ideal is present in all of my informants' life-stories. Lành shows she is able to climb the social ladder, while at times, ethnicity still proves to be an obstacle. Next, Shai’s life story will provide a deeper understanding of middle-class making through education as her life story is particularly telling for the ways education works as a force of upward mobility.

2.2 Aspiring to university

Shai’s life-story is based around her upward educational trajectory. Unlike Lành, who always attained the highest level of secondary education, Shai started on the opposite end of the educational spectrum. I met Shai at the café where she works, in the central part of Amsterdam. Besides working at the café, Shai also works at the micro roastery that roasts coffee for the café she works at. The café where Shai works is part of a well-known Amsterdam-based chain of cafés. During the day, the café was filled with a variety of people, ranging from yuppies that work behind their Apple laptops to young families with small children and older people. Located in an ethnically diverse part of Amsterdam, the café where Shai works attracts an ethnically diverse crowd. With the relatively high prices of the coffee drinks, averaging at around €3,50, most visitors seem to be rather affluent. Like Lành, and also most of my other informants, Shai is involved in activities, moving between places that are part of a particular class related lifestyle. Many of my informants’ lives revolve around places are related to this particular lifestyle of gentrifiers, creative class,

cosmopolitan urban citizens, but also to native Dutch middle-class individuals. These places, such as high-end cafés, specialty coffee

roasteries, microbreweries, architecture schools, start-up businesses, dance studios, band practice rooms, inner-city offices, and universities, informs us about their lifestyle which is part of the urban middle-class population. The

cosmopolitan middle-class urban lifestyle of many of my informants will be discussed further in the last chapter.

While we both sipped on our fizzy elderflower lemonades, Shai started out by telling me she was born in a city in the eastern part of the

Netherlands, near the border with Germany. Shai, who is now in her mid-twenties, was born to a Chinese Indonesian mother and a Surinamese father. She does not know much about her father since he left the family when Shai was very young. Shai’s mother was born to an Indonesian father and Chinese mother, both born in Indonesia. Her grandparents met in Indonesia in an orphanage after Indonesia gained its independence from the Netherlands. Together, they moved to the Netherlands. Here, they raised Shai’s mother. In order to fit in with the Dutch, they raised Shai’s mother in Dutch, without teaching her Bahasa Indonesia. They believed it would be best to “do how it is [doen zoals het is]”, and not have their child stand out. Attempting to go unnoticed and act ‘normal’ is common

amongst Indonesian diaspora in the Netherlands which is why Indonesian Dutch are often seen as the model minority (Kartrosen & Tan, 2013; Chow et al., 2008). Like one of my older informants who is now 60 years old and was also raised without learning Bahasa Indonesia, Shai thinks it’s a shame, because she would have loved to know how to speak Bahasa Indonesia, but she also believes it has been a good choice. Shai’s mother gave birth to Shai’s older brother when she was 20 years old. According to Shai, she and her Surinamese partner did not have a “healthy” relationship. Shai’s father was a drug addict and he often had affairs with other women. After giving birth to Shai and her younger sister, Shai’s mother and her husband split and Shai’s mother married a Dutch man, which Shai calls her “real” father. Together, they moved to a small town near the city of Arnhem, a one and a half hour train ride away from Amsterdam.

Shai has always been a motivated and ambitious student. She started secondary school in one of the lowest levels of secondary education (VMBO), but she always aspired to move upward. Shai did not like the students in her own level. She found them to be “empty”. Shai found most of her friends at the intermediate level of secondary education (HAVO). Her mother would often remind her that she should not feel that she has to prove herself. Nevertheless, Shai always compared herself to others.

“My mother always said, ‘you are not smart if you hang out with smart people or if you have academic education’. She was afraid I thought that.” (Shai)

At this point, it is important to know that all of my informants were born to parents that cared much about their children performing well educationally. The informants who had parents that studied at the

university level were often encouraged to follow their parents’ path. Those who had lower educated parents were encouraged in different ways. Especially the parents of my Vietnamese Dutch informants were not able to help their children with homework assignments as they were either

uneducated, had only attended primary school in Vietnam or had studied at the university level in Vietnam during the communist era which made their acquired diploma invalid the Netherlands. Instead, they worked long hours, often in low-paying labor intensive jobs, in order to pay for their children’s education. The importance of education as a middle-class marker for ethnic minorities as well as the dominant ethnic group has been

extensively documented in non-Dutch context (Archer, 2012; Archer, 2011; Archer, 2010; Watt, 2009; Vincent & Ball, 2007; Power; 2000), but Dagevos et al (2006) show middle-class formation among ethnic minorities is still mostly seen in terms of educational achievement. All in all, parental support is something all of my informants share and this is potentially an important factor in my informants’ ability to climb the social ladder.

After Shai obtained her VMBO diploma, Shai’s mother filed for divorce and re-married again. Shai, her mother, and siblings moved to a larger city nearby. There, Shai studied for an additional year and obtained her HAVO diploma. Step by step, Shai climbed the educational ladder. After obtaining her second secondary school diploma, Shai moved to Amsterdam.

“I moved to Amsterdam because I wanted to. Haha. I always said I would not want to live in Amsterdam. It’s too busy, too many people. I wanted to do a course at the academy of theater in Amsterdam. I did that for two years, it was two evenings per week. And I thought, ‘I’ll just find a job and rent a room’. And now I don’t want to leave. It’s my place.” (Shai)

After moving to Amsterdam and completing the course at the academy, Shai started three different bachelor programs at the hogeschool (a level of

the three because they did not appeal to her. However, Shai was still motivated to pursue a higher educational degree. Looking back, Shai tells me she was ashamed of her lower educational level, rather than her ethnicity. She felt like she was capable of attaining higher levels of education, unlike her peers who she felt were unmotivated and narrow-minded. Shai tells me she never associated with the students in the lower educational level in terms of (life)style. Looking back on her classmates, Shai distances herself from them.

“At the VMBO I was an outsider. Also in my family. I was the alternative one. I was skateboarding. And in my school everyone had Nike Airmax (sneakers) and fur collars (winter jackets with fur around the hood). It was always like, ‘you are emo!’ […] I am just not, I am not getting the same out of life as some people there. Bergenis a village that I’m very happy I don’t live there anymore. Everything is so the same. When you go back, exactly the same people go to exactly the same bar on Friday evening. I think, if I would do that, I would miss so much. There is so much more than that fucking village. I travel, go away. For me that’s a way to, I don’t know… Experience things. (Shai)

Shai’s aspiration go beyond her hometown. Staying put in the town she grew up has a stagnant or even backward connotation to her. Shai thinks her classmates who still live there are not getting anywhere in life, they are still visiting the same places and doing the same things, whereas she has moved away and she is now experiencing different things due to her ability to travel. In a sense, moving out of her hometown has freed Shai. Moving to Amsterdam and getting educated, Shai is moving upward.

“I went from a low class to a middle class. Actually to a high class. It gives more insights. And you are aware of more things when you don’t stay in a place where there are the same people.” (Shai)

Moving to a middle class, or rather a high class, marks that Shai feels she

has climbed the social ladder significantly and that she has perhaps even reached the end of her social climb. It informs us about the university being the highest aspiration she has imagined. Further on in the interview, Shai told me she wants to go to university next year. Going to university, Shai feels like she can prove she is capable of getting a high education. By moving upwards, Shai is proving that ethnic and class-based