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The asylum centre as a place for local citizenship? : contrasting policies and practices of volunteering in and around two asylum centres, in Amsterdam and Brussels

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The asylum centre as a place for local citizenship?

Contrasting policies and practices of volunteering in and around two asylum

centres, in Amsterdam and Brussels

Master’s thesis by

Rosaly Studulski

Amsterdam, 2 August 2018

University of Amsterdam Graduate School of Social Sciences

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Thesis for the Research Master Urban Studies by Rosaly Studulski Student number: 10201777

Supervisor: dr. N. (Nanke) Verloo

Second reader: dr. V.D. (Virginie) Mamadouh Word count: 22.290

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Summary

This research uses a framework of interpretive policy analysis to contrast policies and practices of volunteering at two local asylum centres in Amsterdam and Brussels. The goal is to gain a better understanding of how citizenship is practiced by volunteers working with asylum applicants at two asylum centres in different institutional contexts. Citizenship is both something practiced, imagined and shared by individuals, as well as a political tool. The approach of this research includes the perspective of positioning in everyday practices by volunteers in broader understandings of citizenship. Over the course of nine months, narrative interviewing and participant observations were conducted to understand the everyday realities, struggles and successes of local volunteers. By placing these individual perspectives of positioning within a framework of interpretive policy analysis, the practice of affective citizenship is understood through an interplay with local policies. A comparison of different regulations in these two contexts shows a similar policy desire to connect the asylum centres to the local community. However, local implementations differ. Professional management and explicit facilitation of volunteers by local professionals in Amsterdam creates shared goals of inclusive affective citizenship towards asylum applicants. In Brussels, such goals are more contested, as a strategy for facilitating volunteers locally is less of a priority and local politics are not indisputably positive towards connecting asylum applicants and local residents through volunteering. In the everyday practice of volunteers, this leads to a comparison where the case of Brussels portrays a more classical picture of civic volunteering -as the bottom-up empowerment of vulnerable groups through informal social networks- whereas the case of Amsterdam shows a top-down managed and funded framework for civic volunteering. This formalises the use and facilitation of local social structures into policy goals. Despite these differences, the similarities in activities, motivations and expectations of individual volunteers indicates a more universal approach towards citizenship, transcending local and national contexts of policy framing. In both cities, the active and affective citizens are present, motivated to engage with others and practicing inclusive citizenship in their daily individual and shared activities. Practices of volunteers have the possibility to include who-ever resides in the local community, based on shared behaviour. This however contains the risk of excluding and contesting other people who do not easily behave confirmative of the necessary affective values. A recommendation to local policy makers is to acknowledge individual practices of citizenship by volunteers as valuable for goals of local participation and integration. Simultaneously, it is important to critically reflect on who it is that is included, and based on which values. Policies and local professionals should therefore make attempts to also reach out to these local residents and asylum applicants, beyond the attempt to manage integration through the contributions of active citizens alone. To conclude, a policy framework that is explicitly positive towards active participation of local residents -and the inclusion of newcomers in this framework- could facilitate local affection and integration, whereas a framework that is not indisputably positive towards framing asylum applicants as part of the local community can expect civic contestation.

Key words: volunteering, active citizenship, affective citizenship, interpretive policy analysis, positioning theory

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Table of contents

page

1   Introduction 4

2   Theoretical framework 7

2.1  Literature review: policy strategies of local citizenship 7

2.2  Conceptual framework 9

2.2.1.   Ontological foundations of social interactionism 9

2.2.2.   Interpretive policy analysis 10

2.2.3.   Individual and group-based everyday positioning 11

2.3 Conceptual scheme 12

3   Methodology 14

3.1  Comparing two cases 14

3.2  Data collection 14

3.3  Narrative interviewing and participant observation 15

3.4  Coding strategy 16

3.5  Ethical considerations 17

4   Institutional and organisational arrangements in Amsterdam and Brussels 18

4.1  Amsterdam, the Dutch context 18

4.2  Brussels, the Belgian context 23

4.3  Comparing institutional frameworks for participation & local embeddedness 26 5   Practices and narratives of voluntary work in Amsterdam and Brussels 28

5.1  Practices and narratives in Amsterdam 28

5.2  Practices and narratives in Brussels 35

6   The institutional, organisational and individual: comparative analysis of two cases 43

6.1  Differences in interplay 43

6.2  Similarities in shared frameworks for citizenship 46

7   Conclusion and discussion 50

8   References 53

9   Appendices 56

9.1  Coding table 56

9.2  Overview of respondents Brussels 59

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Chapter 1: Introduction

“When you mention what you practically do, it actually has nothing in particular to do with what you do, to put it like that. Because there is always a sort of deeper layer to it, with what you really do. (…) You can play with that, because my result is not the [practical] outcome of such an activity. (…) My result is not that, in a bit, twenty people are at that table painting together. (…) My result is that there are people organising this, and there are people coming to join; not: are they all making a pretty painting and do they all learn to draw nice circles. That’s not what this is about to me. It is about the process of the people here [in the asylum centre] and the neighbourhood.”1

- Manuel2, project manager, Amsterdam, 24 April 2018 In recent years, heated public debate has recurred about sheltering large numbers of asylum seekers throughout Europe. When looked at statistically, however, the numbers of asylum applicants from outside the European Union have turned out to be quite modest3. A substantial part of these asylum seekers are Syrian refugees, but the total group of asylum applicants knows a great diversity in cultural and ethnic backgrounds4. During the procedure of asylum application, asylum seekers have the right to shelter, that is organized on the municipal level in the Netherlands (Ministry of Security and Justice, 2017a), and by a variety of individual and collective sheltering structures in Belgium (Fedasil, 2018c). In both national contexts, the organisation of asylum centres appeals to the work of local volunteers and voluntary organisations, for a wide range of activities - from organising social and cultural activities to language courses and juridical aid.

This reliance on volunteers from local communities by the institutions and organisations involved is situated within a larger context of the political appeal to active participation (Tonkens, 2012). The specific interplay of institutional and organisational strategies that promote affection towards communitarian or societal contexts and the construction of emotion among citizens, is referred to as affective citizenship (Fortier, 2010; de Wilde & Duyvendak, 2016). Theoretically, affective citizenship is constructed and performed by citizens towards other citizens in a socio-spatial community, often the neighbourhood. These constructions are however diverse, as the definition of citizenship varies for different perspectives and actors. Consequently, the extent to which practiced constructions of citizenship include or exclude certain groups as being citizens that deserve affection reflects larger socio-political values (de Wilde, 2013).

     

1 Original: “Als je het praktische noemt heeft dat eigenlijk niks te maken met wat je doet, zeg maar. Want er zit altijd een soort diepere laag onder met wat je echt doet. (…) Daar kun je mee spelen, mijn resultaat is niet de [praktische] uitkomst van zo’n actie. (…) mijn resultaat is niet straks dat er twintig mensen aan die tafel zitten om met elkaar te schilderen. (…) Mijn resultaat is dat er mensen zijn die dat organiseren, dat er mensen naartoe komen; het is niet mijn resultaat: maken ze allemaal een mooi schilderij en leren ze allemaal mooie cirkels maken. Daar gaat het mij niet om, het gaat mij echt om dat proces van de mensen hier en de wijk.”

2 All names of respondents used in this research are pseudonyms.

3 14.775 asylum applicants in the Netherlands and 13.680 in Belgium in the first six months of 2016. Moreover, the total decrease of asylum applicants in EU member states was 47% for the first quarter of 2017 (Ministry of Security and Justice, 2017a; 2017b).

4 During the first quarter of 2017, 14% of asylum applicants in the Netherlands were Syrians, 8% were Eritreans and 7% were Moroccans. There was a large diversity in countries of origin (Ministry of Security and Justice, 2017b).  

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The practices and narratives of the people involved with volunteering for the cause of sheltering and integration of asylum applicants, are relevant contributions to a broader understanding of political and social meanings of citizenship and integration. This research uses a social interactionist framework for interpretive policy analysis to contrast policies and practices of volunteering at two local asylum centres in Amsterdam and Brussels. The goal is to gain a better understanding of how citizenship is practiced by volunteers working with asylum applicants at two asylum centres in different institutional contexts. The approach of this research includes the perspective of positioning in everyday practice by volunteers, and thereby suggests that these narratives from practice are relevant contributions to larger theoretical understandings of citizenship. Connecting to social relevance, this approach of citizenship offers relevant insights on how policies of local volunteering with asylum applicants are experienced in these local practices, by the actual local volunteers.

The cases of this research are volunteering projects in and around two asylum centres, located in Brussels and Amsterdam; the relatively old centre ‘Petit Château/Klein Kasteeltje’ in the city centre of Brussels and the temporary centre ‘AZC Willinklaan’ in Amsterdam Nieuw-West. This comparison is relevant because in both cases arrangements of voluntary work are stated as important in local solutions for sheltering and integrating asylum applicants, even though urban, institutional and organisational contexts differ. Differences regarding the functions of volunteers for the organisations and differences regarding the framing of asylum applicants as part of local practices of citizenship are insightful comparative elements that shed light on the impacts of volunteering policies the interplay with everyday practices. The results are based on the analyses and comparison of two small cases, embedded in very specific local settings, and are therefore not directly generalizable. However, as the goal of the research is to uncover perspectives on citizenship as they are practiced in the everyday lives of volunteers, for which these two cases are insightful and relevant examples (Small, 2009).

The structure of the research is built around three research questions, that each address essential elements of understanding the interplay between policies and people. The central research question is as follows: How does the interplay of institutional strategies and individual volunteers shape the construction of affective citizenship in and around two asylum centres, in Amsterdam and Brussels?

Two subquestions divide the levels of the institutional and the individual, the former being addressed by the subquestion: How are institutional and organisational arrangements of active citizenship at play in promoting voluntary work in and around the asylum centres? Consequently, the level of individual experiences will be addressed by a second subquestion: How are the practices and narratives of individual participants of voluntary projects in and around the asylum centres constructing affective citizenship?

In this manner, the questions are each linked to one of the three parts of the policy analysis: the institutional, the individual and the interplay.

In order to explain the foundations of and answers to these questions, the structure of this thesis is as follows. Chapter 2 provides the theoretical backgrounds in which the concepts of active and affective citizenship, interpretive policy analysis and positioning theory are embedded. Consequently, Chapter 3 will explain the foundations and practicalities of the methodologies used for this research. Moving towards the empirical results, Chapter 4 will then go into understanding how the institutional and organisational arrangements regarding volunteering with asylum applicants are structured, from the national to the local level. Consequently, Chapter 5 will put focus on the activities, motivations and expectations of

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individual local professionals and volunteers in both cases. Chapter 6 will consequently analyse how these two perspectives constitute an interplay in the practices of both cases, and how this translates back to practiced frameworks of citizenship.

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Chapter 2: Theoretical framework

The starting point of this theoretical framework is a literature review on studies concerned with contemporary policy strategies of active and affective citizenship. Consequently, the theoretical perspective of interpretive policy analysis will be introduced as a research framework that provides a relevant contribution to understanding the interplay of policies and practices of citizenship. More specifically, focusing on these latter local practices, the perspective of positioning theory will be introduced in understanding individual and group-based experiences of volunteering. By placing these individual perspectives of positioning within a framework of interpretive policy analysis, the idea of constructing affective citizenship through an interplay of volunteering policies and the everyday practices of local volunteers will be sketched out.

2.1 Literature review: policy strategies of local citizenship

Citizenship in general is a broad term that requires specification for its use within different contexts. It can simply refer to a legal status, but also to evermore complex conceptualisations connected to the experience of being a citizen. Framing citizenship as being active and affective, is a useful policy tool to establish a sense of responsibility among citizens (de Wilde & Duyvendak, 2016). The concept of active citizenship is often developed through its manifestation in voluntary work. Volunteering in this sense is aimed at contributing to collectively coping with larger communitarian or societal issues, without a direct personal economic incentive. When, how and through which strategies, then, is a citizen considered to be affective? The act of voluntary work alone does not recapitulate the full perspective on the construction of affective citizenship, as the underlying dynamics of interplay between emotions of citizens and institutional strategies should also be considered (Fortier, 2010; de Wilde & Duyvendak, 2016). The following section will go into these dynamics, by putting active and affective citizenship policies in a historical perspective of the introduction of affective strategies in the Netherlands and Belgium specifically.

According to de Wilde and Duyvendak (2016), the use of feelings and intimate relationships within the construction of ‘good’ citizenship is guided by governance. In the Netherlands, an active citizenship regime gradually introduced the political concept of a ‘participation society’ (WRR, 2017: 28; Tonkens, 2012). The sophisticated governance strategies of invoking citizenship by appealing to affective and cohesive communities can be traced back to around the turn of the millennium, when a changing framing of the welfare state resulted in the introduction of ‘governing through affect’ (Fortier, 2010: 20; de Wilde & Duyvendak, 2016). The need for reframing resulted from the ‘failing frame’ of national integration and the multicultural state: it has been perceived in public debate as inadequate in coping with the effects of macro processes, such as globalisation and mass migration (Duyvendak, 2011, de Wilde & Duyvendak, 2016: 976). Since 2002, four predominantly conservative cabinets aimed at constructing an appeal to active and responsible citizens. With the introduction of the Social Support Act (SSA) - or ‘participation law’- in 2007, this underlying agenda has become formal national policy (Verhoeven & Tonkens, 2013: 418). The main goals of the participation law are to increase social participation of vulnerable groups and to decentralise social tasks from the national to local level of governance. Throughout more recent cabinets, the strengthened appeal to active citizenship has coincided with aggregating budget

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cuts (ibid.). In Belgium, there is not such a clear active citizenship framework deriving from national legislation, but examples of urban policy programmes that focus on the own responsibility of the local community in managing liveability of the neighbourhood are based on a similar policy rhetoric (Loopmans, 2006).

Paradoxical in this new framework is the explicit focus on the bottom-up shaping of desired affective communities, while assuming such a community does not exist naturally (de Wilde & Duyvendak, 2016: 974). This results in a policy tendency of lecturing the population in citizenship, and government deciding which emotions are appropriate in connection to ‘earning’ citizenship. As active citizenship cannot be enforced by governance, in the sense that people cannot be formally forced to participate in voluntary work, affective citizenship is a crucial part of neo-liberal governance strategies. Through more sophisticated strategies that appeal to emotion, citizens can be engaged into participating ‘spontaneously’ (Verhoeven & Tonkens, 2013). The appeal to construction of suitable feelings towards a certain cause is crucial in understanding affective citizenship.

Voluntary arrangements in organisations are often financially funded by and therefore dependent of top-down governance institutions, which is a clear institutional strategy. Public funding is invested in volunteer centres on the local level, to promote volunteering and stimulate active participation and personal responsibility (Tonkens, 2012). Moreover, affection towards the common good and a collective sense of responsibility are essential parts of the active citizenship framework, as it is often expressed through policy documents and professionals (ibid.). This makes such top-down funded organisations differ substantially from the classical way in which civic volunteering is commonly understood, as bottom-up empowerment of vulnerable groups gets substituted by fulfilling certain needs of society that are otherwise left unfulfilled (Eliasoph, 2009). On the local level, a mixture of professional and informal arrangements, often in the form of local project managers or municipal employees and local volunteers or active residents, mediates these funding structures and policy rhetoric in practice (Verhoeven & Tonkens, 2013, de Wilde, 2013). This is based on the idea of self-management by individuals, which is inherently connected to feelings of personal responsibility among citizens and the expectation to feel happy about seeing oneself and others as socially active (Tonkens, 2012: 206). In this sense, through locally embedded volunteering initiatives, affective citizenship represents larger values and a collective belonging to certain causes that are guided by policy objectives (de Wilde & Duyvendak, 2016).

To illustrate how such policy objectives might work out in local practice, two examples of other cases will be given. De Wilde (2013) shows a perspective on how local feelings and activities represent larger goals and values of citizenship, in her research on neighbourhood centres in Amsterdam Slotermeer. Such local neighbourhood centres and local professionals, connected to the municipality, have an essential role in engaging and managing local citizenship initiatives. Consequently, informal practices such as cooking, eating, chatting and drinking coffee represent larger values, such as a community of participation despite of cultural differences, and personal loyalty towards this community (de Wilde, 2013: 49). Consequently, de Wilde (2013) notices a policy of strong appraisal of actors that go really far in this loyalty, making a lot of effort in their private lives. However, at the same time as fostering inclusion and affection, de Wilde notices that a strong framework of inclusionary affection, excludes certain citizens that feel differently about the activities (2013: 51). In this way, local citizenship practices

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of inclusion and exclusion reflect larger political ideals, as personal practices, feelings and motivations are reflexive of who should be included in citizenship frameworks (Ibid.: 66-67). Loopmans (2015) as well notes that local active citizenship frameworks can lead to contestation. In his research on the involvement of local residents in managing public space in Antwerp, Belgium, he illustrates how the personal goals of active residents can be contested and limited by goals of local politics. Moreover, framing active residents implies a framing of ‘passive’ residents, whose ideals and motivations might differ, possibly leading to local tensions (Ibid.). These two examples stress how a framework of active and affective citizenship as a practical local policy tool, is consequently often reflexive of larger values and political ideals, concerned with the organisation of society in general (de Wilde & Duyvendak, 2016).

This subchapter has shown how the development of citizenship frameworks in policy has been analysed in the Netherlands and Belgium. Based on this literature review, the definition of affective citizenship as it will be used and referred to in this research is: active voluntary participation for a certain societal cause, which is reflective of ‘good’ citizenship, generated by the interplay between institutional arrangements and activities, motivations and feelings amongst citizens (Fortier, 2010; Tonkens, 2012; de Wilde & Duyvendak, 2016). The funding structures, participation rhetoric by policy and professionals and a local mixture of professional and informal volunteering arrangements together from the institutional and organisational arrangements of active citizenship, as they have been operationalised in this research (Eliasoph, 2009; Tonkens, 2012; Verhoeven & Tonkens, 2013; de Wilde, 2013). Studies show how such policy strategies on affective citizenship affect the practice of citizenship. This research continues in this line, but takes a different approach to studying the interplay between governance and people. Interpretive policy analysis provides a framework to study the way in which people construct their citizenship in relation to politics. To operationalise citizenship as a form of practiced identity construction on the individual level, the research uses a social interactionist perspective of positioning, that will also be explained below.

2.2 Conceptual framework

In finding out how policy strategies work out in the everyday practice of voluntary projects around two local asylum centres, this research uses a conceptual framework of the everyday performed actions and the underlying intentions and meaning that volunteers reflect on. The following paragraphs will elaborate on the ontological foundations of this interpretive policy analysis, its perspective on understanding the dynamics between policy regulations and practice, and the place of positioning theory in understanding this practice.

2.2.1 Ontological foundations of social interactionism

A perspective of constructing meanings and identities through everyday interactions presupposes a nature of identity that is ontologically rooted in symbolic interactionism. In very general terms, this worldview presumes that the self and society are created and recreated through practices of symbolic communication (Thoits & Virshup, 1997: 108). Communication is inherently symbolic, in the sense that humans are continuously noting, interpreting and defining the situation and the actions of others and themselves, rather than just bluntly reacting. Actions are symbols because of the meaning that is consequently attached. Therefore, for

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symbolic interactionists, to examine these symbolic interactions in their natural setting, is to uncover the nature of the social world (Blumer, 2012 [1969]: 64-66). This view on social reality presupposes that identity construction is symbolic and reflexive in nature, and that meaning and understanding of the self is created through the interaction with others (Burke & Reitzes, 1981). Thus, the construction of identity is always relational, as humans are shaping themselves based on their perceptions of self and others, constructed through meaningful social performances (Blumer, 2012 [1969]: 64).

Erving Goffman makes use of and elaborates on the fundaments of this approach in his classic work ‘The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life’ (2012 [1959]). Every human individual constructs certain roles through daily interactions and power relations, and this becomes one’s role identity, that is the base of the self. Goffman uses the dramaturgical metaphor to explain this, wherein humans are performing as actors on a stage, within a certain setting and with other humans as their observers (Goffman, 2012 [1959]: 49). This performance is socialised because it is moulded to fit the setting and expectations offered by society on the one hand, and because within this setting, humans tend to idealise the impression they make on observers to the fullest on the other hand, by reflecting the common values of a society (ibid.: 52-53). Life itself is dramatically enacted through the corresponding roles that people take up (ibid.: 58). Following this line of reasoning, self-concept is highly dependent on the role that one takes up in social performances and influences the personal frame of reference within all social situations (Burke & Reitzes, 1981). In the broadest sense, a role refers to all the types of people one could possibly be in a given society (Thoits & Virshup, 1997: 124). Because self-presentation through behaviour is inherently linked to identification through self-concept, the significance of perceiving actions as symbolic and meaningful should be stressed (Burke & Reitzes, 1981). Against this background, this research views positioning in everyday practices of volunteers as meaningful and symbolic actions, in relation to understanding the interplay with policies. The different levels of policy analysis, and the place of individual positioning herein, will be discussed below.

2.2.2 Interpretive policy analysis

Theory of interpretive policy analysis is the field in which this research relies on the perspective of social interactionism for relevant perspectives on constructing citizenship in practice. The conceptualisation that Yanow offers for interpretive policy analysis, offers an adequate framework that resonates with the notions of symbolic interactionism (Yanow, 1999: 7).

Central in interpretive policy analysis is the relation between written policy, the implementation by professionals in local practice and the consequential meaning for this practice (Yanow, 1999: 9). The first two notions – written and implemented policy – comprises understanding the institutional and organisational arrangements regarding voluntary work in asylum centres, which is illustrated in chapter 4 for both cases. In doing so, the analysis will aim to show how national and local policies of sheltering and guiding asylum applicants relate to the framing of larger values of integration and citizenship. The analysis is therefore uncovering an underlying story, having the discursive power to narrate how policymakers and professionals actively frame the volunteers, the asylum applicants and notions of citizenship, related to participation and affection (Van Hulst & Yanow, 2016: 101). As such, these first two notions fit well with the sociological perspectives on citizenship as discussed in the literature review,

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operationalised by participation rhetoric by policy and professionals, specific funding structures and a local mixture of professional and informal volunteering arrangements (Eliasoph, 2009; Tonkens, 2012; Verhoeven & Tonkens, 2013; de Wilde, 2013).

A relevant contribution of this research lies in the latter notion of interpretive police analysis, the meanings of local practices for constructions of citizenship (Yanow, 1999: 9). This element reflects how policies of active and affective citizenship inherently rely on the positioning moves of citizens in practice. Therefore, to analyse the practices and stories of active citizens is a relevant evaluation of policy. The third notion goes into the perspectives, actions, motivations and expectations of the actual local volunteers. How this has been understood for this research specifically, and through which theoretical conceptualisations, will become clear in the following subchapter.

2.2.3 Individual and group-based everyday positioning

Focusing on the third notion of interpretive policy analysis – the meanings of policies in practice of everyday experiences – positioning theory compliments this perspective of research. Relating to a social interactionist understanding of reality, the perspective of the individual in performing in and giving meaning to everyday urban life is essential in understanding the practice of constructing citizenship. On the individual level, the framework of this research will use positioning in action. Through explaining group behaviour, this individual perspective is consequently also linked to a local collective part: social networks that emerge as collective role-based identity constructions.

Even though the understanding of role identity – as presented by Goffman - provides a useful framework of comprehending identity constructions, this theoretical perspective is limiting in the assumption that social selves are generally accepted by individuals and descriptive of the group they belong to (Thoits & Virshup, 1997: 106). This differs from positioning theory, as elaborated on by Harré and Slocum (2003), which holds the same constructivist approach on identity construction, but puts greater emphasis on the self as disputable, situational and contextualised. Positioning incorporates the dynamic nature of social life. In other words, positioning theory can be explained as expressing the manifestation of one’s role identity in action. The positions that people take up in everyday life are highly connected to, but less static than classic roles. Positions are situation-specific, disputable by others and always subject to change. Moreover, one’s position is largely influenced by entitlement that one has, to behave in a certain way, which comes from the confirmation of the various other people involved in a social situation (Harré & Slocum, 2003). With each position consequently come relevant rights and duties, that express the meaning of the position in social action. A duty, here, articulates the demands that one makes oneself and others, actively anticipating on one’s position. The eventual specific actions are obligations, that are mandatory in fulfilling the duties (ibid.).

In this sense, volunteering can be seen as a duty, that comes from the construction of demands that oneself makes, contextualized by others and larger processes. Therefore, in this research, voluntary work from the individual everyday perspective is operationalised as an active self-positioning move. The specific everyday activities that the act of volunteering is constituted by, are obligations. Because of the more practical, situation-specific and action-focused angle of positioning theory, this framework offers a good way to research role identities related to the construction of citizenship within the dynamic contexts of everyday life, through

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analysing the positioning moves of respondents. In interpreting the contextualised activities of volunteers, the research distinguishes between performed activities, which can be observed and asked about, and motivations behind actions, which can only be discovered by analysing action within storylines (ibid.).

Considering the essential perspective of symbolic interactions, ‘who we are’ is the interlinked extension of ‘who I am’. Through roles, the self is not only continuously constructing an individual identity, but, in doing so, also continuously identifying with larger collectivities (Thoits & Virshup, 1997: 115). Blumer (2012 [1969]: 68) makes the connection between the individual and the collective, by arguing that –just as individual roles or positions- social networks are fluid and ever-changing, because of the interpretive symbolic nature of all social acts. Moreover, activities by social networks or groups are shaped by the aligning of individual activities, that happen through individuals interpreting and being considerate of each other’s actions. As indicated before, roles are situation-specific through positioning (Harré & Slocum, 2003). From this situational context, the roles collectively shape the structures by which human systems or institutions can function (Thoits & Virshup, 1997: 123). More specifically, individuals and groups can be identified through a similar mechanism of social recognition, by categorisation on individual and shared levels (ibid.: 122). To illustrate this with a practical example, Thoits & Virshup (1997: 127) mention the roles within a social cooperation towards shared goals. Within such a cooperation, group behaviour such as decision making requires differentiated roles: leaders, promoters, writers, assistants. Individually these roles are differentiated based on tasks, but collectively these individuals identify as a group with shared perceptions on goals. This individual and collective role awareness occurs simultaneously. Using this perspective, this research presupposes that individual and collective roles are inherently linked through social networks.

Besides practical roles based on function within an organisation and official group membership, positions within social networks can also be constituted by a diverse range of social categorisation options, such as personal and emotional character traits, socio-demographic characteristics and social roles, which all contribute to social positions within a network (ibid.: 107). These more flexible categories that people identify with open up the possibility for including or excluding others from citizenship frameworks. This research will use this theory on collective identity constructions to through roles to guide the analysis of the interviews with members of a network – of volunteers in these cases- and to uncover positioning in action. The results will be analysed using indicators derived from this theory for the everyday local practices and narratives of volunteering: the activities are obligations, the motivations and intentions behind activities are rights and duties, and the expectations of the obligations, rights and duties towards others are reflexive of role-based social networks. By placing these individual perspectives of positioning within a framework of interpretive policy analysis, the idea of constructing citizenship through an interplay of volunteering policies and the everyday practices of local volunteers forms the conceptual basis of this research.

2.3 Conceptual scheme

To conclude this theoretical framework, a theoretical conceptualisation as one schematic overview will be provided, which summarises research framework on which the empirics of this research have been built. The essence of the conceptual scheme, that is included as figure 1,

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comes down to a visualisation of the theoretical perspective on how frameworks of citizenship are constructed in practice, through the interplay between policy and people. This visualisation is based on the structuration that Goertz & Mahoney (2005) provide to envision complex sets of analyses. Not only the relations between concepts, but also the nature of these linkages is schematically clarified, to conceptually structure a fuzzy set of concepts and relations. The relations that are indicated in this conceptualisation, are based on the expectations that flow from the theoretical framework.

Figure 1: Conceptualisation and operationalisation of research framework (source: own work)

In this model, two forms of relationships between variables are used: causal and ontological. A causal relation means that the secondary variables are the causes of the variable their connected with on the basic-level. If the connection is ontological, the secondary concepts that are linked to the basic-level concept are essentially a part of this concept: it is what the basic-level concept is inherently composed of (Ibid.). In this particular scheme, this means that the specific institutional and organisational arrangements of volunteering and the everyday local practices and narratives of volunteering together cause specific interplays. These interplays however inherently are the practiced frameworks for citizenship. An ontological relation also applies to the obligations, rights, duties and expectations that inherently constitute the everyday local practices and narratives of volunteering, from the perspective of positioning theory (Harré & Slocum, 2003). The funding structures, participation rhetoric by policy and professionals and a local mixture of professional and informal volunteering arrangements together from the institutional and organisational arrangements of volunteering, that connect to the levels of written and implemented policy (Eliasoph, 2009; Tonkens, 2012; Verhoeven & Tonkens, 2013; de Wilde, 2013; Yanow, 1999).

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Chapter 3: Methodology

This chapter will address the empirical practicalities of the research, connected to the theoretical framework and operationalisation. A justification of comparing two small cases will be provided, the specific methods for data collection will be explained and the practices of narrative interviewing and ethnography will be specified. Consequently, the coding strategy that has been used to analyse the interviews will be explained. The chapter will conclude with important ethical considerations, before moving towards the empirical results of this research.

3.1 Comparing two cases

Besides the interpretive analyses of both cases separately, an essential element of this research design is the comparison between two small case studies. These cases are the volunteering activities surrounding two asylum centres in Amsterdam and Brussels. A case study, in this sense, is understood as a research design that is conducted within the natural setting of one social and institutional system, monitoring the local voluntary arrangements for a specific period, in order to understand larger social processes through the accounts, behaviour, values and perceptions of people engaged in the process (Swanborn, 2010: 13). Analysing differences and similarities between two institutional discursive and local urban organisational contexts, but also between the specific manifestations of voluntary work at the locations, is a strategy that regards the situational contexts of the case studies (Ibid.: 15). Analysing these differences and similarities, structured by relevant themes, is the subject of chapter 6. Understanding arrangements, manifestations and narratives in such small cases through comparing meanings and conventions is relevant for a larger context of understanding the practice of framing citizenship (Small, 2009).

For the cases of Amsterdam and Brussels concretely, the relevance of the comparison lies in the different urban, institutional and organisational contexts -which will be explained in chapter 4 - even though in both cases arrangements of voluntary work are important in local solutions for sheltering and integrating asylum applicants. These cases are especially interesting for researching local citizenship constructions, because in both cases policies seem to aim at engaging the local neighbourhood. The results will be based on the analyses and comparison of two small cases, embedded in very specific local settings, and are therefore not directly generalizable. However, as the goal of the research is to uncover perspectives on citizenship as they are practiced in the everyday lives of volunteers, these two cases are insightful and relevant examples (Small, 2009).

3.2 Data collection

As already displayed in the conceptualisation of Figure 1 in Chapter 2, three types of data were collected in both cases. Regulations, policy documents and online statements of relevant institutions and organisations were gathered to understand the written institutional and organisational arrangements for voluntary work at the two asylum centres. In understanding the practices and narratives of individual professionals and volunteers, a series of participatory observations and in-depth interviews was conducted at both research locations. This has

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resulted in eleven interviews for the case in Brussels and ten interviews for the case in Amsterdam.5

The initial sampling of respondents happened through two different gathering techniques: key informants were found through online research by sending emails to organisations that COA and Fedasil mentioned on their websites and social media, and through participating regularly at activities and events for volunteers at the asylum centres. Regular – often weekly – participation in children animation, talk cafes, BBQs, film screenings events and many other activities, has made it possible to engage with, observe and get to know the volunteers and professionals. As activities of active participation with asylum applicants were traced through talking to these key informants, especially for the case of Brussels, not all respondents turned out to be volunteers at the asylum centre directly. Some of the organisations that were visited had a physical connection to the asylum centre because volunteers would go there for promotion of activities amongst the asylum applicants, but their organisations function independently from the asylum centre. This relevant distinction will be further addressed in the result chapters.

Furthermore, the data collection followed the dynamics of a network through snowball sampling, where respondents were often asked to connect the researcher to other possible respondents (Tonkens, 2012). The qualification for respondents in this sense was for them to be working voluntarily for an organisation or initiative that works with asylum applicants living in the centres, or professionally by guiding such volunteers. As such, the research process was set up as an iterative process, guided by the dynamics of the social encounters and leaving room for unanticipated aspects (Swanborn, 2010: 13). The idea that the respondents form specific networks is not a problematic bias in the context of this research, as it helps in deepening the understanding of in-depth and interlinked personal storylines, to understand the social dynamics within these social networks (Small, 2009). However, when interpreting the narratives, it should be noted that these are the narratives of a specific group of respondents, regarding the idea that they belong to specific localised networks and that the eventual respondents exclusively are the people that agreed to doing an interview. Beyond the idea of generalisability to larger populations of active citizens, showing the specific storylines of a few of them through this research aims to uncover their specific and nonetheless insightful views on practices and understandings of citizenship.

3.3 Ethnography: narrative interviewing and participant observation

For the theoretical approach of understanding the practice of citizenship in everyday experiences of volunteers through interpretive policy analysis, the practical methods used were narrative interviewing and participant observations. As explained in the theoretical framework, this research is ontologically rooted in a perspective of symbolic interactionism. Consequently, the procedures of data collection and analysis aim to fit and be reflexive of a real dynamic social world that it is under investigation (Blumer, 2012 [1969]: 64). Against this background, the interpretive policy analyses aim at understanding the interplay of policies and practices of citizenship with asylum applicants. In this sense, ‘interplay’ represents the meaning of policy in      

5 An overview of the respondents, organisations through which they are involved and their functions for both cases can be found as Appendix 2 and 3. The fieldwork was conducted between 11 October 2017 and 15 June 2018.

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practice and -consequently- the meaning of practice for policy. The second empirical chapter of this research, chapter 5, incorporates the ethnography on and narratives of the volunteers, to understand their perspectives.

For the narrative interviews, the goal was to capture the meaning of stories and arguments of respondents as honest and natural as possible. Even though a topic list provided a framework for the themes on which information would be provided, the consequential content of the conversations was guided by the input that respondents gave. This initial broad topic list was set up to have semi-structured interviews with respondents on their relation with organisations, regulations, personal activities, significant or memorable experiences, motivations and expectations. Throughout the research process, this has narrowed down to a more specific framework regarding activities, motivations and expectations of the activities and motivations of others. Practically, respondents were asked to explain their daily activities, in relation to the asylum applicants and the organisations and institutions involved, and consequently reflect on memorable events and actions, and their motivations and considerations linked to these.

Another ethnographic method used in this research process, was participant observation. As mentioned before – in section 3.2 on Data collection – participating regularly in voluntary activities over the course of the fieldwork period functioned as a way to get to know key informants and respondents. Moreover, informal chats with volunteers and observations on how volunteers interacted with the organisations and the asylum applicants formed descriptions of practices that complemented and contextualised the narratives, in order to achieve think descriptions of the people and organisations involved in both cases (Geertz, 1973). By these two means of ethnography, this research project seeks to understand how volunteers at asylum centres perform positioning moves and how their underlying intentions are shaped, in actively constructing a framework for citizenship.

3.4 Coding strategy

Following the narrative interviews, the coding strategy that guided the analyses was again structured by the three elements of positioning in the operationalisation of everyday local practices and narratives of volunteering. These three elements of activities, motivations and expectations have turned out to be themes that provide a clear framework, based on which the results could be logically structured. The underlying purpose of analysis was to structure storylines of personal experiences with activities, and the way respondents consequently frame these experiences in positioning themselves and relating to larger contexts (Harré & Slocum, 2003). Consequently, positions that are shared within the larger networks of active citizens were uncovered by comparing various narratives with a coding table, structured by these aspects of activities, motivations and expectations (Saldaña, 2015: 13).

The coding table, that can be found as appendix 1, consequently forms the foundation for the thematic comparison of chapter 6. The coding of interviews was conducted using MS Word, starting with creating tables of open codes for both cases separately, comprehending the topic and meaning of the accounts. Consequently, these codes were sorted in a coding table, with a separate column for the codes of each case, so both cases could be similarly structured by the themes (La Pelle, 2004).

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3.5 Ethical considerations

When conducting the data collection and analyses, ethical considerations regarding the own position of the researcher and the protection of respondents’ identities in relation to confidential narratives have been taken into account.

Because of the participant observations, part of the role of the researcher was to actually be an active citizen in the context of these cases. Relating this to the interviews, the narratives of respondents are always part of a discourse that is highly influenced by many contextual and situational factors. One of the most significant lies in the nature of the audience (Harré & Slocum, 2003). In this research, the researcher was the audience while conducting interviews. It is important to be aware, not only of the specific character of this audience – one that is doing scientific research, but also participating – but of the larger sociopolitical context that the interview setting is a part of. Since the research itself forms a storyline, aimed at clustering and understanding several storylines, the research itself is and will always be positioned (ibid.). To cope with this understanding in a responsible way, the interviews were conducted through open semi-structured questions, to leave as much space as possible for the personal narratives of the respondents.

Another ethical consideration lied in the personal requests of some respondents to write discretely about sensitive personal narratives. In order to cope with this, all the names of respondents and other people mentioned in this thesis are anonymous pseudonyms. Moreover, the names of specific small-scale local organisations will not be mentioned, when explaining the form and function of these organisations suffices in understanding the results. Some organisations that are larger -such as NGO’s or organisations operating on a national scale- and formally addressed through policy will be mentioned by name.

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Chapter 4: Institutional and organisational arrangements in

Amsterdam and Brussels

This chapter forms the starting point of the empirics of the interpretive urban policy analysis, understanding the institutional arrangements for voluntary work with asylum applicants in Amsterdam and Brussels. Relating to the structure of the problem statement, this chapter specifically addresses the first subquestion: How are institutional and organisational arrangements of active citizenship at play in promoting voluntary work in and around the asylum centres? Both cases of two local asylum centres and the surrounding networks of organisations and individuals will be embedded within their larger institutional contexts, starting from national policies, through different institutional levels, to the institutional arrangements on the level of the neighbourhoods in which the centres are located. Understanding this institutional structure comprises understanding how public and alternative funding flows down to local initiatives and how this connects to underlying policy narratives about such active participation.

This is the first step towards understanding how the interplay between urban policies and the practice of voluntary work works, and how this affects volunteers in practice. The chapter will begin with explaining the institutional arrangements in the Netherlands, contextualising and working towards the case of the asylum centre in Amsterdam Nieuw-West. Following a similar structure, then, the institutional arrangements in Belgium will be addressed, working towards the case of the asylum centre in Brussels.

Chapter 4.1: Amsterdam, the Dutch context

Levels of institutional structures: from the national to the neighbourhood

In the Netherlands, the formal procedure of asylum applications and organisations involved at different stages of this process is monitored by the Ministry of Security and Justice, which refers to it as the Chain of Foreigners (‘Vreemdelingenketen’). This research specifically focuses on the stage of providing temporary housing and guiding asylum applicants while they are in their application procedure, for which the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) is responsible. The COA is an independent executive body commissioned and consequently subsidized6 by the State Secretary of Security and Justice (Ministry of Security and Justice, 2017b: 5; Rijksoverheid: 2015). Moreover, the COA also receives subsidies from the European Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) for specific projects concerned with integration, for which the national budgets are insufficient and decreasing (COA, 2018b). In their annual report of 2017, COA acknowledges a changing political and societal playing field in which the organisation operates, as a consequence of the refugee influx mostly in 2015. The organisation expresses the desire to further develop on several thematic goals to adapt to this changing context, among which are ‘high-quality shelter and guidance’ and the own role as ‘partner and director in a network’ of organisations and institutions (COA, 2018b). For these themes specifically, the COA makes an explicit appeal towards municipalities, local      

6 The exact amount of subsidy is decided per year, and based on the estimated number of incoming asylum applicants (COA, 2018a).

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organisations and local residents, and portrays the establishment of small-scale asylum centres and local flexible solutions to integration as most desirable. Ultimately, the asylum centre should be a social meeting point for the neighbourhood on a very local level, where ‘little flames and experiments’ should lead to ‘bustling locations’ with a lot of interaction with the surroundings and the municipality7. Besides having a substantial number of volunteers working for the COA directly8, this perspective on the asylum centre as a location for local participation of residents from the neighbourhood has led to new arrangements with municipalities and the budget they receive for decentralised investments in integration and participation through the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment (COA, 2018a: 5). This directly opens up the possibility for asylum centres to be an equal part of the active participation structure of neighbourhoods, and have local active residents organise voluntary initiatives at the centres, as will be further illustrated below for the case of the asylum centre in Amsterdam.

Non-governmental organisations play an important complementary role in the organisation of housing and guiding asylum applicants. VluchtelingenWerk Nederland is institutionally the most important one, as it is recognised by the Ministry of Security and Justice as an integral part of the Chain of Foreigners in advocating the interests of asylum applicants in the Netherlands, and it receives public funding through the Ministry to obtain this goal. The core tasks of VluchtelingenWerk are formulated broadly, comprising personal aid, but also influencing policy and fostering public support for asylum applicants and refugees in society (Ministry of Security and Justice, 2017b: 7). Besides the funding through the Ministry of Security and Justice, VluchtelingenWerk also receives a smaller amount of public funding from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment, specifically for training and guiding volunteers and employees that support refugees with their integration9. Moreover, the NGO receives funding from a wide range of different sources, ranging from subsidies by European foundations such as the AMIF, to private donations by companies, foundations or private parties10. On the local level, municipalities also instruct NGO’s like VluchtelingenWerk to arrange guidance in integration projects (VluchtelingenWerk Nederland, 2018: 48-49). This illustrates how organisations are often linked to the institutions on multiple levels of governance, but function separately from these institutions. Moreover, it shows the complexity of funding structures when NGO’s, foundations and associations on all levels are involved, where public funding is often complemented by private funding coming from a diverse range of parties. In 2017, VluchtelingenWerk Nederland had 13.000 volunteers operating nationally, in national,

     

7Originally formulated by a Regional Unit Manager in the annual report as: “We willen vlammetjes en experimenten activeren zodat locaties meer gaan bruisen (…) We willen locaties waar van alles gebeurt voor en met bewoner. Locaties waar een grote interactie is met de omgeving en de gemeente. Vergelijk het maar met een bruisende stad” (COA, 2018b).

8Between 1500 and almost 2000 volunteers worked for the COA nationally in 2017, with a significant increase from less than 500 to almost 2000 during 2016 (COA, 2018b).

9 In 2017, VluchtelingenWerk Nederland received over ten million euros from the Ministry of Security and Justice for the work at asylum centres, and a complementary 1.4 million euros from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment for guiding and supporting volunteers and employees in integration projects (VluchtelingenWerk Nederland, 2018: 49).

10 In 2017, VluchtelingenWerk Nederland received almost nine million euros from the National Postcode Lottery, 2.8 million euros from all sorts of foundations (both European and national) and more than six million euros from private donators (VluchtelingenWerk Nederland, 2018: 47-48).  

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regional and local projects11. In the annual report of 2017, VluchtelingenWerk Nederland (2018: 50) states that volunteers are the basic foundation of their organisation and part of their vision for the future is to create new forms of volunteering, that are more focused on individual needs of refugees. They are portraying the role of the volunteer as a ‘companion’, a ‘resourceful idealist’ and a ‘connector’12. Such a portrayal written down in the annual report is reflexive of an ideal that resonates very well with the framework of active and affective citizenship (Yanow, 1999: 9).

On the municipal level, the City of Amsterdam redirects people interested in volunteering to NGO’s, the COA, several local organisations and Facebook groups on their website (Gemeente Amsterdam, 2018b), as an appeal to active participation for this cause. The arrangements for local public funding with the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment and the local representation of the COA are met through a specific budget for resident initiatives, guided through the city district (stadsdeel) of Nieuw-West, in which the asylum centre is located. There is a large range of volunteering projects by foundations and associations concerned with themes such as ‘youth’, ‘culture’, ‘participation’ and ‘well-being and care’ (Gemeente Amsterdam, 2018a). The city district has redirected the management of the resident initiative budget to resident- and welfare-organisations that operate on the level of neighbourhoods, which -in this case- are Eigenwijks and Combiwel in the neighbourhoods of Geuzenveld, Slotermeer and Osdorp13. Subsidies for activities with the asylum applicants at the centre are therefore part of the subsidies for similar participation and activation activities in the city district of Nieuw-West, which indicates a mixture of professional and informal voluntary arrangements that is typical for local active citizenship frameworks (Verhoeven & Tonkens, 2013). The specific local practices resulting from these arrangements will be elaborated on below.

One thing that becomes clear from the institutional structure is that it is very decentralised. Public funding is arranged in a structure of outsourcing to the COA and NGO’s through subsidies, and decentralisation of budgets for causes of social integration to the level of the municipality and in this case even the neighbourhood. This structure shows clear similarities to the way in which policy regarding active citizenship has been structured in the Netherlands (Ibid.).

Zooming in: the asylum centre Willinklaan and the narratives of active citizenship from institutional and organisational actors

Now that the institutional framework of organisational and funding structures has been sketched out, the local embeddedness of asylum centre Willinklaan within this framework will be further illustrated. In order to do so, a case description will be provided, before linking to narratives of

     

11 The number of volunteers developed strongly in recent years, with an increase from 6.800 volunteers in 2013 to 13.000 in 2017, and a peak of 13.500 in 2016. VluchtelingenWerk relates this to the large influx and consequent media attention for their goals (VluchtelingenWerk Nederland, 2018: 7, 50).

12 Originally formulated in the annual report of 2017 as: “We hebben een nieuwe verenigingsbrede visie geformuleerd (…) die het ideaal beschrijft waar alle medewerkers en vrijwilligers zich elke dag voor inzetten. Onze rollen lichten we toe door middel van drie metaforen: metgezel/reisgezel, ondernemende idealist en bruggenbouwer/verbinder” (VluchtelingenWerk Nederland, 2018: 50).

13 Eigenwijks retrieved over three million euros in 2018 as budget for the open ‘Neighbourhood Houses’ and the resident initiatives (Gemeente Amsterdam, 2018a).  

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institutional and organisational actors that deal with the local practices of this framework as their daily profession.

The asylum centre Willinklaan in Amsterdam Nieuw-West is a temporary asylum centre, located in a former sports academy, with the capacity to accommodate 512 asylum applicants. It will be used in this manner until the permanent location in the Houthavens in Amsterdam West is ready, prospectively in 2019. The City of Amsterdam and the COA have expressed the desire to at all times have at least one location in Amsterdam for reasons of continuity, as providing shelter for refugees ‘fits the long tradition of Amsterdam as a diverse city that shelters those who need it’14. This is why, after the closure of the asylum centre Wenckebachweg in Amsterdam Oost in December 2017, all the asylum applicants moved to the location Willinklaan. Anticipating the possibility that the influx of asylum applicants could increase again in upcoming years, the asylum centre can stay open for ten more years (Omgevingsdienst NZKG, 2017: 2, 19; COA, 2018c).

In accordance with the vision that COA expresses - to establish asylum centres that facilitate a strong connection between asylum applicants and local residents (COA, 2018b) - the asylum centre Willinklaan has opened a coffee café that functions as an open space for everyday interactions and activities, and is run voluntarily by asylum applicants that live in the centre. The activities at this open space are resident initiatives, coordinated and funded by the local resident- and welfare-organisations Eigenwijks and

Combiwel. In this way, the asylum centre and the people that live there are framed as local residents, similar to other residents of the neighbourhood. Manuel15, the project manager of one of these organisations, explained why the embeddedness of the centre in Nieuw-West and a connection to local residents there is desirable:

“We programme all sorts of activities here. Activities for the people here [in the centre], but also for the people outside [local residents]. So that it comes together. (…) For example, next Tuesday, there is a BBQ-evening. That is meant for

everybody and you hope that it brings people together. So on the one hand that is good for the people living here [in the centre], but often it is also for the people living in the neighbourhoods. Because if you look at who is living in Geuzenveld

and in Osdorp, that does not differ too much from the people that live here. (…) In terms of background, socio-economic position. (…) You hope that maybe, one way or the other, that they will blend with each other. (…) It is difficult, but it      

14 Origninally formulated as: “Amsterdam neemt (…) haar verantwoordelijkheid als stad. De opvang van vluchtelingen past in de lange traditie van Amsterdam als diverse stad om hen die het nodig hebben een thuis te bieden” (Omgevingsdienst NZKG, 2017: 19).

15 All names of respondents used in this thesis are pseudonyms.

 Image 1: the terrace of the coffee café and open space at asylum centre Willinklaan, Amsterdam (source: own work)

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is also an activation of people that live in the neighbourhoods (…) that are sitting at home, unemployed. And if they can develop activities here themselves, that is quite a step for them.”16

-Manuel, project manager, 24 April 2018 From this perspective, the asylum centre can play an important role for the participation of local residents as active citizens, which is the desired goal of the funding for resident initiatives from the city district. From the institutional perspective, the activities at the asylum centre are part of this funding structure, because the residents of the centre are similar to residents of the neighbourhoods next to which it is located, even though their residency is most often temporary. To be able to apply for resident initiative funding, however, it is necessary that the initiator lives in one of the surrounding neighbourhoods. Manuel, who originally worked for the local resident organisation of Geuzenveld, has included the activities at the centre to his job package when the location for the asylum centre was introduced, and explained that this was requested by the city district. Overall, the whole funding structure initiated by the municipality puts a very strong focus on the asylum centre as a part of the neighbourhood, through the local resident- and welfare organisations, and frames the asylum centre as a kind of ‘special’ neighbourhood centre.

The Volunteers Centre Amsterdam (VCA) is one of the organisations that gets promoted on the website of the City of Amsterdam, for potential volunteers that would like to work with refugees (Gemeente Amsterdam, 2018b). This is a foundation that receives subsidies through different funding sources of the municipality, but the specific funding for the work at the asylum centre is received from a national foundation (Vrijwilligerscentrale Amsterdam, 2018). Catrina works at the asylum centre Willinklaan as the local project manager of VCA and also reflected on the idea of the COA reaching out to and using other organisations to organise activities and create a network of active citizens:

“If people with other small ideas, from smaller organisations or initiatives come here on Tuesdays to promote the activities, I kind of help them out. (…) Actually, formally, that is not my task. But COA, as it is a government agency, is sometimes hard to get to know for initiators [of smaller activities] and after half a year of intensive chatting around I kind of know

it”17

-Catrina, project manager, 3 April 2018 Catrina clearly reflected on her own role as a facilitator in a network of smaller initiatives. As an experienced professional, she has gotten the expertise on communicating ideas to the COA and other responsible organisations. Her story shows the importance of local professionals that      

16 Original: “Wij programmeren hier dan weer allemaal activiteiten. Activiteiten voor de mensen hier maar ook activiteiten voor de mensen buiten. Zodat dat samenkomt. (…) Bijvoorbeeld volgende week dinsdag staat er een BBQ-avond. Dat is dan voor iedereen en dan hoop je een beetje dat mensen bij elkaar komen. En aan de ene kant is dat dus goed voor de mensen die hier wonen, maar het is vaak ook goed voor de mensen die in wijken wonen. Want als je gaat kijken naar wie er wonen in Geuzenveld voornamelijk en in Osdorp ook, dat verschilt niet heel veel van de mensen die hier wonen. (…) Qua achtergrond, sociaaleconomische positie. (…) Je hoopt ook wel weer dat dat misschien op de een of andere manier met elkaar gaat mengen (…) Sowieso lastig, maar ja, het is ook een soort van activatie voor de mensen die in die wijken wonen (…) mensen die ook thuiszitten, werkloos zijn. En als die hier zelf weer activiteiten kunnen ontplooien, dan is dat ook wel weer een stap voor hun.”

17 Original: “Als mensen met andere kleinere ideeën komen, van kleinere organisaties of gewoon op eigen initiatief, op de dinsdagen om hun activiteiten te promoten, ja, dan help ik ze een beetje vooruit (…) Dit is eigenlijk formeel gezien helemaal niet mijn taak, maar COA is als overheidsinstelling soms moeilijk te leren kennen voor initiatiefnemers en ik ken het nu na een half jaar intensief rondpraten wel een beetje.”

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