"How does it feel for a Dutch-Moroccan to hear all these negative reports about Dutch-Moroccans?" someone asked me last week. I am in a remote village in Morocco at the moment, and therefore see all the reports from a different perspective. It is hard to put feelings into words and, speaking for myself, it feels different every time.
Sometimes it is a misplaced feeling of shame while watching an episode of Opsporing Verzocht [the Dutch equivalent of Crimewatch UK, Ed.] I know that it has nothing to do with me, but I have the creeping feeling that others think it does. Sometimes it is a feeling of incredulity when it emerges that several of the AH quick stop grocery stores openly specify "No Moroccans " when hiring.
And just recently I let out a deep sigh followed by a feeling of anger when I heard that the PVV [Geert Wilders’ anti-immigration party, Ed.] wants to know whether 'allochtonen' [the Dutch term for non-Western immigrants, Ed.] only cost the Netherlands money or if they also benefit the country in some way.
Although the mood changes every time and it is difficult to put into words, there is one feeling, tellingly described by journalist Salima Bouchtaoui, that held me in its grip for years: "A number of years ago I successfully completed secondary school. I did not realise that in the years thereafter I would have to take an exam every time a Moroccan was involved in an incident."
For a long time I felt that way. For a long time I had the impression that with every new 'Moroccan drama' I would have to work even harder to prove myself. For a long time I jumped to the defence by pointing to the 'good' Dutch Moroccan apples in the basket. For a long time I let myself be intimidated by accusations of 'victimhood' and questions like: "But Mr Dibi, do you deny then that there are a great many problems in 'your' community?"
That is in the past. These days I can distinguish between legitimate criticism; cheap, sensational criticism and criticism that seeks to achieve electoral gain. I do not want to be treated on the basis of a group charcteristic, but on my behaviour as an individual. My response to the compliment, "Your Dutch is really good!" is no longer a modest " Thank you," but "Hey, so is yours!"
A few days ago a new report on the Moroccan-Dutch population reached me. The message was that many Moroccan-Dutch have the impression they are not doing well in the Netherlands. From a survey commissioned by the Council of the Moroccan Community Abroad (CCME) it emerged that Moroccan immigrants in the Netherlands felt more often rejected than their counterparts in Spain, France, Belgium, Germany and Italy. That was especially the case among the second generation - my generation.
That's striking because research by the Social and Cultural Planning Bureau has indicated that the "new Dutch" are in fact doing increasingly well: they are now making great strides in catching up socially and economically to the native Dutch. The gap is narrowing, not only in the socio-economic area, but also in the socio-cultural area. Studies by Jaco Dagevos, Han Entzinger and Philip van Praag have shown that immigrants in the Netherlands and their children strive after progressive Western values, more so than immigrants in other countries.
Evidently the relations between immigrants, their children and non-immigrants in the Netherlands are more off-balance than in other European countries. Does that mean that we have greater problems with integration than our neighbouring countries?
There is nothing to indicate that. It looks more as if a great many Dutch, in particular the media and those politicians who seem to desire a mono-cultural Netherlands, are obsessively occupied with following news on Moroccans.
And that brings me back to me original question. Only now I pose it to the ultra-Dutch, non-Moroccan newspaper reader. I am interested to know what it is like for you to open the newspaper, or to come across a current affairs programme on television, and be bombarded time and again with negative reports about the Moroccan-Dutch.
Do you think to yourself, "Ha, finally the taboo on criticising the multicultural society is a thing of the past"? Or do you think that it is increasingly looking as if it has become taboo to be sick and tired of the constant stream of negative reports about the Moroccan-Dutch? As an ultra-Dutch-Moroccan I think it is mainly the latter, and it would befit down-to-earth Netherlands to deal with all of its taboos.
