A Postcard from the UK
So, my dear readers. I’m in the UK again. I was in London between Friday 18 and Tuesday 22 January and when you read this I will be in London again until 1 February. In between I was in Birmingham and Leicester. I’m continuing my research on people who have migrated to the UK from the Netherlands; all of them Muslim (in various ways) and from different ethnic backgrounds (mainly ethnic Dutch, Moroccan-Dutch and Somali-Dutch). I will start with more formal interviews in June; this time was mostly meant for extending my network here in the UK and paying short visits to people I already know.
In London I met two people from the Netherlands, one a young woman who is studying here and the one, a young man, has lived in the UK for several years now working as a teacher at Islamic institutions. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to go to Manchester this time, but hopefully I will be there next time. In Leicester I had an interesting meeting with a very nice young Somali-Dutch-English (that’s how she identifies herself) lady and also with Yahya Birt. When walking to the Coffee Republic in Leicester he had an interesting question for me. As an anthropologist I seek explanation for people’s attitudes and behaviour but how do my anthropological paradigms relate to the narratives of my (often but certainly not always Salafi) interlocutors? A basic question, but always good to be reminded of that of course. You cannot take people’s own explanations as self-evident but you also want to do justice and be fair to their own ideas and narratives and take your informants seriously (one would be a lousy anthropologist if you do not).
The Somali-Dutch-English young lady told me about her past and how she (and her mother) migrated to the UK from the Netherlands and the kind of ‘culture shock’ that was. Leicester had a much more ‘multicultural’ and ‘Islamic’ ambiance referring to the way people dress, the availability of public prayer rooms in the shopping mall, the public call to prayer, and so on; at that time absent in the migrant area in the Netherlands where she lived. In Birmingham I visited one young man at home; which was basically a nice chat about my research and his plans for the future in the UK.
When I came back in London I had a meeting with Mohammed Aden Hassan who is doing research on young Somalis in London and their transnational modes of home and belonging. He migrated from the Netherlands to the UK and his story sounds very similar with regard to his school career in the Netherlands; due to various reasons he was placed at a low level education (you’d better do something with your hands) but once he (and his father) got aware of this, he slowly but surely worked his way up and is now a PhD student at Goldsmiths.
I’ve heard the stories about difficulties in Dutch education more often and it appears to be one of the main reasons for Dutch Somalis to move the UK (at least back in 2001/2002). Other reasons mentioned are more opportunities and easier ways of establishing your own business and a fear of ‘losing culture’ and becoming ‘too Dutch’ in the Netherlands whereas in the UK with a much larger Somali community that would be less the case. This of course doesn’t mean that Somali ‘culture’ (whatever people understand to be) does and did not change in the UK; it inevitably does. As do many migrants, Dutch Somalis had big ambitions, hopes and dreams upon arriving in the UK; I’m not sure how they did in general. I have come across a lot of success stories (but of course, those are the people willing to talk to me) but also some stories about broken families, lack of parental supervision, people whose hope and aspirations somehow faded away and now ‘doing nothing’ and stories about being involvement in crime and such.
Many people I have spoken to appear to look at the Netherlands with a mixture of astonishment (about the political developments, in particular the performances of Geert Wilders and his Freedom Party), nostalgia (about cleanliness, order, childhood) and try to be connected with the Netherlands in one way or the other. When in the UK most of the Dutch Somalis I have spoken to had Dutch Somali friends and returned to the Netherlands for holidays almost every year. Once they grow older (many migrated when they were in their early teens) they usually appear to be more and more connected to the UK through jobs, marriages and family life and their circle of friends subsequently becomes more diverse.
This time, as I already mentioned above, I also had the opportunity to talk with a young Turkish-Dutch lady studying in the UK. As she wants to do research on the debate about Islam in some Dutch newspapers I had the opportunity to share some of my thoughts with her on the topic. One of the things that struck me during my conversation with her is how she felt she had to account for herself, as Turkish/Dutch, Muslims and perhaps even as a student. I wasn’t looking for this but it appeared to me that everyone who recently migrated to the UK (let’s say in the last five years) has a similar experience. Being in the UK then becomes a way to escape the Dutch Islamdebates and its effects in daily life whereby usually negative definitions of ‘ethnicity’ ‘islam’ and ‘Muslim’ are imposed. People’s self-identifications, therefore are not only a response (as in a reaction-identity) to that but self-identification may also emerge as a result of the experience of being singled out, categorized, analyzed, surveyed and surveilled in policies, media and research and being held accountable not only for their own actions, but also for (in-)actions of others who are labelled as Muslims / Turks / Moroccans / Somali, and so forth. I’m working on an article right now that tries to deal with this issue in terms of resistance (see also my comment in Material Religion). (She also keenly observed on Twitter that I was also often defending myself and my research; I know more researchers active in public debates have such an experience. I’m not so sure if that is actually a good development because it means getting caught up in the us vs. them oppositions in public debates.)
The experience of being monitored, being part of identity politics in which one has no influence over the definitions being imposed, does not emanate only from the public debates but some also have similar experience being in particular Muslim networks. In their case the UK also grants them more anonymity (at least that is what they appear to seek). One of my interlocutors with whom I spoke told me about his experience in Dutch networks and their sometimes very hostile categorizations and denouncements of each other. Interestingly this person, who converted me into a Caramel Macchiato addict, came to me with the news of the abdiction of queen Beatrix. Like him many others were complaining about the problems in watching Dutch tv (news, sports, events) in the UK and therefore ‘missing out’. The Dutch is queen is certainly held in high regard among many Muslims I have spoken to, in the Netherlands and the UK and taken as a positive symbol of the Netherlands.
Of course, these are only very brief pre-liminary observations and I’m going back in June to some more research. I thank all the people who gave me the opportunity to meet them: it was fun, interesting and inspiring! For them, and those who I was unable to meet: hope to see you in June!