Dutch identity and assimilation in Australia : an interpretative approach
Date
1988
Authors
Walker-Birckhead, Wendy
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Abstract
The following ethnography is a study of Dutch identity and
assimilation in Australia. Dutch migrants have been and still are known as an assimilated people
who came to Australia and voluntarily abandoned their culture just as they abandoned their fellow
countrymen. Because of this they are considered as among the most successful of migrants, almost a
non-ethnic group. Drawing on a variety of texts including the research literature, government
publications and newspaper reports about Dutch migrants as well as the life histories of Dutch
migrants living in Canberra this study challenges the apparent self-evidence of Dutch assimilation.
It argues that assimilation or "invisibility” has become a symbol of Dutch identity in Australia
and asks, why was it that Dutch migrants equated migration with assimilation? The answer lies, in
part, in the history of Dutch migration to Australia, specifically, Dutch and Australian migration
programmes which were aimed at solving respective population and labour problems and valued Dutch
migrants in terms of their assimilability. This study also looks at how people make sense of that
migration, in particular the different meanings for men and women of migration and how those
meanings shaped their relationships with their "Australian" children.
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DOI
10.25911/5d74e76290f1a