Dutch identity and assimilation in Australia : an interpretative approach

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. Show more