Resisting dispersal: alternative visions on diversity and community in postcolonial Netherlands

• Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies
• GGP: Global Governance Programme
• GlobalCit: Global Citzenship Observatory

Join Eline Westra as she explores Surinamese-Dutch resistance to dispersal policies in the 1970s–80s and their broader implications for race, community, and integration in the Netherlands.

This article examines the activism of a Surinamese-Dutch organisation in the 1970s and 1980s that opposed the Dutch government's dispersal policy, which aimed to prevent concentrations of postcolonial migrants in urban areas. Following Suriname's decolonisation in 1975, over 130,000 Surinamese relocated to the Netherlands, leading to significant debates about their integration and housing. The government implemented policies that restricted where these migrants could settle, often placing them in rural areas, measures activists criticised as racially discriminatory and detrimental to community cohesion.

This study highlights the political claims made by the organisation, emphasising their resistance to assimilation pressures and their alternative visions of diversity that prioritise (transnational) group culture. Through a detailed examination of two decades of activism, the paper reveals how the dispersal policy not only exacerbated existing racial discrimination but also intersected with issues of class and identity. The findings challenge the notion that Dutch integration policies began with the 1979 Minorities Policy, demonstrating that critiques of assimilation and calls for equal rights emerged much earlier. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of the governance of race and difference in the Dutch postcolonial context, offering insights from the perspectives of those affected by these policies.