Constructing sites of recognition

Abstract

"This master thesis examines how Moroccan-Dutch female university students socially navigate their social mobility. This is an important matter, because how groups with an immigration background experience their social mobility affects the social cohesion of majority-minority cities. Amsterdam is such a city in which groups with migration backgrounds are substantially growing and the old white majority does not hold its dominant position any longer. Using ethnographic research methods, I followed Moroccan-Dutch female students who are more socially mobile than comparable groups in their everyday lives and interviewed them individually and in informal group settings. I examined how my research participants socially navigated their social mobility at different sites, based on their self-identification wherein their Muslim identity is perceived as a way of life. I identified three different categories of everyday sites: (1) sites of difference, which showed how social mobility is a rather painful process instead of a linear progress; (2) sites of recognition, where participants shared common knowledge and know-how with others; and (3) constructed sites of recognition that are often constructed at sites of difference by religious and ethnic peers. When Moroccan-Dutch female students start establishing their professional careers, they wish to work at constructed sites of recognition or they will serve their religious and ethnic communities by constructing sites of recognition in their favour. So, on the grounds of Moroccan-Dutch female students experience of their social mobility and consequently their social navigation, it may be expected that majority-minority Amsterdam will become more socially fragmented rather than reaching a higher level of social cohesion."