| dc.description.abstract | "This thesis examines an annually-growing migration flow from the Global North to the Global South
in general, and in particular from the European Netherlands to the Dutch Caribbean, with a focus on
Bonaire. This movement takes place in the specific context of the late-modern Kingdom of the
Netherlands. The aim of this thesis is to understand what kind of motives and incentives exist for the
European Dutch migrant to move to Bonaire, and what kind of mobility patterns are involved in that
movement. Due to the little existing literature about North-South migration within Dutch Caribbean
Studies, it has not been clear until now what kind of forces drive, restrict and produce this mobility.
The context of this migration offers more understanding of this form of mobility, where a latemodern Kingdom with a long colonial past changed its political structure in 2010. This newlyrestructured Kingdom finds itself in a fast-paced era full of developing global technologies, systems,
and policies that connect different parts of the world with each other. The new mobilities paradigm
of Sheller and Urry (2006) offers a deeper understanding of this fast-paced era: they argue that new
travel and communication technologies have enabled social life at a distance, and that in this new
paradigm travel becomes necessary for social life and becomes a lifestyle. Four groups of European
Dutch migrants on Bonaire are identified in this research: expatriates, residential tourists,
pensionados, and fortune-seekers. All four groups of migrants can be understood by Bauman s
concept of a late-modern tourist (1996), but all four have personal motivations and incentives. These
migrants from the Global North have a relatively great freedom in their movement and can easily
move between the European Netherlands and Bonaire. It is a privileged migrant, with access to time
and capital, who experiences freedom in their movement. However, this seemingly privileged
position of the European Dutch migrant can alter during a pandemic, which shows the restrictions of
late-modern mobility. The effects of the Corona pandemic (COVID-19) in 2020 have shown how the
borders function within the boundaries of the late-modern Kingdom of the Netherlands, and have
immobilized the ability of the privileged migrant from the European Netherlands to move freely
within the boundaries of that Kingdom." | |
