Sense of Place in St

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

The Sense of Place in St. Annaparochie

How do people give meaning to place and how do social interactions play a role in this?

Sina Alea Kugis

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

The Sense of Place in St. Annaparochie How do people give meaning to place and how do social interactions play a role in this?

Master Thesis by: Sina Alea Kugis 900713485100 Course: SDC 80436 Wageningen University and Research Centre – Department of Social Sciences Supervised by Dr. Ir. Monique Nuijten

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Sciences, International Development Studies at the Chair Group Sociology of Development and Change, Wageningen University and Research Centre in September 2016.

Leeuwarden, September 2016

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

Abstract

This thesis is an analysis of the sense of place of the inhabitants of the Friesian village St. Annaparochie. It is aimed to give insights in how people give meaning to place, especially in the presence of a refugee centre. Furthermore, this thesis aimed to illustrate the role of social interactions in the process of giving meaning to place. Particular attention is given to the project “Door de Kloof”, which was a theatrical walk aimed to bring refugees and Dutch inhabitants of St. Annaparochie together.

To analyse the case, an ethnographic approach has been used. The results are based on the answers of open-ended, semi-structures interviews, participant observations, mindscapes and a literature study.

The expectation was that environmental features will have a strong position when it comes to the attachment towards the village. However, the research revealed that social interactions play a more important part in the giving of meaning to the village St. Annaparochie than the environmental features of the village. The project “Door de Kloof” confirmed that the presence of the refugee centre does not influence the perception of the inhabitants on the village negatively. Also, the contact between the refugees and the Dutch inhabitants has been good throughout the project. However, this does not give insights in the long term impact of the project.

Keywords: Sense of Place, social interaction, refugees, place attachment, place identity, place dependency

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

After an intensive period of seven months, today is the day that I am writing these words of thanks. It has been an intense and stressful period of learning for me, not only in the scientific field, but also on a personal level. Writing this thesis has had a big impact on me, especially on my temper. I would like to reflect on the people who have supported and helped me so much during the last eight months.

First, I would like to thank my thesis advisor Dr. Ir. Monique Nuijten of the Sociology of Development and Change Department at Wageningen University. The door to Monique’s office (or better the button to a Skype call) was always open whenever I had difficulties or a question about my research or writing. She consistently allowed this paper to be my own work, but steered me in the right direction whenever it was needed.

I would also like to thank the people from St. Annaparochie, especially all participants and the organizers of the project “Door de Kloof”, Janneke de Haan and Geertje Postma, who kindly offered me to participate in the project and allowed me to conduct my research among them. You made this research possible.

Thijmen and Mirza, thank you for allowing me to work at Lots. The quiet environment on many Sunday afternoons allowed me to make a lot of progress. You helped me a lot.

Anna, you deserve special thanks. During my research, you have supported me and motivated me in times when I needed it. You have shown me that I can do this, when I was doubting it.

Finally, I would like to express my very profound gratitude to my family and to my partner Dimitri for providing me with unfailing support and continuous encouragement throughout the process of researching and writing this thesis. This accomplishment would not have been possible without them. Thank you.

Thank you all! Sina

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Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

List of Definitions

Haring & Hummus: Association with the aim to bring refugees and their Dutch neighbours together

Door de Kloof: Community art project aimed to bring refugees and Dutch inhabitants of St. Annaparochie together

Ons huis: Community Centre in St. Annaparochie

Kruidvat: Drugstore chain of stores in the Netherlands, France and Belgium.

Expert: Chain of stores in the Netherlands, selling electronical devices

Hema: Dutch warehouse chain with stores mostly in the Netherlands, but also in Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg and Spain

Refugee centre: The refugee centre in St. Annaparochie, where people have been placed who already have received their permission and are waiting to move within the Netherlands, or who’s procedure takes longer

Refugees: People who have fled from there county and have arrived in the Netherlands (St. Annaparochie) for shelter and a safe environment

COL: Place where refugees have to come after the arrival in the Netherlands to register in the country

POL: Place where refugees star their juridical procedure

Emergency shelter: Place where refugees are placed in the case that there are too many refugees arriving in the Netherlands but the refugee centres are full

Bildtkerts: People who are living in the municipality het Bildt

Het Bildt: Municipality in the North of Friesland, the Netherlands

Xenos: Chain of stores who sell diverse goods

Action: Chain of stores who sell diverse goods

Scapino: Chain of shoe stores

Van Haren: Chain of shoe stores

Lidl: Supermarket chain

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

Inhabitants of

St. Annaparochie: People who are Dutch speaking and are living in the village St. Annaparochie

De Struverij: Restaurant in an old church in St. Annaparochie and place of the performance of the Project “Door de Kloof”

Albert Heijn: Supermarket chain in the Netherlands.

List of Tables

Table 1: Results of the Elections of the 2. Chamber in het Bildt 2012

Table 2: Results of the Elections of the 2. Chamber in het Bildt 2012

List of Figures

Figure 1: Development of Inhabitants in Period 2009-2013 in %

Figure 2: A three-fold architecture of sense of place, based on Halfacree (1996)

Figure 3: Conceptualizing Rurality, based on Horlings (2013)

Figure 4: Dimensions of sense of place, based on Convey et al. (2012)

Figure 5: Social activities

Figure 6: Special in St. Annaparochie

Figure 7: Reasons to live in St. Annaparochie

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

Table of Contents

Prologue ...... 2 Introduction ...... 3 Setting the Scene ...... 4 Background ...... 6 Refugees Crisis ...... 6 Shrinkage ...... 8 Merge of municipalities ...... 10 Project “Door de Kloof” ...... 11 Research Questions and Conceptual Framework ...... 12 Research Question ...... 12 Place ...... 13 Sense of Place ...... 15 Relevance and Objective ...... 19 Conclusion ...... 19 Method and Methodology ...... 20 Ethnographic approach ...... 20 Selection of Respondents and Time Planning ...... 20 Methods ...... 21 Literature Research ...... 21 Interviews ...... 21 Participant Observation ...... 23 Mindscaping ...... 23 Reflection ...... 24 Conclusion ...... 26 The sense of Place in St. Annaparochie – An analysis ...... 27 Outcomes of the Participant Observations ...... 27 Outcomes of the Interviews ...... 32 Place Attachment ...... 32 Place Identity ...... 35 Place Dependency ...... 37 External Factor – The Refugee Centre ...... 40 Mindscapes ...... 41

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

Project “Door de Kloof” ...... 48 Conclusion: Making the Link ...... 56 Place Attachment – Social attachment to St. Annaparochie ...... 56 Place Attachment - Environmental Attachment to Place ...... 59 Place Identity ...... 59 Place Dependency ...... 60 Refugees in St. Annaparochie...... 60 Conclusion and Recommendations ...... 64 References ...... 69 Appendix ...... 73

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Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

We shall overcome – Joan Baez

We shall overcome, We shall overcome, We shall overcome, some day.

Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe We shall overcome, some day.

We’ll walk hand in hand, We’ll walk hand in hand, We’ll walk hand in hand, some day.

Oh, deep in my heart,

We shall live in peace, We shall live in peace, We shall live in peace, some day.

Oh, deep in my heart,

We shall all be free, We shall all be free, We shall all be free, some day.

Oh, deep in my heart,

We are not afraid, We are not afraid, We are not afraid, today

Oh, deep in my heart,

We shall overcome, We shall overcome, We shall overcome, some day.

Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe We shall overcome, some day.

~ First song, Project “Door de Kloof”, 09th of June 2016

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

Prologue

We are standing in a large room in the community centre “Ons Huis” in St. Annaparochie. I am looking around in this unknown setting. It is an interesting room. Three of the four walls depict the facades of buildings; there are doors and windows, showing books and stores. The forth wall is a stage, which is normally used for theatre plays or performances in and for the community. Today, there is no performance. Instead, a big linen has been placed in the middle of the stage, on it is the first strophe of the song “We shall overcome” by Joan Baes - we shall overcome, we shall overcome, we shall overcome, some day. Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe We shall overcome, some day.

In the middle of the room is a big open space. It is the first rehearsal day and I am standing among the participants of the project “Door de Kloof”. We are standing in a circle, but on the one side of the circle there are only Dutch people, while on the other side there are only refugees. We, the Dutch-speaking among us, are whispering quietly towards each other. They, the refugees, are waiting quietly. I can feel the excitement and tension in the room. The choir leader asks for our attention. She asks us to sing the song on the linen. She gives the tone, and we start singing, just to be stopped again. Only Dutch speaking people had been singing. We notice that not everyone in the room understands the song or could sing it. Our choir leader starts to explain the meaning of the song to us. She says that this song represents the hope to overcome the gap between people. She had chosen this song to sing because this message is so powerful and since the project “Door de Kloof” aims to bring the people from St. Annaparochie and the refugees from the refugee centre together and this song represents this aim. One of the refugees who speaks English, tries to translate it. We try to sing it again.

The second attempt sounds much better. Because of the explanation? Although most of us are not frequent singers, it does sound good. One can feel the positive energy in the room. I get goose bumps. Although not everyone in the group knew the meaning of the song, it breaks the tension in the room. It is a very emotional moment, the first time that I feel that this mixed group of people, the two separated groups, could become one group. I can see on all of our faces that everyone in the room feels the same. We become one group, despite of all the differences between us.

The song ‘we shall overcome’ is not only a song that we are singing, the song gives us hope too. It gives us the hope that we can overcome the gap between the different groups of people. The song has been used to deliver the hope earlier. In different civil-rights movements, it has been used as a protest song which said that ‘we’, the people engaged in the protest, will overcome the situation someday (Wikipedia, 2016 b). In this project, the song has been used in a different setting, but it delivers the same message: we will overcome someday.

During this first rehearsal, the song became meaningful to me. It told me that we are all the same, that everybody can become part of the group and that there should not be two groups, although communication was hard and we did not know each other. It showed me that doing something together can connect us and overcome the gap between us.

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

Introduction It is the first time that I took the bus into the direction of St. Annaparochie. I step into bus 72 from Leeuwarden with direction Minnertsga and I leave Leeuwarden in north-western direction. It is a coincidence that I am sitting in this bus today. Originally, I was on my way to Harlingen to spend a nice day with my family at the harbour. I realize that I am sitting in the wrong bus, but the bus driver secured me that I can take another bus in Minnertsga which Welkom; Foto: Sina Alea Kugis will bring me to Harlingen. So I do not get off the bus. I pass some of the villages just outside Leeuwarden. I also pass Stiens, the next bigger village outside Leeuwarden which also has several shopping possibilities. I had been there several times before. I am sitting in the bus, driving along fields with sheep, cows, horses or agricultural products. After a while, I notice some houses, but it takes only a few hundred meters to pass them. Then the bus is driving along

Refugee`s Center from Distance; Foto: Sina Alea Kugis fields again. I am seeing a city limits sign; the bus has just passed it. It said “ST. ANNAPAROCHIE”. The bus is still driving along that one long road that we were already following quite some time, but we have finally reached St. Annaparochie. There are family homes on both sides of the way. We pass by a church and more family homes. On my right side there is the municipality, called het Bildt and there are stores on both sides of the road. There are a Kruidvat and an Expert, which are stores of two large chains

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis well known in the Netherlands, two bakeries and vegetable shop. On my left, I can see a school and another store from a chain, the HEMA, in one of the side streets. There are people with shopping bags outside the bus, many of them on their bicycles. I am still sitting in the bus, still following the same long road. The bus passes another church and the sports field as well, then there are more family houses and then there is the sign “Oant Sjen” (engl. Good bye). It is the city limits sign showing me that I have already left the village. There are fields again on both sides of the road. After a few hundred meters, I see something which seems to be a small village; bungalows, a playground, a school. A sign shows me “COA St. Annaparochie”, and I understand that this is the refugee centre. I can see people walking on the street, coming from and walking towards the centre. There are also people playing at the playgrounds. I have no time to take a closer look, because the bus has already passed the refugee centre. Then there are only fields again until we reach the next village.

What I described here was the first time that I drove through St. Annaparochie. I did not notice anything unusual about the village: to me it looked like a typical Frisian village at that time, with the beautiful houses and the land around the village. What I noticed when the bus left the village was the distance between the village and the refugee centre. The image of how separated the refugees centre is located from the village, made me question: Is the refugees centre actually a part of the village? Or is it maybe more a village on its own? How do people feel about the refugee centre here? How do the refugees themselves see their location? Many questions popped up in my head and I could not get them out of my head. This was the moment when I decided where I wanted to do this research and I have chosen this situation as the starting point of my research.

The questions I had have led to some research about the place St. Annaparochie. However, before I will set the scene for this research, I want to give more information about topics that have had influence on the region Northern Netherlands during the last few years.

Setting the Scene At first sight St. Annaparochie seems to be just a small village in the North of Friesland, not any different from the other villages in the region. There are small shops along the main street: bakeries, fruit and vegetable shops The Netherlands; Source: Google Maps, 2016 and clothing shops. However, it sets itself apart from the surrounding villages. St. Annaparochie is one of the biggest villages in the area with approximately 4000 inhabitants (Wikipedia, St. Annaparochie, 2016). It is part of the municipality Het Bildt and is located in the middle of three small villages. These surrounding villages have no facilities, therefore St.

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

Annaparochie functions as shopping place for all three places. There are several supermarkets, boutiques, drug stores as well as sport clubs and schools. It is not only the shopping place of the villages; it also hosts the local municipal building. With these facilities it is a meeting point for people. St Annaparochie is a roman- catholic and protestant village.

Since 2003 St. Annaparochie hosts

400 refugees. The refugee centre is St. Annaparochie; Source: Google Maps, 2016 located just outside the village. The walking distance from the refugee centre to the city centre of the villages is about 15 to 20 minutes. On the map of St. Annaparochie the refugees centre is circled in red.

There are different types of refugee centres in the Netherlands: the so called emergency shelters, the COL, the POL and the refugee centres. When refugees arrive in the Netherlands, the COL is the first stop and here they get registered as refugees in the Netherlands. Sometimes, they are placed in emergency shelters, because too many people have arrived at the same time leading to fully occupied COL’s. These shelters are aimed to house refugees during the first six to twelve month after their arrival (Both, 2016). During this time the procedure for the permit to stay in the Netherlands has not yet been started. At the moment when the procedure starts, the refugees are placed in so called POL shelters. They stay there during their procedure. They are replaced again after they have received their status. If they have been rejected, they are placed in short-term shelters from where they are send back to their country of origin (Both, 2016). When they received their permit to stay or when their procedure takes longer than six months, they are placed in a regular shelter in a refugee centre and they have to wait until they can be placed in houses or get answers about their procedure. St. Annaparochie has a refugee centre in which mostly families are placed who have already received their permit to stay or who are waiting for the procedure which takes longer than normal. People who come there can live in mobile homes which offer space for five refugees. A reason why families are placed in St. Annaparochie is that there is also a primary school on the property of the refugee centre. Furthermore, there is a secondary school for foreign students (Both, 2016).

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

St. Annaparochie and surrounding Villages St. Jacobiparochie and Vrouwenparochie, Souce: Google Maps, 2016 Background There have been several interesting developments which have left their mark on the North of the Netherlands and St. Annaparochie during the past years. This should be kept in mind when talking about St. Annaparochie. On the one hand, there is the development of what has generally been called Refugees Crisis. Many refugees have been and are still coming to the Netherland in need for shelter, which exceeds the possibilities of the government. Municipalities are asked to offer the needed shelter which often leads to resistance from the inhabitants (VluchtelingenWerk Nederland, 2015). There have been many discussions throughout the Netherlands. The refugee centre in St. Annaparochie has been opened in 2003.

On the other hand, there is shrinkage which is increasingly playing a role in the Northern Netherlands. Shrinkage means that people leave the villages in rural areas to go live in cities. Shrinkage is also happening in the municipality het Bildt. The impact is noticeable in St. Annaparochie. Many young people have left the village and many elderly people stayed behind. The demography of the village has therefore changed. The impact of shrinkage will be discussed in the following as well.

A third topic which will be introduced here as well, is concerning a very specific area in the Northern Netherlands. Four current municipalities will be merging in 2018, causing the current municipalities centres to relocate. The municipality centre of het Bildt, which is currently located on the main road in St. Annaparochie, will be one of the relocated municipalities centres.

Also, there is the project “Door de Kloof” which will play an important role in this research as well. These four topics will be introduced in the following.

Refugees Crisis During the past years more refugees have been coming to the Netherlands than ever before (VluchtelingenWerk Nederland, 2015). It came to its peak in 2015 and since then it has frequently been discussed in the Dutch newspapers that many refugees come to the Netherlands to search for shelter and a safe environment. It is well known that the Dutch government has difficulties in finding sufficient

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis proper living space for all the people coming to the Netherlands looking for shelter. According to VluchtelingenWerk Nederland (2015) it takes a long time to find adequate housing possibilities for refugees. The difficulty of finding adequate housing possibilities is aggravated by the fact that many local governments in the Netherlands are refusing to allow large scale asylum seekers’ centres in small villages (Klassen & Rosman, 2014). The Dutch government aimed to open asylum seekers’ centres, among other locations, to be located in Frisian villages. Nevertheless, the idea of the establishment of large scale asylum seekers’ centres gives rise to concern to inhabitants that the small villages could be taken over by the refugees (Klassen & Rosman, 2014). Furthermore, there is the opinion that asylum seekers do not want to be placed in such small communities as there is nothing to do for them (Klaassen & Rosman, 2014).

Each local government in the Netherlands has the obligation to offer housing for a certain number of refugees with the permission to stay. This number of refugees is based on the size of the villages (VluchtelingenWerk Nederland, 2015). In the first half of 2015, 11.896 refugees got permission to stay and have been living in asylum seekers’ centres in the Netherlands. The objective for the second half of the year 2015 was that another 14.900 refugees would be permitted to stay and would have to be placed in asylum seekers’ centres. 577 of these refugees should be placed in the province Friesland (VluchtelingenWerk Nederland, 2015).

Also, the establishment of refugee centres in small villages might have effects on the inhabitants, which can also lead to the fact that the inhabitants’ perceptions of the place where they live, change. In the past there have been many protests in the Netherlands which show that. A wide spread fear is that the presence of the refugee centre might lower the value of houses (nu.nl, 2015). Although this seems not to be the case, it still seems a cause of the resistence against refugee centres. Far more protests have raised attention: People are afraid that there will be more criminality due to the arrival of refugees. Inhabitants of villages that host a refugee centre do not want to leave their children playing outside on the streets anymore (Oving, 2016).

There have been many more and even violent protests. In the village Heesch for example: banners have been hung and two dead pigs have been left next to it (Rippe, 2016). This was done to protest against the establishment of a refugee centre for 500 refugees, which exceeded the number of refugees which could be accepted (Rippe, 2016). Another incident happened in Oranje, a small village, where the 150 inhabitants blokked the streets to avoid the arrival of 850 refugees, which exceeded the number of inhabitants by far. In this case, the inhabitants had been bypassed in the decision making, which lead to distrust by the inhabitants of the government (De Telegraaf , 2015).

Many of the protests seem to be founded on a lack of information (Oving, 2016). Based on the many protests it can be said that inhabitants’ perceptions of the place where they live may change as well.

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

St. Annaparochie is one of those small villages where a refugees centre has been established, but in contrast to the villages in which just recently refugee centres have been established, the refugee centre in St. Annaparochie has been there for 13 years. Although there might have been resistance against the refugee centre there, no protests have been registered since 1999. In 1999, before the establishment of the refugee centre, there were protests (Joustra, 1999). However, these protests have not been violent. In St Annaparochie the fear was that refugees would overrun the village. Nevertheless, back then the most refugees came for economic reasons. According to Joustra (1999), the resistance was against people who are no “real refugees”, which means that they have left their home country not because their lifes had been threatened but because of economic reasons. What people called the real refugees were the people who fled their home country because of life-threatening experiences and they were welcome in St. Annaparochie (Joustra, 1999). Since then there have not been any more public protests.

Shrinkage Another factor that is playing a role in St. Annaparochie is the increasing shrinkage in Dutch villages, especially in the North of the Netherlands. Shrinkage is a phenomenon that can be noticed in many small Dutch cities as well as among all European countries. Simply said, shrinkage is the decline of the number of inhabitants in a certain area (Van Dijk , 2014). Although the causes are not always the same, the consequences for the development of the villages are similar in many ways. In general, shrinking regions are defined by the government of the Netherlands as regions where the population is shrinking or expected to shrink by 12.5% and the number of households is shrinking by 5% in the period between 2014 and 2040 (Van Dijk , 2014). The most used definition for shrinkage is, however, simply the decline of the population. What also plays a part in shrinkage of the villages is the composition of the population in the area (Bontje & Musterd, 2012). In many cases, the number of young people is declining, as many of them are leaving to bigger cities, while older people stay behind (Verwest, Van Dam , & Daalhuizen, 2010). That leads to the aging of the population, which results in a smaller working population and thus to less economic stability. Furthermore, the number of households is also a factor that influences the shrinkage (Verwest, Van Dam , & Daalhuizen, 2010). In shrinking areas, it is normally not just one village that is shrinking, but oftentimes neighbouring villages are also shrinking (Cövers, 2015). Shrinking can occur on a local scale as well as on a regional or even national scale.

The Netherlands is familiar with the internal migration flows which can be noticed between small villages in rural areas and urban areas. Local people often leave their houses in the rural areas to move into bigger cities (De Jong & Van Duinen , 2010). One of the reasons that people move internally is that young people and families seek for better learning and working opportunities. That leads to a movement towards cities with higher education facilities like universities and universities of applied sciences (Van Dijk, 2014). In the small villages this trend can also be noticed. Local employment opportunities are decreasing and the population is increasingly overqualified. However, the decreasing employment opportunities are not the only factor that causes the shrinkage of the smaller rural communities. Also a

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis changing demographic composition in smaller villages, which means aging of the population, and the scarcity of resources can be factors that have influence on the shrinkage (Bontje & Musterd, 2012).

The Netherlands knows 9 shrinking regions, which are the Eemsdelta, Oost Groningen, De Marne, Parkstad Limburg, Maastricht-Mergelland, Western Mijnstreek, Zeeuws-Vlaanderen, the Achterhoek and North-East Friesland (Rijksoverheid, Belolkingskrimp, 2015). Next to the shrinking areas, there are also so called ‘Anticipeergebieden’, which are areas that are not yet shrinking but are expected to shrink in the coming years until 2040. In the Figure 1 below, the current shrinking areas are visualized. It becomes clear that especially the Northern part of the Netherlands is affected by shrinkage, while the areas around the big cities Amsterdam, the Hague and Rotterdam are growing.

It has already been mentioned that shrinkage has a negative effect on the economy in the most cases. When most young people are leaving the shrinking regions, the people who stay behind are the older and less mobile inhabitants. That leads to a decreasing working force and less jobs in that area, whichcan lead to poorer communities.

Figure 1: Development of inhabitants in the period 2009-2013 in % (Source: Demowijzer, 2015)

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

The economic consequences, however, are not the only consequences of shrinkage. Also socially there are consequences of the shrinkage which are as problematic as the economic effects, and probably are interconnected with these. If less young people are living in the community, the facilities for young children are not affordable anymore. That leads to the closing of schools, kindergartens and other facilities for children and young adolescents (Rijksoverheid, Bevolkingskrimp, 2014). Also other meeting points like stores, supermarkets, the post office or libraries often have to close (Verwest, Van Dam, & Daalhuizen, 2010).

The closing of facilities not only affects the younger people in the community, also the older people are influenced by that. Health facilities like hospitals and doctors often cannot be found in these villages anymore. Although there might be health facilities in neighbouring villages, a certain mobility is assumed. The reachability of those facilities cannot be ensured anymore.

A connection can be drawn between the refugees crisis and shrinkage. Gerrit Krol, the major of St. Annaparochie in 2013, explained that the 400 refugees who came to St. Annaparochie make a difference in the fincances of the village. The village receives money for every inhabitant, which means that 400 extra inhabitants are positive for financial situation of the village and therefore might have an adverse effect on the shrinkage (Althuisius, 2013). Although it feels positive for the inhabitants of the village, this is only a short-term effect This is because refugees only stay temporary and leave St. Annaparochie as soon as they found housing or have to leave the country and also because the positive impact on the shrinkage happens mostly in the main village St. Annaparochie, while other villages in the municipality are still shrinking (De Jong B. , 2015).

Merge of municipalities Until now, the municipality het Bildt, of which St. Annaparochie is the main village and hosting the municipality centre, consists out of eight villages (Gemeente Het Bildt, 2016). In 2018, the municipality will merge with (parts of) three other municipalities, namely Franekerardeel, Menameradiel, and four villages of the municipality Littenseradiel (Gemeente Waadhoeke, 2016). The new municipality will be located at the tidal flats coast in the North-West of Friesland and will be called Waadhoeke. There have been different reasons why the municipalities will merge. The main reason, according to the municipality Waadhoeke (2016), is to be able to take better care of the citizens. It is the aim that people can live and work there properly. Financial stability and good facilities will be part of that. According to the municipality, the bigger municipality will be able to better make decisions (Gemeente Waadhoeke, 2016).

Until now, the direct impact can only be assumed estimated. It can already be said that it will have impact on the inhabitants of the villages in the area around St. Annaparochie in the sense that they will have to travel longer distances to the municipality centre, which will be located in Franeker. Therefore, people will have longer travelling times, which might be an inconvenience for them. As already

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis explained, there are many elderly people living in St. Annaparochie, who might be less mobile. For them, the longer distance therefore might represent a barrier. Also for the refugees, the distance is problematic. They do not own a car or are not always mobile.

Further impacts might be that the inhabitants of het Bildt and the other municipalities will feel less consulted and integrated in decision making. It could be that there will develop a greater distance between the municipality council and the inhabitants. Moreover, not only the physical distance will increase, it might also be the case that governmental procedures inside the municipality will take longer time in future. However, these are only estimated impacts.

Project “Door de Kloof” The association Haring & Hummus has made it its task to bring the Dutch inhabitants of the village of St. Annaparochie and the refugees living in the refugee centre together. Haring & Hummus has been founded by Janneke de Haan and Geertje Postma, two passionate young women who developed this community art project with great commitment. They argue that meaningful interactions between the inhabitants and their new neighbours, the refugees, cannot be taken for granted (Haring&Hummus, 2016). Although the inhabitants of St. Annaparochie and the inhabitants of the refugee centre now share the village, there is often a distance between them, which Geertje and Janneke call a gap. The name of the association, Haring & Hummus, symbolizes this though. Haring, a typical Dutch dish, and Hummus, which is typical for the Arabic cuisine, do not seem to be a tasty combination. However, Geertje and Janneke are convinced that these two dishes can make a good combination (Haring&Hummus, 2016). In the same way, it represents that living-together of refugees and inhabitants of the village might not seem to fit together on the first sight, but when both groups are open-minded, they can live together in harmony.

This community arts project ‘Door de Kloof’ is meant to overcome this gap (Haring&Hummus, 2016). Haring & Hummus organized a theatrical walk, which had the aim to bring about sustainable changes and an improvement of the social connectedness among the people (Haring&Hummus, 2016). The walk required a rehearsal period of six weeks and the rehearsals took place during the project period from April until the end of June, 2016. The project ended with the final presentation of the project in the last weekend of June.

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

Research Questions and Conceptual Framework In this chapter, two things will be done. I will start with introducing the main research question, before the conceptual and theoretical framework that will be used in this research will be elaborated. The conceptual and theoretical framework of this thesis consists of two main concepts which have been chosen because they can complement each other in order to explore the meaning of places for inhabitants of St. Annaparochie. The two concepts, namely place and sense of place, stand in relation to one another, which will be elaborated in this chapter as well. It is important to define what exactly is meant by the term ‘place’. Therefore, this chapter will start with the definition of place. Thereafter, the concepts sense of place and values will be explored.

Research Question Before the theoretical framework will be clarified, the research question and sub-questions will be discussed and illustrated.

This study has been designed to further investigate how people build up a relation with places, with a focus on social interaction. Therefore, the main research question is:

With the example of St. Annaparochie, how do people develop a sense of place and how do social interactions play a role in this?

Sub-questions that are aimed to help to answer the main question are:

1. What is the place attachment, place identity and place dependency of the inhabitants of St. Annaparochie? 2. Did refugees already develop a sense of place and what does this look like? 3. How does the presence of the refugee centre influence the sense of place of the inhabitants of St. Annaparochie? 4. How did the project “Door de Kloof” contribute to the sense of place of the inhabitants of St. Annaparochie?

These questions will be answered within the following theoretical framework.

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

Place Place is a concept that can be understood in many ways and there are many definitions of it in the academic literature. First of all, a distinction must be made between ‘space’ and ‘place’. While ‘space’ can be understood as a geographical point on the map, ‘place’ cannot be understood as bounded by geographical boundaries (Massey, 1991). Instead, ‘space’ can be converted into ‘place’ by the meanings which are given to space by its inhabitants and therefore, place is much more meaningful for inhabitants than space (Massey, 2004). It can be stated that the inhabitants of places are ‘place-makers’ (Brown & Weber, 2012), which means that by attaching meaning to space, places are socially constructed.

One way to conceptualize place is to distinguish between location on the one hand and locale on the other hand. Location can be understood as the geographical coordinates on earth (Convey, Corsane, & Davis, 2012). Locale describes the natural setting in which social relations can take place. It is the non- physical dimension of the place, which entails beliefs and values as well as culture. This understanding of place again indicates that social relations are important in the constructions of places. As Convey et al. (2012) states; places can be seen as nodes in the networks of people, in which social relations define the place.

Places, however, are not only location or not only locale, places are much more than that. It is important to give a more detailed definition of what is meant by place in this research. The concept that will be used therefore is the three-fold understanding of (rural) place (Figure 1), according to Keith Halfacree (2006). Halfacree (2006) has introduced the position that rural places are not passive but they are actively constructed on different scales of social interaction. There are three dimensions, which give meaning to rural places. This concept is aimed to produce a definition of place, which considers the totality of rural places and highlights the diversity of each place individually.

The first dimension of the three-fold architecture of rural places is connected to the production and consumption practices in the particular place. It is called rural locality. Therefore, it is the material dimension in the social interactions of inhabitants (Halfacree, 2006). The material aspects of this dimension can also be compared to the ‘location’ which has been mentioned above. The rural locality is highly associated with the structures of the realities of inhabitants and also represents rules and norms of the society (Halfacree, 2006). Thus, rural locations can be analysed according to the topographical features, but also the composition of working and living space and the activities done in the place.

The second dimension, the formal representation of the rural, discusses how places are framed by politicians, developers, scientists, etc. This understanding of places is a more abstract understanding, as it is a more objective opinion and can be formulated in jargon or codification (Halfacree, 2006). These conceptions within a particular place will always be perceived. It is not linked to a geographical position, like it is in the first dimension, but a cultural concept which is expressed by the verbal statements about

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis the place. By interpreting and giving meaning to place, individuals and groups form the place and add meaning to their everyday lives (Halfacree, 2006).

The third dimension encompasses the cultural and symbolic meaning of places. It is the everyday lives of the rural people that play a role here. This dimension is associated with the experiences and imaginations of the people (Halfacree, 2006).

Figure 2: A-three-fold architecture, based on Halfacree (1996)

The three-fold model of rural spaces is an abstract theory. To simplify the concept by Halfacree, Horlings (2014) interpretation is used (Figure2). According to Horlings` interpretation of the concept, the rural locality can also be understood as the senses of people regarding the place (Horlings, 2014). What is meant in this case ishow place is experienced through seeing, hearing, smelling and touching.

The second dimension, the formal representation, can also be understood as thoughts of the people who articulate their opinion. It is the conceived or the representation of place through speech and/or plans which can be captured by thoughts (Horlings, 2014).

Again, the third dimension has another description as well. This dimension can also be understood as ‘the heart’, as it is the passion, culture and imagination of people that give meaning to the place in this dimension (Horlings, 2014).

Figure 3: Conceptualizing Rurality, based on Horlings (2013)

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

It is important to mention that the three dimensions of rural places cannot be seen individually. All three dimensions complement each other and together they give the total picture of a rural place. They overcome the duality, which has been mentioned in the distinction of locality and locale in the first concept.

In this study, Halfacree’s concept of place provides the basis for understanding what is meant when I talk about places. It now becomes clear that place is much more than just a geographical location. It is important to have in mind that places are shaped and given meaning by the interactions of people. People give meaning to places. St. Annaparochie is not only a geographical point on the map, but by acting and using the place, people have given meaning to it. Whenever place is used, it is not meant to describe a physical place, but a place which is endowed with meaning through social interactions. In the following, it will be elaborated how people give meaning to places and what this means for them.

Sense of Place The concept that will be introduced in this second part of the theoretical framework is called sense of place. Sense of place can be described as a social phenomenon in which people give meaning to their environment, which reflects their cultural and social backgrounds (Shamai & Ilatov, 2005). Sense of place is a very abstract concept, but is can be understood as following:

“If a person residents in a place for many years, particularly if that person is raised there, then he or she developed a sense of place, feeling at home and secure there, with feelings of belonging for the place being one anchor for his or her identity” (Convey, Corsane, & Davis, 2012, p. 3).

Another definition is given by Shamai and Ilatov (2005, p. 468) who define sense of place as:

“the complex bundle of meaning, symbols, and qualities that a person or group associates (consciously or unconsciously) with a particular locality or region”.

Sense of place has been discussed in academic literature frequently. Convey et al. for example have in their 2012 paper tried to define Sense of Place. It was an attempt to further clarify the complex concept, without using clear examples. Also Massey already discussed in her 1991 paper “The Global Sense of Place” the concept sense of place and tried to connect it to a broader global context in a changing world.

Sense of place understands place as ‘multifaceted phenomenon’ and therefore it is necessary to analyse the different features of place, such as the location and the landscape, but also personal involvement (Shamai & Ilatov, 2005). Just the location itself is not enough when it comes to analysing sense of place.

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

In the concept of sense of place, values of the people living in places play a significant role. Human beings associate places with values, which are experienced and felt individually and play a role in decision making (Brown & Weber, 2012). Brown and Weber (2012, p. 316) wrote that “the places we identify become centres of felt values” that emerge through experience and are influenced by culture. These “centres of felt values” are then the places people live in. Different values can also lead to conflicts in the case that land is contested. People experience the values then as the qualities that lead to place attachment and sense of place (Brown & Weber, 2012). In this research, values of people are things they appreciate.

There are three dimensions which play a role in the sense of place (Figure 3). First there is place attachment. People develop a deeper attachment towards their place. Their sense of place is built upon the everyday experiences of individuals, which can become so strong that it forms their identity (Mendoza & Móren-Algret, 2012). Place attachments can be defined as ‘an active bond or link between people and specific places‘ (Hidalgo & Hernández, 2001, p. 274). The attachment to a place can be a strong feeling. It is a subjective and emotional bond to that place, which therefore differs for each person. It is a process which can be influenced by external factors, or the distinctiveness of the place (Convey, Corsane, & Davis, 2012). For example, social cohesion or house ownership can lead to a stronger bond with a place and therefore a stronger sense of place attachment. Here, it must be mentioned also that a distinction should be made between having a house and feeling at home. Feeling at home is very important and can be connected to the social activities in a place (Lindo, 2008). Inhabitants who feel hardly any connection with the village or the inhabitants, participate less in social activities. In contrary, people who engage in social activities in the village feel more at home here (Lindo, 2008). Symbols and rituals of people are factors which increase the attachment to place as well. However, there are also threats to the attachment to a place. As it is described by Convey et al. (2012), place attachment can erase under the influence that crime and a high population turnover have on the place. Whenever external threats have influence on the place, the willingness of inhabitants to defend their place raises (Convey, Corsane, & Davis, 2012).

Hidalgo and Hernández (2001) make a distinction between physical and social attachment to place. On the one hand, people become attached to the environmental features of the distinct place, on the other hand, there are social interactions which increase the attachment to place. It has already been stressed that social interactions play an important role in developing a feeling of being at home. Therefore, it can be said that social interactions are important to develop a strong place attachment.

In this research, place attachment will be analysed by answering the following questions: Why do people feel at home in St. Annaparochie? How do inhabitants describe St. Annaparochie? Do they feel connected towards the people living there and the place itself? Do they participate in social activities?

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

These questions aim to get more in-depth information about the social features of the village as well as which environmental aspects are appreciated.

The second dimension is place identity. Place identity is about the relationship between the self of individuals and the place these individual lives in. The construction of a self-image is based on the unique characteristics of a place, which are based on the perceptions of an individual. Place identity can be defined by using three principles. First, there is distinctiveness. According to Convey et all, people use their place to distinguish themselves from others (Convey, Corsane, & Davis, 2012). Secondly, there is continuity. This can be understood in the sense that there are ‘place-specific believes’ one person has (Jorgensen & Stedman , 2006). The last principle is self-esteem. People use place to establish a self- image.

Place identity reflects the relationship between the person and the place. In this research, place identity will be understood as the characteristics of a place which make it unique and special to people. Therefore, it will be analysed which features of St. Annaparochie are special to the inhabitants of the village and what differentiates it to them from other villages. It will provide insight in how people use place to construct their identity.

The third dimension is place dependency. Place dependency refers to the behavioural site of the concept. Jorgensen and Stedman (2006) define place dependency as ‘the extent to which a place facilitates the achievement of important behavioural goals’. On first sight this dimension resembles place attachment a lot, however, place dependency is more about the functional aspects of the place. I understand this dimension of the concept as followed: One the one hand, place dependency is about the quality of the place. This means that it is of importance whether the place enables individuals to undertake certain activities in the place. On the other hand, in my opinion, this dimension is also meant to describe the dependency to other places. It discusses to which extent the place is comparable to other places. The place dependency is influenced by the subjective expectations one person has towards the village. The questions that raise in this context are: What can people do in other places but not in St. Annaparochie? Is the St. Annaparochie the best place for what people like to do? Would they not substitute this place for any other area for doing what they want to do there? Is St. Annaparochie functional for the inhabitants?

Together, the three dimensions form the sense of place.

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

• Social Place • Physical Attachment

Sense • Distinctiveness of Place Identity • Continuity • Self-Esteem Place

Place • behaviroural goals Dependency • certain activities

Figure 4: Dimensions of Sense of Place, based on Convey et al (2012)

In order to create a sense of place it is necessary to experience the place (Shamai & Ilatov, 2005). A short term stay at one place therefore is not sufficient for the development of a sense of place or to form an attachment to a place. Ideally, individuals do not only passively experience the place, but are also engaged in activities themselves. Mendoza and Móren-Algret (2012, p. 762) describe:

“The contemporary homo geographicus is no longer a pure spirit or simple worker: individuals look, listen, taste, smell and touch, and it is in so doing that they build their experience of the world”.

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

Relevance and Objective After having explained the theoretical framework for this thesis, I would like to continue to explain the relevance of this research for the academic debate:

There are not many examples of actual studies that have been carried out in the context sense of place and the increasing numbers of refugees coming to places. During the first weeks in the field, I noticed that many respondents mentioned social activities as one of the most appreciated features of place. Therefore, a focus on the role of social activities for the development of a sense of place has been developed. This has not received much attention in academic literature.

My study contributes to the literature on sense of place and the engagement with place by presenting a study that describes which factors play a role in developing a sense of place. Furthermore, it will take a closer look at the context of the refugee centre in the village and whether refugees have already developed a sense of place during their short stay in the village.

Thus, in this study the emphasis is on the social elements of the relationship people have to their places.

Conclusion In this chapter, the theories sense of place, place and values have been introduced. It forms the theoretical basis for addressing the main research question and sub-questions.

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

Method and Methodology In this chapter, I will describe the methods I have used throughout my research. In the first paragraph, the research design will be discussed. In addition, I will elaborate on the research tools that have been used to conduct this research. In the third paragraph, I will reflect on the research and my role as a researcher in the field. I will end this chapter with the limitations and ethical considerations.

To measure sense of place is very difficult, because the concept deals with the perceptions of people. Therefore, in this research I will make use of method-triangulation. Four different methods will be used to verify the results of this research, which are also explained in this chapter.

Ethnographic approach This research is an ethnographic study. I understand the ethnographic approach as follows:

“The ethnographic approach is naturalistic, in that it attempts to work with society as it is, without trying to influence or control it. The goal is to understand behaviour in its habitual context […] and to interpret how people give meaning to their experiences” (Bray, 2008, p.300).

Therefore, the central aim of this study is “to provide rich, holistic insights into people`s views and actions, as well as the nature of that place” (Reeves, Kuper, & Hodges, 2008). In this study it is the aim to get insights in the relations between the inhabitants of St. Annaparochie and the place they live in. In order to be able to get this information, I believe that the presence of the researcher in the researched society is inevitable.

The main research methods for an ethnographic study are participant observation and open-ended, semi- structured interviews (Bray, 2008). In this study, mindscapes have complemented the data-gathering process.

For this ethnographic research, the most fitting design is the case study design. The case study is usually used to explore a phenomenon by using several different methods (Baxter & Jack, 2008). Case studies are useful for researchers who aim to explore and to understand one single case, which is usually bounden by the context (Baxter & Jack, 2008). In this case, the different methods are literature research, interviews, participant observation and cognitive mapping.

My aim is to capture the conditions and circumstances of the daily lives of the inhabitants. The case that has been chosen for this research is the small Frisian village of St. Annaparochie.

Selection of Respondents and Time Planning This master thesis has been designed for a research period of eight months, including the proposal writing and the evaluation of the project. Starting in January 2016, the final date of this research will be

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

31st of September 2016. During a period of five months I have been visiting the research location St. Annaparochie 25 times. During this time, I aimed to get to know the village and the people, in which I have succeeded to a sufficient degree to answer my research questions.

I had chosen to do research on the inhabitants of St. Annaparochie, by which I meant the Dutch inhabitants of the village as well at the refugees who are living in the refugee centre in St. Annaparochie. The first contact with the inhabitants of St. Annaparochie has been made during an orientation phase. During this time, it was possible to come in contact with possible research participants. During the conversations, the participants already allowed me to come back in a later stage of the research. These persons, all living in St. Annaparochie, have been the first interviewees. The main sampling method has been snowball-sampling. When I started this research, I did not know the research population. Therefore, snowball sampling presented a method which gave me an access point to the research population. Snowball sampling, which is a sampling method in which the researcher asks first interviewees to give the researcher names of new interviewees, who again give names of new respondents (Atkinson & Flint, 2001).

Next to snowball-sampling, I have also found respondents by visiting popular public places in St. Annaparochie, such as the market and the main street.

Methods As it has been explained before, several methods for data gathering have been used. In the following, I will explain the methods I have used and why I have chosen to do so. The four methods I have used are literature study, interviews, participant observation and mindscaping. The use of different methods is called triangulation.

Literature Research The first method that has been used in this research was a literature study. This method has been used in order to create a theoretical framework. The literature study was focused on the concepts sense of place and values and is used to conceptualize place. Literature that was used for the literature study was derived mostly from scientific journals.

Interviews Interviews are a widely used method that serves to generate more knowledge about the community(Bray, 2008). For this research, open-ended interviews have been the first choice. In this case, open-ended interviews are understood as semi-structured interviews. Semi-structured interviews allow interviewees to discuss topics they are keen to talk about and at the same time provide the researcher the power to guide the conversation in the direction that is under research (Bray, 2008). By using this data collection method, the results of the other methods can be complemented.

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

For this research, the number of respondents has been explored by using the point of saturation. The point of saturation describes the point at which more interviews do not give more information (Gut feelings in general practice, 2013). The total number of interviews is 15, of which five have been conducted with refugees and ten with Dutch people from St. Annaparochie.

Guiding questions for the interviews: First of all, there were general questions regarding the age of the interviewees, the amount of time the interviewees had already been living in St. Annaparochie etc.

Thereafter, questions regarding the sense of place have been asked:

 Questions concerning the place attachment of people: o Do you feel at home in St. Annaparochie? What makes you feel at home/ not at home? o Do you feel connected to the people living here? If yes, why? If not, why? o Do you do many social activities here? If yes, what? If no, why not? o Do you feel attached to St. Annaparochie? If yes, why? If no, why not? o How would you describe St. Annaparochie? o Are there places in St. Annaparochie you do not like? If yes, why? If no, why not?

Place attachment is divided into two parts, the social and the environmental attachment to place. The first three questions are related to the social activities in which people engage. They are about the connectedness between people. The other three questions are related to the environmental attachment.

 Questions concerning the place identity of people: o What makes St. Annaparochie special? o What makes St. Annaparochie different from other places? o Are there any features which cannot be found in any other place? o What do you think is important in St. Annaparochie? Why? o What do you think is important, but missing in St. Annaparochie? o Is there anything you would like to change?

The place identity is related to the relation between people and place, and the unique characteristics of the place have influence on the self-image of people. The unique characteristics are found out by asking these questions.

 Questions concerning the place dependency of people: o What for activities do you do in St. Annaparochie? Think of shopping, doing groceries, etc. o Why did you choose to live in St. Annaparochie?

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

The place dependency reflects the functional side of the village. The questions are aimed to answer to which degree the inhabitants of St. Annaparochie are satisfied with the things they can do in the village. To get more in-depth answers, I also asked about their motives for living in St. Annaparochie.

 How do inhabitants of St. Annaparochie think about the refugee’s centre? o How do you feel about the refugee’s centre in your neighbourhood? o Do you think it adds value to St. Annaparochie? o Do you think the refugee’s centre is part of the village?

The refugee centre is an external factor which might have influence on the inhabitants’ perceptions of the village. To find out whether the refugee centre has positive or negative impact on the sense of place, the above questions were asked.

Participant Observation One of the most frequently used methods for research in social studies is participant observation. Characterizing for participant observation is that the researcher aims to study the participants in their natural place, which is often their home town (Bray, 2008). In this method is it important that the researcher participates in the daily activities of the village of interest. By taking part in the interactions of the research population the researcher can come to conclusions based on the actions and social interaction instead of the spoken word, which gives another dimension in the research (Bray, 2008). I have been present in the village during the fieldwork. During this time, I had the chance to participate in a local social project called “Door de Kloof”, which was a theatrical walk in and around the village, involving Dutch inhabitants and inhabitants of the refugee centre.

The aim of observing the participants in this case was to gather information about the interactions of people with their place and with each other. Sense of place is expressed in the engagement with the place. Also interesting was the interaction between asylum seekers and local people.

Participant observation has led to much information. After each observation day, I wrotedown my observations and experiences in a fieldwork journal. I did this directly after coming home from the field in order to keep the information lively.

Mindscaping Each person experiences a place differently. One method of capturing the sense of place of the participants is to let them create a mindscape (Tversky, 1994), also called cognitive map. A central point in the mindscape is that it is a combination of different factors that play a role. There is a combination of imaginary, colour and visual arrangements, which together give a more holistic, but subjective image of a place. A mindscape can be created based on the senses (Kabat-Zinn, 2014).

The aim of the using this method in this research has been to get several different mindscapes, which can tell a lot about how participants perceive St. Annaparochie. I had asked the respondents after the

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis interview to draw their version of St. Annaparochie, however, I had given them time to do so. I had expected that every mindscape would accentuate the features of St. Annaparochie which are important to the individual participant.

To explain what the participants were asked to do, the concept of mindscaping and the purpose of the study were introduced. Also, an example of a mindscape was shown. Important to mention is that this example mindscape was not showing St. Annaparochie, to exclude the possibility that people copy the image shown in the example.

It was expected that the buildings, places etc. that are important for the participants would be in the centre of their mindscapes and/or drawn bigger than less important features of the village. One question that will be answered during the analysis of the results will be to which degree the refugee camp is present in the mindscapes. It is interesting to analyse this question in comparison to the other features of the village.

It was difficult to convince people of their drawing skills during this data gathering method. A total of eight people agreed to draw their place. These mindscapes gave new insights to this study.

Reflection In this paragraph I reflect on my role as a researcher in the field. Furthermore, I will reflect on ethical issues and limitations which have negatively affected the findings of my thesis.

As a researcher in the field doing qualitative research, I was entering people’s lives and investigating their personal opinions. As such, I had a responsibility to the people I was researching not to use the collected data against their consent. Therefore, I had decided to be honest to them about the topic of the research, my person, and the purpose of this research. I have tried to work as transparently as possible, which, in my opinion, also helped me to get access to the field. Therefore, I took the time to conduct the interviews and were most interviews conducted towards the end of my research. I assumed that people are more open towards me as a researcher when they already know me and my intentions in the field. I informed them that this research is completely anonymous.

The interviews with the people from the refugee centre have been very difficult. Not only because of language difficulties, but also because of the sensitivity of talking about a home with them. Refugees had often fled from their homes and left their families behind. They came to St. Annaparochie because the institutions in the Netherlands allocated them there. Therefore, it was not appropriate to ask questions which are sensitive and it should be avoided that respondents feel uncomfortable. The most sensitive question which has been asked during the interviews was therefore whether they already developed a feeling of being at home.

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

During the field work, I have tried to be constantly aware of my own position in the field. Although I was often in the field, I did not try to become part of the research group. Rather, I aimed to be present in the field so that the people had the time to get to know me and to get used to my presence. During several situations, mostly during the project “Door de Kloof”, I felt very much connected to the people participating in it.

I assume that there are two main limitations which have had influence on this research. The first limitation has to do with my own personality and the way I looked at the field. For me this was the first time working in the field alone. Although I had planned the research, I felt insecure some times and had difficulties in approaching people. Therefore, I found it hard to conduct semi-structured interviews. I had developed guiding questions and aimed to have conversations rather than strictly planned interviews. However, due to my nervousness, I had difficulties to conduct the interviews, especially the first few. Although I did gather the information I needed for this study, I may have missed information I would have gathered with a more open attitude.

The second limitation has to do with language. My mother tongue is German, but I do speak Dutch as well as English and Spanish. However, people in St. Annaparochie speak Bildts, which is their local language. Also the people living in the refugee centre speak different foreign languages, such as Arabic and Farsi. This had a huge influence on my research. People from St. Annaparochie had no difficulties to speak Dutch to me after I had explained them my origin. However, people from Syria, Iraq, Iran or other countries, living in the refugee centre, often did not or not properly speak English or Dutch. Although I could find people that translated for me, I found it hard to talk to them. Therefore, the number of interviews with refugees is lower than the number of interviews with Dutch people from St. Annaparochie.

Content wise, there are three more things to mention here. First, a distinction has been made between refugees on the one hand and Dutch inhabitants on the other hand. This could be understood in a judgemental way, however, these terms have only been used to be able to distinguish between both groups of people. During this research, I have learned that all people living in St. Annaparochie are inhabitants of the village and therefore all people living there should be called inhabitants, without making difference between them.

Furthermore, it should be mentioned here that the merge of the municipality is a factor, which might have influence on the sense of place of the inhabitants of St. Annaparochie later on, but it is not possible to draw any conclusions about this yet.

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

Conclusion This chapter had the aim to describe the research methods and reflect on the study and my role as a researcher in the field. As this study is an ethnographic research, it required my presence in the field. Therefore, over a period of five months I spent several weeks in St. Annaparochie, where I conducted interviews, engaged in participant observation and had mindscapes drawn.

In this chapter, I also reflected on myself as a researcher in the field. I had to be aware of my role at all times, while at the same time I needed to become part of the group. During this research I developed a better understanding of myself in the field. I learned about my own shortcomings and was able to work on these.

In the following chapter, I will describe and analyse the results of the research.

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

The sense of Place in St. Annaparochie – An analysis It is the aim of this research to give answer to the question what the sense of place looks like among the inhabitants of the Frisian village St. Annaparochie. In this following chapter, the results of the interviews, the participant observation and the mindscapes will be analysed. Each method will be analysed separately, before the results of all methods will be compared and analysed interwoven. It will start with the analysis of the participant observation, thereafter, the results of the interviews and the project “Door de Kloof” as well as the mindscapes will follow.

Outcomes of the Participant Observations Records from my fieldwork journal:

I arrive at St. Annaparochie around noon at the bus stop in front of the municipality. It is my first day in the village and I feel like an intruder. I do not know the village yet and I notice that I attract attention. People look at me, and sometimes they even greet me, although I do not know them. I realize that the village is not only small, but also quiet. There are some people on the streets, but most of them are cycling along the main street or do groceries. I start my day at the bakery. When I enter, nobody is in the store and I grab my chance to talk to the baker. She tells me that she often sees people sitting on the benches in front of the Aldi on the other side of the street. Most of the time, they are sitting amongst each other, often in small groups. I want to know if she thinks that they have found their place in the village, but when she responds that she has the feeling that they have not found their place there, I feel that she hopes that they will soon do that. I think, there is still a distance between the refugees and the inhabitants of the village, but I cannot yet say why.

I leave the bakery to continue my walk around the village and indeed, when I cross the street, I can see an older lady sitting on the benches in front of the Aldi. She seems to do nothing but observe her surroundings. I decide to go to her and sit down for a while. She looks at me and nods with her head when I say hello. It is obvious that the does not speak Dutch. We are sitting in silence for a few minutes, when an older man comes out of the Aldi and walks towards her. He is carrying two shopping bags from the store. The woman spots him and stands up to take over one of the bags. Before they leave, she nods at me again. The man looks at me, and as the woman did before, he also nods at me. Then they leave.

A few days later, I am back in the village. It is cold and it has been raining all day. I decide to start my day at the vegetable shop, where I want to buy some fruit for the lunch. An employee directly wants to help me and I decide to ask him about St. Annaparochie and the refugee centre. I am lucky, because I found someone who is really active in the village. He offers young refugees an internship in this vegetable shop to show them what a normal Dutch working day looks like. That also has the side effect, that they can learn from each other and learn the language. Many young people learn Dutch at school, but he tells me that their English or Dutch is not very good. He has a strong opinion about the village.

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

He tells me about a story which happened shortly after the refugee centre has been opened. A refugee came to the village and touched children inappropriately there. It is a very negative story, and he regrets that the inhabitants from the village form opinions very fast. He says that negative things influence the opinion in the village very fast and at the same time there are very few positive things which could influence the opinion positively – not because there are no positive things happening, but because they are not mentioned. The employee leaves me with many thoughts. Is there a negative picture of the refugees in the village? Or do people understand that these are particular situations which do not represent the whole picture?

I decide to ask three women who are standing outside the Kruidvat on the opposite side of the street what they think about the refugee centre. I am positively surprised because they tell be that they appreciate the refugee centre very much. Of course, there are more people in the village who come to the store, but this is not all. A few years ago, in 2012, the refugee centre was about to close for good. However, this was against the will of the village. The women tell me that the refugees are appreciated because they make the village livelier and for that reason together with the extra economic advantages, most of the inhabitants of St. Annaparochie did not want the refugee centre to be closed. There have even been protests. They emphasize several times that the people in St. Annaparochie are Bildtkerts (People who live in the municipality het Bildt). I want to know why it makes a difference that they are Bildtkerts and what this has to do with the protests and I almost feel silly to ask such a question. But they answer happily. I learn that Bildtkerts consider themselves more open and friendly to outsiders than Friesian people.

Another day and other places to visit. I am back in St. Annaparochie and from the bus I already saw that it is market day. Tents and stalls have been set up in the parking space in front of the municipality centre. It is a small market and although it is cold, there are people doing groceries and talking. I walk across the market and I see a group of men standing at the fish stall, having a snack, talking. Another man passes them and obviously they know each other. One man in the group recognizes him and calls him to come over to the group. They share their fish and have a conversation.

I notice that there were refugees in the supermarkets every time I have been here, but today there are no refugees on the market.

I leave the market and I see a group of elderly people on scoot mobiles gathering at the other side of the street. I am curious what they are doing, so I stop to observe them. There are two women with bikes, who distribute reflective vests to each of the elderly people. Then, one of them pulls out a map and explains that they will take the route along the long road to the dike and back. I realize that these people are about to have a ride together. One of the women on the bikes takes the lead, the scoot mobiles follow her and the other woman on the bike closes up the group. It is a very funny moment to me. I have never seen a group of scoot mobiles doing an excursion before. A woman who had just passed me sees my

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis amazement and greets me. I ask her if the group meets more often and she tells me that these are the “Motormuizen” (English: Motor mice). I can understand that they enjoy the day: it is a nice dry day.

Some time has passed and I have been to St. Annaparochie several times already. It is May now and the weather is better. Before I came here, I have decided that I want to leave the main street to explore the small side streets and living areas. I am walking along a canal and in the distance I see two people standing next to the water. When I come closer, I see that they are fishing. It is a young couple. The young man is not very talkative, but his girlfriend is. I ask her if they are living here, and she tells me that her parents are living here, but that she has left for university. Will she ever come back to live in St. Annaparochie?

I decide to take a break and go to the diner around the corner, “De Smalle Kant”. I order a milkshake and sit down on the street outside the diner. I observe the people passing by. There are both Dutch people and refugees on the street. Most of the refugees are walking, and sometimes, when other refugees pass them, they greet each other. I notice the same thing with the Dutch people. I assume that most of them are from the village, because they not only greet each other, but they also ask each other how they are doing. Sometimes they even stop to have a little talk. I become aware of myself in the village. I felt like an intruder in the beginning, but now I realize that people on the streets have been greeting me as well. I feel a lot less like a stranger already. Could it be that they already know who I am? I notice something else as well: Dutch people greet each other, and refugees greet each other, but I see very few Dutch people who greet refugees and the other way around. That is remarkable to me.

Again a few days later, I take my bike to come to the village. After one hour of cycling, I arrive at the village, just to find me standing in front of the blocked main street. There are no signs of road construction, I am wondering what is going on there? I see people standing on the pavements. I join them to find out what is going on. I feel the excitement of the people around me, so I ask a man next to me. He explains me that this is nothing special here. Sometimes, especially in the weekends, the streets are blocked for Kaatsball competitions. Probably the man understands that the expression on my face is surprise, because he starts laughing. I admit that I have no idea what Kaatsball is. He explains that it is a game, a little bit like tennis, but very different at the same time. I join him to watch the match and slowly I understand that it is indeed like tennis, but without rackets. It is amazing that so many people from the village come together to watch the match on the streets.

This Saturday morning it takes me much longer to go to St. Annaparochie by car. That has to be because of the fact that many visitors from all over the Netherlands come to Leeuwarden for the Military Airforce Days. These are several days on which military airplane and helicopter present spectacular shows. This morning I drive directly to the community house ‘Ons Huis’, where I meet with a group of refugees and Dutch people from St. Annaparochie. Already when I arrive there, I notice children and parents who have come together. Some children are crying and standing close to their parents. I wonder why, until I

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis hear the airplanes flying just after 10 am. I see the children watching up to the sky and I understand that they are scared of the noise of the F16 airplanes flying above our heads. I am told that the refugee centre has organized a bus for the refugees, because they have been invited to the shows. I reacted with disbelieve. Many of the refugees have fled from life threating situations and war and I cannot belief that they should be confronted with these memories again.

At that moment I felt a lot of sympathy for them. I realized that the noise of the airplanes may remind many of them of the situations they fled from. I also realized that the refugee centre is probably not build at the most suitable place. The shows are not the only event which is happening there throughout the year. The airplanes fly there regularly. Therefore, the location of the refugee centre will probably remind many of the people staying there of the terrible scenes they have seen.

The observations give insights in the lives of people in St. Annaparochie and can help to answer the research questions. What was very noticeable is that the people in the village seem to be very active. I have seen them engaging in sports, such as Kaatsball, but also the group of motor mice and the conversations at the market show that there are many possibilities to engage in social activities. However, I have noticed that most of the times, refugees have not been active in these activities. An activity that refugees and Dutch people from St. Annaparochie do have in common is that they all do groceries in the village. It can be mentioned here that the people from the refugee centre have possibilities to visit the village often, which explains more over the functionality of the village for them. Most of the respondents say that they do groceries in the village as well as shopping clothes in the second hand shop. This is also what I saw then I visited the village. Most of the days I was there, I saw them walking along the street with bags from the supermarkets, or women were waiting outside of the supermarkets, and most days I met several refugees in the second hand shop.

Being Bildts seems to be one very important characteristic of the people in St. Annaparochie. They seem to distinguish themselves from others by giving meaning to being Bildts. Characteristics of being Bildts – according to them – are being open-minded towards other people, being friendly and speaking the language Bildts. They appear to be very proud of being Bildtkerts.

Furthermore, it is remarkable to me that inhabitants of St. Annaparochie great each other. Although I am not an inhabitant of St. Annaparochie, I was greeted as well. However, refugees have not been greeted most of the time. This seems to be in contrary of what they have said about being Bildts. According to being Bildts, they are open towards other people. Nevertheless, they make a distinction between the refugees and Dutch people.

However, the impression that the refugees are appreciated in St. Annaparochie develops from the conversations I had during the participant observations. There have been protests in the village in which the Dutch inhabitants demanded that the refugees centre remains open. This seems to be not only because

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis of the economic impacts from the additional number of people in the village, but also because of the liveability of the village.

Finally, a last observation was that people make use of their environment. Not only during the social activities or for their daily needs, but also for fishing. Could that mean that environmental locations are important to the people in St. Annaparochie?

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

Outcomes of the Interviews Fifteen people have been interviewed during this research. Twelf of the 15 respondents are living in St. Annaparochie and have answered the questions about place attachment. Amongst the 12 respondents are five refugees, who are living in the refugee centre in St. Annaparochie. Furthermore, there is one respondent who is living in St. Annaparochie, but has come to St. Annaparochie as a refugee from Afghanistan 7 years ago. This respondent is now in the possession of the permit to stay in the Netherlands and is working in St. Annaparochie.

The process of conducting the interviews has been very exciting. I started this process by talking to people in stores. I was lucky and could arrange the first interviews only a few days after my first visit to St. Annaparochie. During the interview I have introduced myself as well as my research and the interviewee positively reacted to it. The interviews have been organized like conversations, which have been guided by questions which I had prepared in advance. During the first few interviews, I was nervous. I became more relaxed after I had conducted the first few interviews, which made many questions and connections pop up in my mind. The interviews have been very different. Some took more than an hour, other were conducted in only a few minutes. I have noticed, that the interviews with the refugees have not been less interesting, but much harder to conduct, as I had difficulties to translate the questions for them. Nevertheless, the interviews gave me many insights in how the inhabitants of St. Annaparochie think about their village.

Place Attachment To be able to get a picture of the place attachment, the first dimension of sense of place based on Convey et al. 2012., the following questions have been asked: Do you feel at home in St. Annaparochie? Do you feel connected to St. Annaparochie? How would you describe St. Annaparochie to people who do not know the village? Do you do social activities in St. Annaparochie? What are places you like or dislike in St. Annaparochie? As already mentioned before, place attachment is a subjective and emotional bond between people and places. It is based on the personal experiences of people (Hidalgo & Hernández, 2001). Not only the attachment to environmental places is of interest, also the attachment towards social contacts plays a role.

When I asked whether or not the interviewees feel at home in St. Annaparochie, six of the respondents said no and six answered with yes. Five of six the respondents who answered no are refugees. All of the interviewed refugees indicate that their home is in their country of origin. The other respondent who answered this question with no explained that she does not feel at home in St. Annaparochie because she has grown up in the city and therefore does not like small villages like St. Annaparochie.

The respondents who indicated that they feel at home in St. Annaparochie give different reasons for that. Two respondents explain that they have grown up in the village and therefore feel at home there. One interviewee stated: “Most people living here […] have grown up here. We say ‘the soil where you have

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis been born’ (Dutch: De grond waar je geboren bent).” (Interviewee 11). Another respondent agrees: “Yes, I feel at home here. I have been raised here and have lived here the longest time of my live. I was living in Leeuwarden for several years when I was younger, but I have chosen to come back because I wanted that for my children. I wanted them to be able to grow up in a village, just as I did.” (Interviewee 1). Two respondents imply that they have family in St. Annaparochie. The las two respondents say that they feel at home in St. Annaparochie because they own a house there.

All respondents answered the question whether or not they feel connected towards the people in St. Annaparochie. 100% of the respondents indicated that they feel connected to the inhabitants of the village. This counts Dutch inhabitants as well as refugees. There have been different reasons why they feel connected towards each other. Five people answered that they feel connected because the people in St. Annaparochie are very open and friendly. Another reason is that people have a lot of social contact with the other inhabitants, four respondents answered this. Furthermore, it has been answered that the inhabitants of St. Annaparochie are always open for a conversation, and therefore the respondent feels connected to them.

A distinction has been made between social and environmental attachment to St. Annaparochie. A question which has been asked to figure out whether there is social attachment to the place: the respondents have been asked to indicate the social activities they engage in. The answers to this question have been very divers. Activities which are most popular among the Dutch inhabitants of St. Annaparochie are voluntary work and the project “Door de Kloof”. Refugees answered that they mostly engage in social activities in the refugee centre.

Social Activities

Visiting a bar Sport Swimming Music Kaatsball Walking Voluntary work Activities Refugee's centre Door de Kloof

Figure 5: Social activities

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

I have also asked the respondents whether or not they feel connected to the environmental place St. Annaparochie, and if so, why. This question has been asked to refugees as well as Dutch inhabitants. Fife Dutch inhabitants explained that they feel connected to the environmental place, while seven implied that they do not feel connected. The interviewees who said that they feel connected to the physical place St. Annaparochie argued that this is because they have grown up there. Also, there is everything which is needed on a daily basis. Furthermore, it is a beautiful village. The reasons why people do not feel at home are also interesting. Two argued that they could live at any other place as well. Others indicate that they do not have a connection with St. Annaparochie, but much more with Leeuwarden, which is not far away. Refugees argued that they feel connected to the refugee centre, but less to the village and that they feel safe there. It is remarkable that all the refugees have mentioned that they have just arrived in the village and therefore do not yet feel attached to the village.

To get new and deeper insights in the inhabitants view on the village, they have also been asked to describe their village. The answers are as follows: According to the respondents, St. Annaparochie is a small village with all the needed facilities, such as schools, pubs, sport facilities or shops. It is a cute and quiet village in a nice surrounding. Moreover, the people there are pleasant (Dutch: gezellig) and everyone knows everyone and the village is lively. These opinions are shared by the refugees. They describe St. Annaparochie as a small village which offers all the facilitates which are needed. There are nice people living there and it is not far from the city.

Furthermore, the respondents have been asked which places they like or dislike. Only one respondent said that there is a place she dislikes, which is a dangerous intersection in the village. Many places are appreciated in the village. The market, the sport facilities and public places like the community garden, the public swimming pool and the community house ‘Ons Huis’ have been mentioned. The refugees have given slightly different answers. They appreciate the sport facilities and the community house as well, but they also like the playground at the refugee centre, as well as the small animal park.

Described above are the results of the questions regarding the place attachment of the inhabitants of St. Annaparochie. In the following, these results will be analysed.

It is remarkable that all interviewees responded that they feel connected with the other inhabitants of the village. They imply that there are nice and friendly people living in St. Annaparochie. All refugees mentioned that as well and they indicated that everyone greets other people on the streets. Other reasons why people feel connected in St. Annaparochie are the contacts to family and friends who live in St. Annaparochie as well. Inhabitants in St. Annaparochie often do activities together. Apparently, the inhabitants feel connected towards each other. There seems to be positive intercourse among each other. However, not one of the refugees answered that they feel also connected to the place St. Annaparochie, while most of the Dutch respondents answered this question positively. They feel a connection towards the refugee centre, but do not feel at home here. They have been living in the refugee centre in St.

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

Annaparochie only a few month and imply that their home is in their country of origin. They make a distinction between feeling at home in St. Annaparochie and feeling safe there. Although they do not feel at home, they do feel safe. These statements are clarified by Mendoza and Móren-Algret (2012), who state that a short term stay at one country at one place is not sufficient for the development of a sense of place or attachment to place.

The interviewees have also been asked how they would describe St. Annaparochie towards other people who do not know the village. All respondents described St. Annaparochie as a small village. It is noticeable that all respondents mention that all needed facilities are present in the village. The mentioned sport facilities, schools, shops, and the public swimming pool. Therefore, facilities seem to be very important in the village when it comes to the building of a connection to the environmental places and how satisfied someone is with the place they life in. The respondents also mentioned which places they appreciate and do not appreciate in St. Annaparochie. It is remarkable that all these places are facilities. The public swimming pool, the community house ‘Ons Huis’ and the sport associations are facilities which have been mentioned as important places several times. Again, the facilities seem to be the important factor in the connection making process.

There is one interviewee who explained that she does not feel at home in St. Annaparochie. Here, it is noticeable that this is also the person who does not participate in social activities in the village. Could the non-participation in social activities in the village influence the feeling of connectedness towards the village and the feeling of being at home or not at home in the village one lives in? The refugees have indicated that they feel partly connected towards the refugee’s centre although they have not been there for a long period of time. It is remarkable that all interviewed refugees also participate in social activities at the refugee’s centre. This could be indicative for a connection between social activities and the feeling of being at home in a place.

Place Identity For this subchapter of the analysis of the interviews, only Dutch inhabitants of St. Annaparochie have been questioned. I have chosen to do so because the refugees have not been a long time in St. Annaparochie or the Netherlands yet. Therefore, they cannot compare St. Annaparochie with other villages in the surrounding area. Thus, for them is it not possible to make a distinction between the different villages.

As it has been described in the earlier chapter, place identity in this research is about the unique characteristics of St. Annaparochie. The questions that have been asked to answer the question of which features of St. Annaparochie are special to the inhabitants of the village and what differentiates it from other villages are the following: What makes St. Annaparochie special? What makes St. Annaparochie different from other villages? What is unique about St. Annaparochie?

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

Special in St. Annaparochie

The people Everyone knows each other Combination Facilities and Silence

Figure 6: Special in St. Annaparochie

The reasons which have been given when asked what makes St. Annaparochie special to the interviewees are threefold. Many interviewees have responded that they appreciate the people and that these people make St. Annaparochie special. In this context it has often been mentioned that the people in St. Annaparochie are Bildtkerts, who are different:

“Here, we are in Friesland, and Friesian people are already very different from Dutch people. However, we are also in ‘het Bildt’, that’s the name of the municipality here. This municipality includes a number of surrounding villages as well, for example Vrouwenparochie and Jakobieparochie, but also Minnertsga, although people there are not Bildtkerts. They are very different therefore. Bildtkerts are very open and friendly, you might have noticed that. You can always have a talk with us, that is no problem. […] I think that we, the Bildtkerts, are a tight community”. – Interviewee 4

Another feature which makes St. Anna special according to the respondents is the contact with other people in the village. Respondents argue that everybody knows everyone in the village. Furthermore, the combination of the different facilities in the village and the silence at the same time has been mentioned here.

The question of what differentiates St. Annaparochie from other villages has been answered as follows: The first aspect which has been mentioned is the fact that there are many facilities in the village. Surrounding village have hardly any facilities, while there are sport facilities, schools, stores and the municipality centre in St. Annaparochie. It is also mentioned again that being Bildtkers differentiates St, Annaparochie from other villages by people being more open. This feature seems to be connected to the personality of the people.

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

Finally, the question of if there are any features which can only be found in St. Annaparochie has been answered by all respondent with the same answer: there is nothing which can only be found there.

When looking at the answers of the interviewees it is remarkable that 71.4% of the people living in St. Annaparochie replied that the people who live there is the feature which makes St. Annaparochie special to them. A question which arises from these answers is whether the people, thus the social contacts people have, could be more important for the place identity then the facilities? Is it the social contacts and the people who live there what makes the place special? The other respondents replied that that what makes St. Annaparochie special is the broad offer of shops and stores and the many different facilities.

It is noticeable that none of the interviewees thinks that there are features which cannot be found in any other place. Does that mean that one could find the social contacts and the people in other places as well? Several respondents said that they are Bildts and the impression arises that they are proud of being Bildts. Het Bildt is a municipality in the province Friesland, where a regional language, Bildts is spoken. People indeed seem to be proud to be part of St. Annaparochie and het Bildt and seem to have a connection to these places by living in the village.

Interviewees answered the question of what St. Annaparochie distinguishes from other villages and answered that it is the facilities that make St. Annaparochie different: the stores, the public swimming pool, the hops and stores, the community house and the associations. Two respondents replied that it is the people living in the village that makes it different and one person did not come up with anything what distinguishes St. Annaparochie from other villages. Thus, can it be concluded that the people can be found elsewhere, but it is the facilities which distinguishes St. Annaparochie from other villages?

Place Dependency Place dependency is about the functional side of the place. All respondents have been included in this sub-part of the research. The question which is aimed to be answered is whether St. Annaparochie is a place where people can engage in activities they want to do and need to do? To be able to answer this question, I have asked the following questions: Why did you choose St. Annaparochie as the place where you want to live? Which activities do you do in St. Annaparochie? Do you miss something in St. Annaparochie?

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

Reasons to live in St. Annaparochie

Children Never Moved away Facilities Family is living there No Choice Work

Figure 7: Reasons why people chose to live in St. Annaparochie

Six reasons have been mentioned when it comes to the question why people have chosen to live in St. Annaparochie. A distinction must be made between the refugees and the Dutch inhabitants of St. Annaparochie. While the Dutch inhabitants of the village have chosen freely to live there, refugees have been placed there. Therefore, the refugees have all answered that they had no choice to live there. The reasons why the Dutch inhabitants are living there are more diverse. They answered that they have chosen to live in St. Annaparochie because they wanted their children to grow up in a village, often also because they have grown up there themselves as well and appreciated it. Furthermore, often they have been born there and have never moved away or they returned after they had finished their studies. Another reason is that there are all facilities which other villages in the surrounding area do not have. Also family seems to be important here, because it is a reason why people chose to live in St. Annaparochie. Finally, the work place has been mentioned. One Dutch respondent summarized this and explained: “I wanted to have a nice environment for my children where they could grow up. When we were looking to buy a house, I paid attention to good schools, but also quietness and the nearby availability of all facilities we wanted to have. I wanted to live closer to Leeuwarden first, but then we found our house and that made us move here. It is a little bit further away from the city, but there are busses going to Leeuwarden, so we can get there fast. That is also nice when the kids get to be a little bit older, because they will probably want to go to school in Leeuwarden in the future.” (Interviewee 3)

It has been asked which activities are done in St. Annaparochie. The Dutch inhabitants of St. Annaparochie and the refugees have answered that they have some activities in common, which they do

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis in St. Annaparochie. Among this is doing groceries and going shopping, engaging in sports like swimming and football and visiting the community house ‘Ons Huis’. Refugees also engage in activities at the refugee centre and the nearby city of Leeuwarden. Both, refugees and Dutch inhabitants, have answered that they go to school or bring their children to school there. Furthermore, people engage in social activities. The community gardens have been mentioned as well as visiting the local pub or playing games like bridge. Besides activities which can be done in St. Annaparochie, it has been mentioned that there are activities which are done outside of the village, people go to the cinema or the city centre of Leeuwarden and Stiens for example.

Therefore, it was interesting to ask the question whether there are things which are missed in St. Annaparochie. I discovered that most people would like to see more shops in the village to be able to choose where they want to go. They mean mostly a hospital, boutiques and cheap stores such as Action, Scapino and Xenos. It is remarkable that these are the opinions of the Dutch inhabitants, whereas the refugees have answered that there is everything they need for the daily living.

The reasons why people have chosen to live in St. Annaparochie are very diverse. One has been born there and never moved. Two people appreciate the facilities in the village and name it as a reason to live in the village and two others implied that they have chosen to live in St. Annaparochie for their work. Furthermore, the raising of children has been given as a reason. Refugees have not had a choice. They have been placed at the refugee centre in St. Annaparochie. The reasons why people have chosen to live in St. Annaparochie seem to be personal. People seem to have different reasons to choose for a location to live and there seems to be no general reason.

It is remarkable that, although they answered that it is the facilities what distinguishes the village from other villages in the surrounding area, many respondents have indicated that they do miss more stores and shops in the village. Interviewee ten explained in this context: “I would like to have more cheaper stores like the Action and the Lidl. There are a lot of people with little money to spend. You can notice that. Like a Xenos and a cheaper shoe store like van Haren or Scapino. I think that would be nice and that would be doable in such a village. One of those stores where you can find everything. There is a shoe store now, but it is a very expensive one. So for that I still go to Leeuwarden.” When looking at these outcomes, it is noticeable that inhabitants of St. Annaparochie seem to notice that there are more facilitates in St. Annaparochie than in the surrounding village, but nevertheless, they would still like to have more different facilities in the village. Does the village comply with the wishes of the inhabitants then? Each interviewee replied that he or she is doing groceries in the village. The (sport) associations, the community house and the market are also often visited.

The refugees in St. Annaparochie seem to use the facilities regularly. They do their groceries there and often visit the second hand shop. They also join social activities at the refugee centre. None of the refugees indicated to miss something in the village. It is remarkable since they are less mobile than the

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

Dutch inhabitants of St. Annaparochie as most of them do not have a car (Both, 2016). Does that mean that St. Annaparochie and the refugee centre offer sufficient facilities and activities to meet the needs and wishes of the refugees?

External Factor – The Refugee Centre In this research, the refugee centre is understood as an external factor since the refugee centre has been established in 2003 without including the inhabitants of the village in the decision making process. Therefore, the question has been asked whether or not the refugee centre adds value to the village and what people think about it.

The answers to the question whether it adds value to St. Annaparochie seem to be positive. One interviewee answered: “I think that it is added value for the people who live there [at the refugee centre] first of all because they can be here. They are all people who cannot be in their own county anymore. And the municipality does it also for financial reasons because they receive subsidies. And especially when you are located in a shrinking area that is a good way to get money in. I think that it is good at all sites.” (Interviewee 15). Another respondent said: “There are many new situations with war and other problems. I think there will be much more people coming to the Netherlands. But with the refugee centre we can learn about a multicultural society already. Maybe that can help us in future situations.” (Interviewee 13). And someone else emphasized: “It makes the village livelier again. When they wanted to close the refugee centre, there were protests. We wanted to keep it because I think that by having itt here the stores can stay open as well.” (Interviewee 1).

The reasons why it adds value therefore seem to be based on two factors: the economic context and the social liveability of the village. Economically because the refugees spend money in the village and socially because they are present in the village which makes it more lively.

To the question ‘do people think that the refugee centre is also a part of the village then?’ the respondents answered: “They live a little bit outside of St. Annaparochie, but I think that they are a part of it. Where should they otherwise be part of?” (Interviewee 1) and “I think so. Not because they are living in the village, but more because they come here and do groceries here and go to school here.” (Interviewee 3). These answers imply that the inhabitants of St. Annaparochie think that the refugee centre and its inhabitants are part of the village. The refugees have answered this question slightly different. Although they also think that the refugee centre is part of the village, they are responded that they live in both, the refugees centre and the village. They seem to make a difference between it.

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

Mindscapes Mindscapes form a different method for analysing the sense of place of people and can give new insights in the sense of place of people and offers the possibility to compare the results of the interviews and observations with drawings. These mindscapes offered a different view on how people living in St. Annaparochie experience their place. During the interviews people were very little aware of the places they like and often go to. By using the mindscapes, another picture was crystalized.

The process of letting people draw these mindscapes has been difficult. I have asked most of the respondents from the interviews to draw their version of the village on paper. I offered paper and pens. After having conducted the interviews, I explained the method of mindscaping to the respondents. I told them that the mindscapes are a different method to figure out which places in the village they appreciate and that this is done by analysing how they arranged the places and buildings and which places and buildings they drew. I asked them to draw places which they think are important in St. Annaparochie, not by drawing an exact map of the village, but by arranging them the way they think they should be arranged. After I noticed that many respondents rejected my request I started to stress that it is not important whether they are good drawers. Nevertheless, most of the respondents from the interviews rejected to draw. As reason they most often gave that they are not talented, but often also that they did not have time to do so. I also offered to leave the material with them and to pick it up later on, but it did not help. Finally, I have asked people in the library and on the streets to draw a mindscape for me and with some convicting eight people agreed and I received eight mindscapes, which we discussed afterwards.

“I often visit the market and the vegetable shop. I enjoy doing groceries there, not only because of the shopping, but also because of the contacts I have with other people. “ ~

Mindscape 1; Source: Sina Alea Kugis

In the centre of mindscape one is the main street. Along the main street there is the bakery (Dutch: bakker) and the vegetable shop (Dutch: groenteman) and also the market has been drawn (see mindscape 1). This respondent has also drawn a school and a supermarket. In this drawing several of the to the respondent important buildings have been depicted, which is as I asked them to do. It is noticeable that these are facilities which are for daily use. It is remarkable that this person did not draw his own house

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis on the mindscape. Furthermore, this mindscape was done mostly in black. Accents have been drawn by highlighting green spaces in the village. Could this mean that this respondent appreciates the nature in and around the village?

“I have drawn the buildings I visit most often and the ones I like most. Of cause, I do groceries in St. Annaparochie, but these are not the most beautiful buildings. Take a look at the church, that is a beautiful building. And do not forget my house!”

Mindscape 2; Source: Sina Alea Kugis

The second mindscape shows the main street in the centre as well (see mindscape 2). The main street has been drawn bigger in comparison to the houses. The houses, eight in total, have been arranged as they were arranged in reality as well. In contrary to the first mindscape, this mindscape shows the house of the respondent. Other than that the respondent has also drawn the vegetable shop, the Albert Heijn and the Aldi, one of the two churches in the village, the Hema, a bank and a school. The houses are not very different in style, colour or size. Therefore, it cannot be said that certain buildings have a superior position in the drawing. In the comment, the painter emphasized the church. I wonder whether this feature is important to this person, although it has not been drawn any different from all the other houses on the drawing.

„In my opinion, the most important places are the places where I meet my family and friends” ~

Mindscpae 3; Source: Sina Alea Kugis

In the third drawing the respondent has mentioned different meanings to the places which seem to represent the different daily needs of the respondent. In the middle of the drawing is the bus stop where

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis the bus to Leeuwarden stops (see mindscape 3). This bus stop seems to have an important meaning to the respondent. She wrote next to it “take the bus to family living outside of St. Annaparochie” (Dutch: op de bus naar familie buiten St. Anna). There are two residential houses in this mindscape. In the upper right corner is the house of the respondent. It also shows the front- and backyard, which are used as the kitchen garden. The respondent has mentioned that this is the place where she feels secure and safe (Dutch: mijn huis, plek waar ik me veilig voel). The other residential house is the parents’ house, which is commented with the words “visit” (Dutch: bezoek) and “company” (Dutch: gezelschap). Furthermore, there is the public library on the mindscape. The respondent mentioned that this is a place for relaxation, meeting other people and to read (Dutch: ontmoetingsplaats, ontspanning, boek lezen). The library has been drawn slightly bigger in size. Could this mean that it is a place where the respondent comes more often and therefore it is important to the sense of place of this person. Another place for relaxation for this respondent is the public garden plot. This is commented with the word “relaxation” (Dutch: plek for ontspanning) again. In addition, the supermarkets are drawn. They represent, according to the respondent, daily needs (Dutch: levensbehoefte) and are therefore circled in different red and orange colours. Finally, there is a gym on the mindscape, which is located just outside of the village, but certainly has importance for the respondent.

“I like doing sports and my family does as well. But I also am a family person and I love being at home, in my garden. You can find me there all the time” ~

Minscape 4; Source: Sina Alea Kugis

The fourth mindscape if different than the others. On this drawing, no streets have been drawn (see mindscape 4). It shows only three things. First, there is the municipality centre in the middle of the drawing and in the front of it is the market place. Second, on the lower left side, is the soccer field. And third, this respondent has drawn her own house. It is remarkable that the municipality centre has a much smaller size in comparison to the residential house. I wonder: is the own house more important because of the size? it is much bigger than the municipality. The person told me that she loves to be at home, as well as doing sports. Both seem important.

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

„We all do groceries here, me as well. Therefore, I have drawn most of the facilities I use here. They are not only for doing groceries, but for all daily activities” ~

Mindscape 5; Source: Sina Alea Kugis

The fifth mindscape has the main road in the centre. It has been drawn in such a way that the houses are facing the main road on both sides (see mindscape 5). It shows both supermarkets as well as both bakeries. The vegetable shop and the Hema are also on the drawing, as well as the Kruitvat and the municipality centre. In the lower right corner is the residential house. It is small, not drawn bigger, more colourful or in more detail. This mindscape shows that there are several places in St. Annaparochie which play an important role for the respondent. The residential house is important, because it is on the mindscape, however it does not seem to be more important than other buildings. This respondent seems to buy the supplies for his daily live in the village.

„I do not visit the village often, only for daily needs. Sometimes I take a walk, but mostly I stay at home. I also work at home” ~

Mindscape 6; Source: Sina Alea Kugis

The sixth drawing shows something that no other mindscape shows. The respondent has drawn his residential house and wrote the words “very important” (Dutch: zeer belangrijk) under it (see mindscape 6). The house has been drawn much more detailed and much bigger than other houses on the mindscape.

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

That shows that for this respondents, the residential house is a very important place in the village. Remarkable is that this respondent has drawn the “digital highway” (Dutch: digitale snelweg) passing through the house. This is a feature which is not visible in reality, but which seem to make the respondent’s own house even more important, as it is drawn in a different colour and big in size. The two other buildings in this mindscape are a school and the house of the respondent’s best friend, who is also living in St. Annaparochie. This respondent also takes walks through the village. He has drawn footprints and wrote next to is “blokjes om”, with means that he takes walks around the block.

„I enjoy the surrounding of St. Annaparochie. I often visit friends in the surrounding villages. But I live at the Beuchelaar, the service flat” ~

Mindscape 7; Source: Sina Alea Kugis

The next mindscape has less drawing, but more words written on it. It is drawn along the roads of the village. It shows the directions to Oude Bildtdijk, to Jacobieparochie on the left and to Vrouwenparochie on the right. It could mean that this respondent does also have strong connections to these other three places, as I asked him to draw important features of the village. In St. Annaparochie, this respondent has drawn the two churches as well the two banks. Next to this, the library and the service facility have been drawn. The respondent is living in the service facility, which is positioned on the opposite side of the library. It is noticeable that this respondent has not drawn any shopping stores on his mindscape.

“I have drawn my home in the middle. I have nice neighbors and in my free time, I like to go to the community gardens” ~

Mindscape 8; Source: Sina Alea Kugis

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

The last mindscape shows mainly four things. First, there is the residential house on the left side of the drawing (see mindscape 8). It is, compared to the other houses, much bigger and a detached house. The houses of the neighbours are attached houses in a row, much smaller than the respondents house. On the left side is also a private garden plot. This kitchen garden is even bigger in size than the residential house. Can it mean that the garden is a feature of the residential house? However, the garden is not directly attached to the house. On the right side of the mindscape is only one building visible. It is the store where the respondent is working. This store has been drawn very big and significant in this drawing. It is a place where the respondent spends many hours in the week, working fulltime.

The eight different mindscapes have shown the features which come into people’s minds when they are asked to draw their village and which seem to be important to them. The results of this method show that five aspects seem to be most important to the respondents. Seven of the eight respondents have drawn their house on the mindscapes. So one could say that their houses are important to them.

There are shops and supermarkets which supply the residents with food and cosmetics. These facilities have been drawn, so they might play a role in choosing St. Annaparochie. Social contacts also seem to play a role. Several respondents have drawn the houses of neighbours, friends and family members. Other social places are public places which seem to be appreciated. The library, the sport facilities and the public garden plots seem to be important features to the inhabitants of the village, as they have been drawn. Furthermore, the bus and streets to friends living outside of St. Annaparochie are on the mindscapes.

It is remarkable that the refugee centre has not been highlighted on the mindscapes. No respondent has drawn it on his or her mindscape. This could have two reasons. First, it could have been drawn like this because the refugee centre is located outside the village. Secondly, people might not see the refugee centre as part of the village, and therefore it is not drawn.

Another remarkable point is the environment. The environmental places of the village have mostly not been drawn on the mindscapes. Important places to the inhabitants of St. Annaparochie might therefore be buildings which are facility buildings. Some people said that the facility buildings are important because they represent a meeting point and people can gather there.

Respondents were asked to draw their St. Annaparochie on the mindscapes. Nevertheless, many respondents have not only drawn places and buildings in St. Annaparochie, they have also drawn connections with other places, for example the bus stop, the street to the surrounding villages and the gym outside the village. This shows clearly that the connection to other places is very important for the respondents. Can one say that the facilities available in St. Annaparochie are not enough? Some people have drawn the routes or the bus stops to their friends and family’s houses. Maybe the facilities are good,

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis but they have more friends and family in other places who are important to visit so that is why they have drawn these.

The question is now what does this say about the sense of place of the respondents? The sense of place is about how people give meaning to their places. The mindscapes show that several facilities in St. Annaparochie are important to the people living there. There seems to be an active bond between the facilities, thus the place, and the inhabitants. Although it is a small village, people stay there and use the facilities for making a living. This, of course, is different for each person as the sense of place is a subjective concept. The mindscapes show that there is a certain amount of attachment to the place. A factor which influences the place attachment positively is the ownership of a house, or the home. Most respondents have drawn their houses in the mindscapes in more detail and/or bigger. This is an indication for a strong place attachment. There is also evidence for social factors which positively influence the place attachment. It can be assumed that the houses of neighbours, friends and family represent social contacts of the respondents.

An indication in the mindscapes for a slightly less strong sense of place could be the connection to other places outside the village. There might be a place dependency towards other places. Many activities, like doing groceries and administrative tasks, can be done in St. Annaparochie. The connection to the outside villages and the city Leeuwarden therefore might mean that the place dependency is slightly less strong.

After having taken a look at the mindscapes it can be concluded that the mindscapes show that there is a positive sense of place. Although inhabitants show that there is a connection or maybe even attachment to other places, their sense of place for the village St. Annaparochie seems to be strong. The sense of place is a concept which does not talk about exclusive sense of place, by which is meant that people could have attachment to different places at the same time. This might be the case here.

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

Project “Door de Kloof” It is the first rehearsal day for the theatrical walking tour which has been organized by the association Haring & Hummus. When I arrive at the refugee centre where we are supposed to meet, many people are already waiting. They are standing outside the reception room, waiting. I see Dutch speaking people standing in one group in the front of the entrance, and people living in the refugee centre are standing behind them in a second group. I am going to the group and introduce myself. I am asked why I came there and I am telling that I met the organizers, Geertje and Janneke, in the village earlier. They have invited me for the project. I also explain that I am a researcher doing my master thesis in St. Annaparochie. The reactions to this news are very positive. A woman asks me what the subject of my thesis is and whether they are subject of my research. I want to be honest tothem, so I explain that I want to observe the interactions between the inhabitants of St. Annaparochie with the place and also the interaction between the refugees and the inhabitants while I am participating in the project. The reactions are very positive. I am told that it is a very interesting issue.

Soon after I have introduced myself, I see an older Dutch woman going to a group of young refugee men. She is talking to them in Dutch, asking what their names are and telling them her name. The men try to answer in Dutch, but it is a mingling of languages. Nevertheless, they seem to understand each other. In my eyes that is the first ice breaking moment between the two groups of people. Shortly after that, people begin to mingle. Dutch people are standing amongst the people from the refugee centre, talking and laughing because of the difficulties with the different languages. One man is pointing towards himself and tells two women his name, before he points towards them and asks in Dutch “hoe heet jij” (engl. what is your name).

They are interrupted by Geertje and Janneke, who are asking us to walk towards a free space between to barracks. They ask us to stand in a circle for the warming up. The charm of the moment of contact making is over. Although we were mingling before, each group stands separated again. To warm up, we start singing random sounds. It feels odd. I am not used to sing and making these random noises is new to me. After a few minutes we are relieved. Then, we, the Dutch speaking part of the group, are asked to sing a Dutch song, which was the lullaby “slaap kindje slaap” (English: sleep, little child, sleep). First, all Dutch women were singing the song, then all Dutch men were asked to do the same. The refugee group is standing in front of us, listening carefully. Then, our choir leader asks the non-Dutch speaking part of the group to sing a song as well. They do not sing a song.

We leave the location walking. We turn left, walking along the long road towards the village, which separates the refugee centre from the village. I had expected to walk all the way to the village, but surprisingly, we turn left when we pass a farm just outside the village. We are walking a gravel path until we reach a barn behind the farm. There, a man with a drum is waiting for us, welcoming us with unfamiliar sounds. We gather around the man and a few Syrian men start dancing and singing to the

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis song. Later I would learn that this song was the love song we would sing on our performance. It does not take a long time before we all are dancing.

Thereafter, the group composition changes. Instead of walking in two groups, we were now walking all together. It feels like the music and dancing has brought us a little bit closer together. We walk along a small muddy path and along fields. A Dutch woman tells a group of people that there are many theatre plays in and around St. Annaparochie. Just a few days earlier there was a theatre play in a barn close by. We can see it in the distance. They are talking about how much they enjoy the silence and peace on the land. The silence is filled with our laughter.

We reach a small river, were a saxophone player is already waiting for us. It is a beautiful moment. We are all standing together, the sun is shining behind us which leaves the saxophone player in twilight. We are listening in complete silence. The saxophone player stops playing and the group starts talking quietly again. We continue walking towards the centre of the village. I grasp pieces of conversations around me. Behind me, I hear a Dutch woman making contact with two Syrian teenagers. After she has asked them about their names, it soon turns out to be a language lesson as both are eager to learn words in the others language. I hear a young girl telling that she can already understand a little bit Dutch, and she also speaks German and other languages. I tell her that I am German and immediately she starts talking to me in German. Then we arrive at the location of our first rehearsal as a choir. It is a room at ‘Ons Huis’, the community centre. At that moment, we are still strangers to each other, we do not know the other’s names. We start introducing ourselves by singing our names. At first, we have reservations singing alone in front of the group, but soon we are all laughing and enjoying the evening. We were laughing because we had difficulties to pronounce each other’s names. During the singing we do not have a lot of time to talk. Soon after the rehearsal, we all leave. I arrive at home only 20 minutes later, feeling relaxed and happy.

A few weeks later, we have already had several rehearsals and are about to meet for the first time at our location for the performance. Our location is an old church which has been used as a restaurant, called “De Struverij”. Before we arrive at the church, we all meet at the refugee centre for a warm up. We walk along the same route we were walking during the first rehearsal. This time, the whole group is not divided into two subgroups. We are all walking together, singing Dutch marching songs and Syrian songs. Sometimes the Dutch people are singing, sometimes the non-Dutch people are singing. It is a moment in which we are enjoying each other’s company. I feel that words are not needed at this moment.

We arrive at the church and immediately have to gather in the front part of the church on a small stage. The walk took long, so we start to sing immediately. This time, the songs sound very good. It seems like the new location gives us new energy and excitement. It feels very real already, although there is no audience present. We start with our favourite song, the Syrian song “Ya Sitti ya giryara” (spelled for non-Syrian people). Nobody is staying serious. Everybody starts dancing to the song. We just have

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis started to sing another song, “we shall overcome” when I feel someone tipping on my shoulder. I turn backwards but I cannot see anybody looking at me. Everyone is just singing. I turn again to continue singing, just to feel the tipping on my shoulder again. This time, I see a young boy secretly smiling and looking towards his father, who is standing on my other side. I look at him and he cannot stay serious and starts laughing. He was pulling a joke on me. This day is the first day I notice that we all are no strangers to each other anymore. The atmosphere in the group had become much more open and friendly. The rehearsal is short today. We have sung only a few songs, when our choir leader tells us that we will continue the next time. Outside of the church, small groups gather. Some are only Dutch, some are only refugees, but mostly, the groups have mingled. I say goodbye to everybody and one of my co-singers says to me “goodbye my friend”. It is the first day that I am called a friend.

Overcoming the gap; Foto: Sina Alea Kugis

Again, a few weeks of hard work have passed. It is an exciting day, I can feel the excitement in the air and see it on the faces of my co-singers. It is the day of our try-out presentation, the first presentation in front of an audience. We meet each other at the church and have planned to walk the theatrical walk all together. I am waiting outside the church and soon more people arrive. I had arrived very early; I was afraid to be late on this special day. We are sitting together on the benches outside of the church, talking. We are still only with Dutch people waiting here, we have agreed to meet all people from the refugee centre over there, there the theatrical walk will start in only a few minutes. We walk together to the refugee centre, where we meet with the rest of our group. We are allowed to attend all the performances of the evening. We enter the common barrack and I almost cannot belief how many people have come to the theatrical walk. The barrack is already full and I have difficulties to find a chair. It is a big room which can easily fit 200 people. Chairs have been arranged in two thirds of the room, leaving the stage

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

Pictures in the gap, Foto: Sina Alea Kugis empty with only one table. Finally, I take seat at the bar, just before the presentation starts. The first presentation is a group of children from the refugee centre. They are singing the song “wij zijn de vrienden” (English: we are the friends) in Dutch. It is impressive that they speak good Dutch already. I am surprised. After the presentation, we walk to the second location, the barn behind the old farm. On our way there, we walk through the gap, which gave this project its name. The gap is a construct on the sidewalk between the village and the refugee centre, which has been placed for this project. It is built out of twelve wooden boxes, which are normally used for the storage of potatoes. The boxes have been arranged on both sides of the sidewalk, which lead the sidewalk through the gap that has been formed out of the boxes. Inside of the gap, there are pictures of Dutch and non-Dutch people from St. Annaparochie and the refugee centre, in which they show us how they feel about St. Annaparochie and their lives. These little insights make me think a lot. I do not know many personal things about any of the other persons. Although I have expected that many of the refugee`s had difficult journeys, it feels real now.

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

On the grass in front of the barn, benches have been arranged. The second scene is the scene of a marriage between a Dutch girl and a Syrian man. The scene shows a conflict between the families of the Dutch bride and Syrian groom. The families are not happy about the relationship. They stare at each

Dutch Poem; Foto: Sina Alea Kugis other and make angry gestures. The audience react to this scene by laughing, luckily it is only a scene of a play and not a real life moment. The two families do not realize how they act, until the bridal couple runs away. Then they settle their differences for the couples’ sake.

From there we walk to the third location, already from the distance we see the man with the saxophone. Bales of straw have been arranged in a half circle around the scene. In the background, we can see the refugee centre in the distance. A woman starts to introduce herself and the musicians. Then, she presents a poem of a mother who fled from her country, accompanied by the sound of the keyboard and the saxophone. The story was told in Friesian, that’s why it is difficult for me to understand. I think it is not needed to understand every word of it, because the atmosphere changes and gives me the feeling that it is a sad story. I am not the only one who feels that it is a thrilling story, there are even people crying. The atmosphere and the location in the fields make it even more arresting.

From there we walk to the final location, the church. The choir is gathering on the stage in the front. We are waiting in excitement and silence and as soon as the audience is seated, all women started singing “Dona Nobis Pacem”. At this moment the whole church became completely silent and we can see the organizers, Janneke and Geertje, standing in the audience, crying and hugging each other. At that moment I can feel how proud they were of us and their project. It is the most emotional moment until

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

Choir at the Church, Foto: Sina Alea Kugis now. We sing two more songs, before movement comes into the group. We suddenly need to have a break. It is Ramadan, which most of us did not realize until now, but all Moslems in our group have not yet eaten or drunken. They leave the stage and walk to the kitchen where they have something to drink and some dates. After this interruption, we finally sing our last song. With the last sound of us, the standing ovation started. The tension in us is dropping and we are smiling and hugging each other. We are proud of each other.

After the last presentation, we want to celebrate the success project. A big part of people’s culture is food. Therefore, all people, participants as well as audience, are invited to have a late dinner in the “Café De Smalle Kant”, the diner. There are different specialities from different countries displayed on tables. It is nice to see that the group was completely heterogeneous; there is no group forming anymore. There are tables inside and outside of the diner and the audience, Dutch performers and performers from the refugee centre are standing together, eating and singing.

The impressions of the final performance of the project have been recorded and are now available to watch on YouTube: Movie "Door de Kloof"

According to the theory sense of place, there are environmental as well as social factors which have influence on the intensity of the sense of place of people and the development of it. Being at a place for many years has an effect on that, but also the amount and intensity of social contacts.

The question is then, whether the project “Door de Kloof” has had influence on the sense of place of the people who participated in it. To answer this question, a distinction has to be made between the short and long term effects of the project.

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

It can be said that there have been short term effects of the project. According to Haring & Hummus, the project “Door de Kloof” was aimed to bring the people living in the refugee centre together with the Dutch inhabitants of the village to create more understanding of each other (Haring&Hummus, 2016). It can be said that during the time of the project, it has developed a deeper understanding and a stronger social bond among the participants. A woman concluded:

“Yes, it was very special with each other. I think that it was so special because of the solidarity among the people and the people having fun and participating enthusiastically. Because people are coming from Britsum and Menaam, and from the refugee centre and from this place (St. Annaparochie), that is what I like. People want to experience it, that is why I think that it is special to be a part of it” (Interviewee 12)

This opinion shows that people have appreciated the project, because of its uniqueness and the social interaction. However, the project only reached people who participated in it. At the moment of the project, these people had the chance to get to know each other better and to learn about each other’s lives. The situations above show that the mutual understanding of each other has not been there from the beginning. People have been open, however, they have not started to make many contact themselves. The project helped to make first contacts, and also to learn from and about each other. There is, for example, the act which was a poem about the woman from Syria who has fled with her family, which explains a little bit what many of the people in the refugee centre have been through and therefore it increases the understanding. Nevertheless, it cannot be concluded that this understanding of each other will last. During the participation of the project, the contact between each other was good. After the project, the different participants will most likely have less contact with each other.

Furthermore, circa 30 Dutch people from St. Annaparochie participated, along with circa 30 people from the refugee centre. This is only a small amount of the inhabitants of the village. Although these people have had the chance to develop a deeper understanding of the situations of the other participants, people who did not participate in the project might have a different understanding of it. The aim of the project was however to bring all inhabitants together to enable them to get to know each other. For this aim, the project “Door de Kloof” was a starting point, but more frequent projects are needed to create continuous interaction between the two groups, the refugees and the Dutch inhabitants.

The social interaction was not the only thing that can be mentioned here regarding the sense of place. There are also environmental features which have to be mentioned. During the theatrical walk, the project organizers showed different places in St. Annaparochie, which might have been not very well known before. They have made use of the physical places, like the farm, the path and the church. The people from St. Annaparochie had therefore a chance to show these places to the people from the refugee centre and also to audience coming from outside. On the one hand, it shows how much inhabitants of St. Annaparochie appreciate the environment in and around the village, and it shows that they have

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis already a profound place attachment. On the other hand, it can increase the appreciation of the people who have not yet been living there very long. At this point it has to be mentioned that there is a high population turnover in the village. People who came to the refugee centre will most likely not live there very long because they are replaced or sent back to their country of origin within several months. On the one hand, that means for the development of a sense of place that they are just now long enough in the village to develop an attachment to the village. On the other hand, that means that the Dutch inhabitants of the village get to know the non-Dutch people who participated in the project, however, as soon as these people have to leave the village, the might not feel attached to the newly coming refugees, because they do not know them.

This means for the effect of the project on the development of a sense of place that it is a good starting point and it creates short term feeling of being attached towards each other, having respect for and knowing about where the other is coming from, although it does not mean that this counts for the long term as well.

Regarding the long term effect of the Project it can be said that there is a positive tendency towards a better understanding of each other. The project seems to give incentives to engage with each other, which might not have happened in this intensity without the efforts of the association Haring & Hummus, who brought the people together. To be able to make a statement about how the project affected the village in the long run, a longer research period would have been needed.

For the development of a sense of place it could mean that there are positive tendencies, which allow first contacts and better understanding. However, it cannot be said whether or not the sense of place did develop significantly through the project.

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

Conclusion: Making the Link In this chapter, I will try to make a link between the outcomes of the different methods used, mainly participant observations, mindscapes and the interviews, while making a connection with the theory. This chapter has been arranged as following: First, place attachment will be discussed and further analysed. This part of the analysis will be divided in two parts, social and environmental attachment to place. Hidalgo and Hernández (2001) have made a clear distinction between these two subjects. Hereafter, the place identity will be analysed. In this chapter, the focus will lie on the relationship between people and the place. It is about the unique characteristics of St. Annaparochie. The third element of this analysis will be the place dependency, thus the functional dimension of the village. Finally, it will be analysed how inhabitants of St. Annaparochie think about the refugee centre.

Place Attachment – Social attachment to St. Annaparochie Six out of seven Dutch interviewees said that they feel at home in St. Annaparochie. Seven out of the eight people who have drawn a mindscape have drawn their houses when they were asked to draw the places which are important to them. Therefore, one could say that the house is important to them. However, this does not mean that people feel at home there as well.

“The concept home is a multi-dimensional concept. It consists of the location of a residence, the time one has lived there and the presence and absence of social relations in the place” (Hogsteeger, 2013). From this quote we can conclude that not only the place where a house stands is determining for a home, but also the time one has spent there and the absence or presence of social interactions play a role in it. The mindscapes do not say anything about social interactions which take place in the house of the respondent who has drawn the mindscape. Therefore, it cannot be said that the people who have drawn their house on the mindscapes feel at home there. However, it can be said that they have a house in St. Annaparochie and that they consider it important, since they have been asked to draw to them important places.

As it is described here, feeling at home is also depending on the time one has spent there. All refugees who have been interviewed explained, that they have a house where there are living, however, they do not feel at home there. This seems to be due to the fact that they have not spent a lot of time in the house or in the village St. Annaparochie. Mendoza and Móren-Algret (2012) confirm that “a short term stay at one place therefore is not sufficient for the development of a sense of place or attachment to place”.

Furthermore, social activities play a role in the concept of feeling at home, as it has been mentioned above by Hogesteeger. It is remarkable that the respondent who implies that she does not feel at home in St. Annaparochie, is also the one who does not participate in social activities. That the social interactions seem to be important, can be deduced from the following theory: What is most important for the feeling of being at home in the village is the social life of the inhabitants. Inhabitants who hardly

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis feel any connection with their village or the inhabitants, watch more television, sport less and participate less in social activities. Social active inhabitants, however, feel more at home in their village (Lindo, 2008).

This subject received additional confirmation in this research when it comes to the feeling of being at home amongst refugees and whether they have been able to develop a sense of place. All interviewed refugees indicated that they participate in social activities which are organized at the refugee centre. The often come into the common rooms and participate in social activities there. Some of the refugees are even volunteers and organize activities themselves. The refugees imply that they feel connected with the refugee centre and the people who live there. Therefore, social activities seem to play an overarching role in the development of a place attachment. Lindo (2008) argues that this last factor, the social activities, explains different feelings of being at home. If people realize that they are living in a social environment in which people act friendly and open towards each other, people often feel physically and social attached to the place.

However, refugees imply that they have a connection with the inhabitants of St. Annaparochie, but not with the place. It is remarkable, that during the observation the image developed that refugees and Dutch inhabitants of St. Annaparochie have very little contact. This is remarkable because it can be concluded earlier that the social contact is crucial for the development of a bond with the place and the people. It has been observed that the two groups of people do not greet each other although they greet people from their own group. Is has been observed that there are many social activities organized in St. Annaparochie. However, no refugees have been observed there. It is the question how it is possible that refugees say that they feel connected to the inhabitants of St. Annaparochie then. Could that be a social desirable answer? Or are the social contacts less important than initially thought?

During the interviews, it became clear that refugees answered all questions regarding place attachment negatively. They do not feel connected with the place, and they do not feel at home there. This is in coherence with earlier mentioned theory of sense of place by Convey et al. 2012. According to this, it is not possible to develop a sense of place if someone is just recently living in St. Annaparochie. This is the case with the refugees, most of them have only been living there for a few months yet. By this it is implied that the answers of the refugees that they have a connection with the village seem to be social desirable answers and that therefore, the social contacts do not seem to be less important than initially thought.

Not only the answers of the refugees to the other questions and the connection to the theory indicate that social contacts are important, also the results of the mindscapes, the observations and the project “Door de Kloof” confirm this. All Dutch inhabitants have answered all questions regarding the connection to other people positively. As it has been mentioned before, the only person who responded that she does not feel at home there is also the only person who does not participate in social activities. To the question

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis why people feel connected to other people in the village, people responded that there are nice people living there, their families and friends live there and there are many activities and people do lots of things together. This is not the only thing which implies that social interactions ate important for the social attachment and the sense of place.

In the mindscapes it can be seen that many people have drawn social meeting places. Places, such as a church, the community house, community garden, the library, or the sport facilities. These are all places where activities take place and people come together to share their free time activities. These places are therefore important to the people in St. Annaparochie.

Moreover, people have drawn places outside of St. Annaparochie, which are also meeting points, such as the sport centre, or roads to other places where family and friends live (see mindscapes). These places represent places which are important to them and present places to meet their social contacts, also outside the village.

When taking a look at the project “Door de Kloof” and the observations, the feelings which I describe as a participant of the project make it clear that social interactions or the connection people have among each other are important, as well. It has been described several times already that these social interactions seem to be important for forming a sense of place. All respondents have indicated that they feel at home because the people in St. Annaparochie are friendly and friends are amongst them. It became obvious that before the initiation of the project “Door de Kloof”, refugees and inhabitants of St. Annaparochie have not had many contact and did not greet each other often. Also, in my own description of the project as a participant of the project, situations have been delineated in which it became obvious that refugees and Dutch inhabitants have not been making connections at the beginning of the project (see Project “Door de Kloof”). It has been observed that attempts have been made by several people to introduce themselves, however, a clear separation has been observed. After the project, this separation has not been observed anymore. After the presentations, all participants and the audience had dinner together and no group forming has been observed. All participants and the audience have been sitting together, trying to talk by using signs (Dutch: handen en voeten). The performances which have been showed were all about getting to know each other – Because unknown makes un-loved (Lindo, 2008).

In 1954 the social psychologist Gordon Willard Allport developed the basis for the contact hypothesis. This hypothesis assumes that intensive contact between two groups of people benefits the understanding and acceptance (Lindo, 2008). That means that getting to know each other and making contact encourages mutual understanding and social attachment.

Furthermore, the project “Door de Kloof” had not only the advantage that people could get to know each other, it also had the effect that inhabitants of St. Annaparochie could show other people environmental places which are appreciated. More about this in the next paragraph.

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

Place Attachment - Environmental Attachment to Place Hidalgo and Hernandez (2001) made a distinction between social attachment and environmental attachment to place. The social attachment has been discussed previously. Here the attachment to environmental places will be discussed. It is about the attachment of people to environmental features of distinct places.

All interviewed persons have answered that they feel attached towards the village St. Annaparochie. As already mentioned before, the reason therefore is the facilities in the village. Also the social contacts have been mentioned here again as the most important reason. No respondent replied that question by mentioning the beautiful environment and surrounding. There have been several interviewees who implied that the nature and the surrounding is beautiful, however, this was never an answer to the questions why they have chosen to live in St. Annaparochie or why they feel connected to the village.

On the mindscapes it is noticeable that no respondent has drawn environmental features of the village, whereas the sport facilities have been drawn as well as roads and buildings. The environmental features seem to be less important to the respondents whereas social contacts have been drawn or explained to happen in the mindscapes.

For the inhabitants of St. Annaparochie, the social attachment seems to be much more important than the attachment to environmental places. In the project “Door de Kloof”, the environment has been used. In different places in and around St. Annaparochie, performances have taken place. The inhabitants of St. Annaparochie obviously were proud of their surrounding and enjoyed showing it. The Bildtkerts, among them the inhabitants of St. Annaparochie, are proud of their origin. I will discuss this in-depth in the next paragraph.

Place Identity People use their place to distinguish themselves from others (Convey, Corsane, & Davis, 2012). Interviews have been conducted to find out what the place identity of the inhabitants of St. Annaparochie looks like. During the observations and conversations with the people, statements regarding the place identity have been made. It is remarkable, that it is the people what makes St. Annaparochie special.

Being Bildts seems to be very important. During conversations, people mentioned that they are proud of being Bildts several times. Therefore, they seem to have linked their identity to the place they are living in, St. Annaparochie. The inhabitants indicated that they are Bildts people and that they are therefore open and friendly people, which is a positive image. This implies also, that they feel different from Friesian people who live in other municipalities in Friesland and other Dutch people. Here, again the social aspect seems to be very important. They seem to think that St. Annaparochie and het Bildt in general are different from other places because of the unique characteristics of the inhabitants.

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

Place Dependency Does St. Annaparochie offer enough facilities for the people to do what they would like to do and to fulfil their needs? I aim to answer this question by looking at the interview results, the mindscapes and the observations.

The reasons why people came to live in St Annaparochie are very diverse. It is remarkable that respondents state the facilities and the people living in St. Annaparochie, thus the social contact with each other, as reasons why St. Annaparochie is different than any other place. Nevertheless, four of the respondents’ state that they miss facilities. They would like to have more cheaper stores in St. Annaparochie.

During the observation, I noticed that many events have been organized, such as Kaartsball competitions, the market or other sport events. I saw many people there. In the mindscapes, it can be noticed that these facilities have been drawn as well, although these mostly were places which can be connected with social interactions. During my observations, I have also observed that many refugees do their groceries in the village. These responders have not mentioned that they miss any facilities in the village. That means that they use facilities which are offered in the village.

Are these facilities sufficient? St. Annaparochie is a village and by being a village it implies that there are less people living there than in a city. It is reasonable that there are less facilities in a village than in a city. For being a village, St. Annaparochie offers many facilities. Nevertheless, some people wish for more. The quantity of facilities is also possible because the high number of refugees who do their shopping in the village (Both, 2016). How the inhabitants of St. Annaparochie think about refugees living there will be discussed on the next Paragraph.

Refugees in St. Annaparochie The question has been asked what the inhabitants of St. Annaparochie think about the refugee centre. In the theory of sense of place, it has been mentioned that external factors could represent a threat in the eyes of the inhabitants and therefore could decrease their sense of place (Convey, Corsane, & Davis, 2012). Again, the interviews, observations and mindscapes as well as the project “Door de Kloof” have been used to analyse this subject.

The most obvious fact is that none of the responders has drawn the refugee centre on their mindscapes. Also during the interviews, the refugee centre has not been mentioned among the features which make St. Annaparochie a nice village but neither as a features which is not appreciated. Could it be that the refuge centre has not been mentioned because people think that it is not part of the village? Or do they think that is it part of the village but that is neither a positive nor a negative feature of it?

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

A political party, which does not support the incoming refugee streams is the Partij voor de Vrijheid (Entlish: Party for Freedom, PVV). In their election program for the period from 2012 until 2017, they stated clearly, that they do not want to welcome refugees in the Netherlands. They explain that the Dutch people should be much more in charge when it comes to the decision who may migrate to the Netherlands, and who may not (Partij voor de Vrijheid, 2012). They have urged for an opt-out for the immigration policy of the European Union (EU), which means that they aimed to decide independently from the EU. In their opinion, more freedom means less EU and less Islamism in the Netherlands (Partij voor de Vrijheid, 2012). They say “Islam is not part of the Netherlands” (Partij voor de Vrijheid, 2012, p. 35) and ask for a limit of 1000 immigrants per year.

Table 1: Results Elections Second Chamber 2012, het Bildt (Verkiezingsuitslagen.nl, 2016)

The table above shows the results of the last elections for the second chamber in 2012. During these elections, 74,79% of the inhabitants of het Bildt have voted (Verkiezingsuitslagen.nl, 2016). The winning party in het Bildt is the Partij van de Arbeid (Eglish: Party for Labour, P.v.d.A).The political vision of the P.v.d.A. is in contrast to the program of the PVV in favour of a humanely asylum policy.

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

The P.v.d.A states that “the Netherlands should be a safe haven for people who escape” (PvdA, 2016). In het Bildt 7.5% voted for the PVV in comparison with 10% in the whole Dutch population.

Partij # Stemmen Percentage # Zetels

VVD 2.504.948 26,58 % 41

Partij van de Arbeid (P.v.d.A.) 2.340.750 24,84 % 38

PVV (Partij voor de Vrijheid) 950.263 10,08 % 15

SP (Socialistische Partij) 909.853 9,65 % 15

Christen Democratisch Appèl (CDA) 801.620 8,51 % 13

Democraten 66 (D66) 757.091 8,03 % 12

ChristenUnie 294.586 3,13 % 5

GROENLINKS 219.896 2,33 % 4

Staatkundig Gereformeerde Partij (SGP) 196.780 2,09 % 3

Partij voor de Dieren 182.162 1,93 % 2

50PLUS 177.631 1,88 % 2

Piratenpartij 30.600 0,32 % 0

Partij voor Mens en Spirit (MenS) 18.310 0,19 % 0

SOPN 12.982 0,14 % 0

Partij van de Toekomst (PvdT) 8.194 0,09 % 0

Democratisch Politiek Keerpunt DPK 7.363 0,08 % 0

Libertarische Partij (LP) 4.163 0,04 % 0

Nederland Lokaal 2.842 0,03 % 0

Liberaal Democratische Partij (LibDem) 2.126 0,02 % 0

Anti Europa Partij 2.013 0,02 % 0

Politieke Partij NXD 62 0,00 % 0

Table 2: Results Elections 2. chamber Netherlands

Based on these data it can be concluded that there is no strong anti-refugees’ sentiment in het Bildt. It would be interesting to see future results of the elections for the second chamber in the municipality of het Bildt. Above it has been described that the inhabitants of het Bildt have voted primarily for a social political party which supports the refugees and confirms the positive attitude of the inhabitants of St. Annaparochie towards the refugee centre. However, the results are from the last elections in 2012. The

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis peak of the so called refugee crisis has been in 2015, as was introduced in the first chapter of this thesis. That means that the opinion of the inhabitants could have changed during the last years. It is therefore recommended to compare the results of the elections from 2012 with the results of the upcoming elections for the second chamber in 2017. If the upcoming elections confirm the results used for this research, it can be assumed that the inhabitants of the village are still in favour of the presence of the refugee centre.

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

Conclusion and Recommendations

This research was aimed to answer the question: how do people give meaning to place and how do social interactions play a role in this? based on the experiences made in St. Annaparochie. Based on the results described in the analysis, the research question will be answered in this paragraph. To do so, the sub- questions will be answered. The first sub-question was:

What is the place attachment, place identity and place dependency of the inhabitants of St. Annaparochie?

Regarding the place attachment of the Dutch inhabitants it can be said that they have a strong place attachment towards St. Annaparochie in the most cases. This has to do with the following features of the village St. Annaparochie: First of all, many inhabitants express a feeling of belonging towards St. Annaparochie. They feel at home there, which has to do with the fact that they have been born and/or raised there, which means that they have been living there for many years. Furthermore, family ties and friendship play a role in this feeling of being at home. Having relatives and friends in the village creates a feeling of belonging as well. A second reason why people in St. Annaparochie have a strong attachment to the place has to do with the facilities in the village. The village enables the inhabitants to meet their daily needs. There are supermarkets, clothing stores, sport facilities and the municipality centre. The upcoming of the merge of multiple municipalities is also a factor which is not appreciated by the inhabitants of the village. People fear that facilities will close in the future, which would make the village less liveable. A third reason why people feel a sense of belonging towards the village is the fact that they have their own house there. Finally, the village St. Annaparochie enables the inhabitants to engage in recreational activities in or directly outside of the village. These reasons explain why people choose to live in the village. Regarding the attachment to the physical places in the village it can be said that there are different places which are very much appreciated. As it has already been mentioned, having their own house there is a feature which is highly appreciated. This has also been described in the theoretical framework that mentioned that house ownership is a feature which leads to a higher place attachment. Furthermore, the market space is much appreciated. Although this is a physical place in the village, it is mostly appreciated for its social features. Other physical places which are valuable for the village are the sports facilities. The many different sports possibilities are well visited and according to the interviews, contribute to the liveability of the village. Finally, the public gardens are important for the inhabitants of St. Annaparochie. Again, this is not only for the physical nature of the gardens, but also because of the possibility for social contacts. The results of this research show that there are several physical places which contribute to a higher attachment to St. Annaparochie. Nevertheless, it has been the social features, which have been stressed throughout this research. In this case of St. Annaparochie the social meaning of places has also been connected to the physical places.

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

The place attachment of the inhabitants of St. Annaparochie is also based on the social activities they engage in. Often, inhabitants engage in voluntary work, which, according to them, gives something back to the other inhabitants. This, again, contributes to the liveliness of the village. Also, the Dutch inhabitants engage in sport activities and games, as well as having dinner or a drink together. Most of the Dutch inhabitants seem to feel even more connected to the social features of the village than to the physical places. This is a surprising outcome. It was expected that the place attachment would be based on physical features of St. Annaparochie, instead. That they feel so much connected to the people instead of the physical places seems to be based on the composition of the village. There seem to be mostly two groups of people, on the one hand, elderly people, and on the other hand families. It can be concluded that these two groups share the same interests, and therefore feel connected towards each other. Furthermore, as already mentioned, family ties and friendship enhance the place attachment.

The sense of place of the Dutch inhabitants of St. Annaparochie was very strong when it comes to the place identity. The Dutch inhabitants of St. Annaparochie expressed a very positive self-image by stressing that they are Bildts. Although this is a feature of the whole municipality het Bildt, it seems to be understood as a unique characteristic of the main village. This positive image is based on the language, namely Bildts, which connects people in the village. Although it could be understood in a way that excludes people who does not speak Bildts, the Dutch inhabitants also describe openness and friendliness towards non-Bildts people as a feature of being Bildts. Therefore, it can be concluded that the place identity and the self-image of the Bildtkers is very strong.

When it comes to the functionality of the village and the satisfaction of the inhabitants, or the place dependency, it has to be concluded that the village has many features which allow a self-contained life for elderly people in the village, as well as for families. It also allows for many recreational activities, which indicates a good balance between the working and the living environment. Nevertheless, there are also features which imply that the place dependency is the least strong dimension of the sense of place of the Dutch inhabitants of St. Annaparochie. On the one hand, there is a decreasing number of jobs available in the village, especially for higher educated people. Therefore, higher educated people find the village less appealing to live in than the city. There have been different respondents who stated that they would prefer to live in the city. That shows that there is a certain amount of place dependency, which does not apply to all Dutch inhabitants of the village.

It can be said that Dutch inhabitants of St. Annaparochie have developed a strong sense of place. This counts especially for those who have been born and/or raised there.

The second sub-question was regarding the non-Dutch inhabitants of the village, who are placed in the refugee centre: Did refugees already develop a sense of place and what does this look like?

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

All non-Dutch respondents stated that they do not feel at home in St. Annaparochie. The main reason for this is that they have not been there for a long time yet. They feel a strong attachment to their country of origin, although they feel sympathy towards the refugee centre. The reason for this is that they have not been living in St. Annaparochie long enough yet to develop a place attachment and a sense of place.

Also their place dependency is only slightly developed. The inhabitants of the refugee centre have the possibility to engage in many different activities in St. Annaparochie, amongst them doing groceries or sports. What they are missing however is their own house, as they are living in barracks at the refugee centre. Therefore, they are depending on the refugee centre more than on the village. This research shows that they have developed a positive attitude towards the village, although they are little satisfied with the size of St. Annaparochie.

It can be concluded here that the refugees who are living in the refugee centre did not develop a deep sense of place yet. Nevertheless, it can be said that there is a sympathy towards the village. The features which have been important to the refugees are comparable with the features which are appreciated by the Dutch inhabitants of St. Annaparochie. Refugees are participating in social activities very often and appreciate these because they enable them to get to know each other.

The third sub-question was about the presence of the refugee centre: How does the presence of the refugee centre influence the sense of place of the inhabitants of St. Annaparochie?

In the answers of the respondents, the refugee centre did not play a huge role. Beforehand it was expected that the refugee centre would be seen as factor which decreases the sense of place of the inhabitants of St. Annaparochie. Now, it must be said that the sense of place is still strong, even though the refugee centre is present in the village. It is not being seen as a threat and the high population turnover, which has been described as a factor for the decreasing of the sense of place in the theory, does not cause a less strong sense of place either. It has to be concluded that the presence of the refugee centre is much more positive for the development of the village. Facilities are still open, among other things, due to the fact that the inhabitants of the refugee centre spend money in the village. Also, the village is livelier.

In this study, the role of social events played a huge role. The fourth and last sub-question was about the contribution of the project “Door de Kloof” to the sense of place of the inhabitants of St. Annaparochie. It can be concluded that the project had very positive short term results. The contact between Dutch inhabitants and refugees was very good and the participants have had the chance to learn about the other participants. Nevertheless, only the short-term results can be described here. For the long-run it cannot be concluded that the project will lead to social cohesion or a better place attachment.

In the case of St. Annaparochie, the question what plays a role when people give meaning to place and how social interactions play a role in this can be answered as following: In St. Annaparochie, the most important factor when it comes to giving meaning to place is having social relationships with other

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis people. Family ties and friendship influence whether inhabitants feel at home and at ease in St. Annaparochie. Furthermore, when it comes to the environmental features of St. Annaparochie, the most valued features are the private house as well as the facilities offered in the village. Although the two participant groups, the Dutch inhabitants and the refugees, are living there under very different conditions, this counts for both parties.

Social interactions are very highly valued in St. Annaparochie. Through social interactions people have a strong attachment to St. Annaparochie. Social events, like “Door de Kloof”, have the potential to further deepen the attachment to the place. In the short term results, this potential becomes obvious, as the contact between the different people in St. Annaparochie was intensified. However, whether the potential positive impact of this social project does indeed strengthen the place attachment cannot be answered based on the results of this research.

To answer the main question: how do people develop a sense of place and how do social interactions play a role in this, it can be stated that people in St. Annaparochie have developed a sense of place by engaging in social interactions which are connected to the village. These social interactions have been highlighted in all the three dimensions of sense of place, the place attachment, place identity and place dependency. Furthermore, inhabitants give meaning to the village by appreciating the facilities available in St. Annaparochie, however, these are often appreciated because of their meaning in social interactions.

After having described the conclusions which appear from this research, I would like to mention the recommendations for a follow-up of this research.

There are several recommendations I would like to make. First of all, I would like to mention my recommendation regarding the project “Door de Kloof”. The project has been prepared and performed in St. Annaparochie during a period of several months. During the month June, the participants got involved and made contact with each other. With this research, I had the possibility to observe the direct impacts of the project. However, it would be interesting to estimate the long term effects of the project on the village. To be able to estimate the development of the sense of place of the inhabitants, it would therefore be needed to be present in a later stage. Therefore, I would recommend two things: first, it might be advisable to execute a similar research, in which the results of this research could be confirmed. This research would then function as the baseline measurement. By doing so, it can be determined whether or not there have been developments in the sense of place of people in the village. Second, it can be recommended to repeat projects like “Door de Kloof”. The short term impacts of the project show that, at the moment of the performing of the project, people develop a better understanding of each other and they appreciate the contact. However, it can be assumed that the effects of the project will wear off and that people will go back to their original behaviour. To change the perceptions of the inhabitants of

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

St. Annaparochie in the long run, it would therefore be needed to repeat the project to develop a lasting impact.

Secondly, this research gave insights in the decision making of people when it comes to moving into the village. The results of this research could be used to further stimulate the internal migration from the city forwards the rural areas of the Netherlands. In the frame of shrinkage, this information could be valuable for local municipalities.

For the municipality, I would like to recommend to implement projects such as “Door de Kloof” more often. The social interactions seem to play the most important role in St. Annaparochie, therefore creating contacts between the two groups of people should be further supported. In this context, it can also be recommended to report to the refugee centre about events which have been organized in St. Annaparochie. That would enable refugees to participate in events such as Kaartsball competitions, which can bring the inhabitants of St. Annaparochie and the refugees together.

A last recommendation is regarding the positive example of St. Annaparochie and the refugee centre in the village. This research shows that there are very little conflicts regarding the presence of the refugees in the village. Many times it has been presented on national Dutch news that there are protest and conflicts about the presence of refugee centres or the plans to establish refugee centres in villages. I would recommend to do further research of why there are no problems in St. Annaparochie and how this could be an example to other villages in the Netherlands. Further research could lead to insights in the wishes and antipathies of inhabitants. Knowing these things could help when it comes to finding solutions which would satisfy the inhabitants, as well as refugees and politicians and which could improve the liveability in the villages.

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

References

Althuisius, J. (2013). Burgemeester is best blij met zijn 400 nieuwe inwoners. Retrieved from De Volkskrant: http://www.volkskrant.nl/archief/burgemeester-is-best-blij-met-zijn-400-nieuwe- inwoners~a3537003/ Atkinson, R., & Flint, J. (2001). Social Research Update. Accessing Hidden and Hard-to-Reach Populations:Snowball Research Strategies(Issue 33). (U. o. Surrey, Ed.) Retrieved from http://sru.soc.surrey.ac.uk/SRU33.pdf Baxter, P., & Jack, S. (2008). Qualitative Case Study Methodology: Study Design and Implementation for Novice Researchers. The Qualitative Report, 13(4), 544-559. Retrieved from http://nsuworks.nova.edu/tqr/vol13/iss4/2 Bontje, M., & Musterd, S. (2012). Understanding Shrinkage in European Regions . Buit Environment, pp. 153-160. Both, A. (2016). Social woker. (S. A. Kugis, Interviewer) Bray, Z. (2008). Ethnographic Approaches. In Approaches and Methods in Social Sciences, A Pluralistic Perspective (pp. 296-315). Cambridge. Brown, G., & Weber, D. (2012). Measuring change in place values using public participation GIS (PPGIS). Applied Geography, pp. 316-324. Convey, I., Corsane, G., & Davis, P. (2012). Introduction: Making Sense of Place. Making Sense of Place; Multidisciplinary Perspectives, Making Sense of Place; Multidisciplinary Perspectives, pp. 1-8. Cövers, F. (2015, March). Krimpen zonder kramp. Retrieved from Neimed - Nederlandse Expertise en Innovatiecentrum Maatschappelijke Effekten Demographische Krimp: http://www.neimed.nl/nl/publicatie/krimpen-zonder-kramp De Jong, A., & Van Duinen , C. (2010). Regionale prognose 2009-2040: Vergrijzing en omslag van groei naar krimp. Planbureau voor de Leefomgeving. De Jong, B. (2015). Asielzoekers versluieren ernst krimp. Retrieved from Fryslan 1: http://fryslan1.frl/2015/07/08/asielzoekers-versluieren-ernst-krimp/ De Telegraaf . (2015). Hevig verzet tegen komst asielzoekers in Oranje. Retrieved from De Telegraaf: http://www.metronieuws.nl/binnenland/2015/09/lokaal-verzet-tegen-komst-asielzoekers-groeit Demowijzer. (2015). Retrieved from Demographische Karten: http://www.demowijzer.nl/demografischekaarten Gemeente Het Bildt. (2016). Gemeente Het Bildt. Retrieved from Dorpen: https://www.hetbildt.nl/over-de- gemeente/dorpen.html?L=%2525252525252Fproc%2525252525252Fself%2525252525252Fe nviron Gemeente Waadhoeke. (2016). Waadhoeke.nl. Retrieved from Op weg naar Waadhoeke: http://www.waadhoeke.nl/home/proces.html

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

Google Maps. (2016). Google Maps - St. Annaparochie. Retrieved from https://www.google.nl/maps/place/Sint+Annaparochie/@52.2856632,6.0142385,496232m/dat a=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x47c91d11640ed9d5:0x689f7cf9749f7f0f!8m2!3d53.2764463!4d5. 6570979 Gut feelings in general practice. (2013). Retrieved from Data Saturation: http://www.gutfeelings.eu/glossary/saturation-2/ Halfacree, K. (2006). Rural Space: constructing a three-fold architecture. Originally published in P. Cloke, T. Marsden & P.H. Mooney (eds), Handbook of Rural Studies, London, SAGE Publications, pp. 44-62. Haring&Hummus. (2016). Haring&Hummus over ons . Retrieved from http://haringenhummus.nl/over-ons/ Hidalgo, M., & Hernández, B. (2001). Place Attachment: Conceptual and Empirical Questions. Journal of Environmental Psychology, pp. 273-281. Hogsteeger, S. (2013). Een zoektocht naar belonging. Retrieved from https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/handle/1887/21932/Bachelorscriptie%20Een%20zo ektocht%20naar%20belonging%20Sanne%20Hogesteeger%20s1040111.pdf?sequence=1 Horlings, I. (2014, March 24). PowerPoint College RDS-30306. Place and Space. Wageningen. Jorgensen , B., & Stedman , R. (2006). A comparative analysis of predictors of sense of place dimensions:Attachment to, dependence on, and identification with lakeshore properties. Journal of Environmental Management, pp. 316-327. Joustra, W. (1999). Platteland vreest invasie asielzoekers. Retrieved from De Volkskrant: Platteland vreest invasie asielzoekers Kabat-Zinn, J. (2014, April). Mindscape. Mindfullness, Othogonal Rotation in Coinsciousness, pp. 213-214. Klassen, N., & Rosman, C. (2014). De Stentor - Nieuws vanuit de wereld. Retrieved from Kleine Dorpen willen geen groot asielzoekerscentrum: http://www.destentor.nl/algemeen/binnenland/kleine-dorpen-willen-geen-groot- asielzoekerscentrum-1.4676963 Lindo, F. (2008). Interetnische contacten tussen scholieren in het voortgezet onderwijs. Een analyse en waardering van het onderzoek binnen het paradigma van de contacthypothese. Retrieved from Institute vor Migration and Ethnic Studies: file:///C:/Users/Sina%20Alea/Downloads/1389-volledige-tekst_tcm44-103968.pdf Massey, D. (1991). A Global Sense of Place. Originally published in Marxism today (June): 24-29, Printed in D. Massey Space Place and Gender, Cambridge, Polity Press, pp. 146-156. Massey, D. (2004). Geographies of Responsibility. Geografiska Annaler. Series B, Human Geography Vol. 86, No. 1, Special Issues: The Political Challenge of Relational Space, pp. 5-18. Mendoza, C., & Móren-Algret, R. (2012). Exploring methods and thechniques for the analysis of senses of place and migration. Progess in Human Geography, pp. 762-785. nu.nl. (2015). Komst azc heeft weinig invloede op woningmarkt. Retrieved from http://www.nu.nl/binnenland/4165865/komst-azc-heeft-weinig-invloed-woningmarkt.html

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

Omroep Fryslan. (2012). AZC Annaparochie gaat sluiten. Retrieved from http://www.omropfryslan.nl/nijs/azc-annaparochie-gaat-sluiten Oving, R. (2016). Lokal verzet tegen komst asielzoekers groeit. Retrieved from Metronieuws: http://www.metronieuws.nl/binnenland/2015/09/lokaal-verzet-tegen-komst-asielzoekers-groeit Partij voor de Vrijheid. (2012, Juli). Partij voor de Vrijheid. Retrieved from Verkiezingsprogramma 2012-2017 - Hun Brussel, Ons Nederland: http://www.pvv.nl/images/stories/verkiezingen2012/VerkiezingsProgramma-PVV-2012-final- web.pdf PvdA. (2016). PvdA Standpunkten. Retrieved from Asielbeleid: http://www.pvda.nl/standpunten/Diversen/Asielbeleid Reeves, S., Kuper, A., & Hodges, B. D. (2008). Qualitative research: Qualitative research methodologies: Ethnography. Retrieved from Research Gate: http://www.allgemeinmedizin.uni- jena.de/content/education/equip_summer_school/equip_2009/e4100/2008- 010_Reevesetal_Qualitativeresearchmethodologies-ethnography.pdf Rijksoverheid. (2014). Bevolkingskrimp. Retrieved from Oorzaken en gevolgen van Bevolkingskrimp: https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/onderwerpen/bevolkingskrimp/inhoud/oorzaken-en-gevolgen- bevolkingskrimp Rijksoverheid. (2015). Belolkingskrimp. Retrieved from Krimpgebieden en Anticipeergebieden: https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/onderwerpen/bevolkingskrimp/inhoud/krimpgebieden-en- anticipeergebieden Rippe, H. (2016). Dode vakens als protest tegen komst 500 vluchtelingen azc Heesch: 'Misselijkmakend'. Retrieved from Omroep Brabant: http://www.omroepbrabant.nl/?news/242731652/Dode+varkens+als+protest+tegen+komst+50 0+vluchtelingen+azc+Heesch+Misselijkmakend.aspx Shamai, S., & Ilatov, Z. (2005). Measuring Sense of Place: Methodological Aspects. Journal of Economic and Social Georgaphy , pp. 467-476. Tversky, B. (1994). Cognitive Maps,Cognitive Collages, and Spatial Mental Models. In Spatial Information Theory A Theoretical Basis for GIS (pp. 14-24). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. Van Dijk , J. (2014). Benut De Krimp - Er is veel meer aandacht nodig voor krimpgebieden. Dagblad van het Noorden, 14. Verkiezingsuitslagen.nl. (2016). Retrieved from Verkiezingsuitslagen tweede Kamer 1918 - heden: http://www.verkiezingsuitslagen.nl/Na1918/Verkiezingsuitslagen.aspx?VerkiezingsTypeId=1 Verkiezingsuitslagen.nl, Elections of the second chamber Nederland, 2012 . (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.verkiezingsuitslagen.nl/Na1918/Verkiezingsuitslagen.aspx?VerkiezingsTypeId=1 Verwest, F., Van Dam , f., & Daalhuizen, F. (2010, November/December). Het kimpende platteland rekent zich rijk. Geografie, pp. 42-45. VluchtelingenWerk Nederland. (2015). Vluchtelingenwerk.nl. Retrieved from http://www.vluchtelingenwerk.nl/sites/public/u152/VLUCHTELINGEN%20IN%20GETALL EN%202015%20definitiefst%20OO.pdf VVD. (2016). De VVD houdt Koers. Retrieved from Asielbeleid: http://www.vvd.nl/standpunten/immigratie/asielbeleid#lezen

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

Wikipedia. (2016). St. Annaparochie. Retrieved from https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sint_Annaparochie Wikipedia. (2016). We shall overcome. Retrieved from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Shall_Overcome

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

Appendix

List of Interviewees

Interviewee Nr. Nationality Age Gender Interviewee 1 Dutch 46 Female Interviewee 2 Dutch 69 Male Interviewee 3 Dutch 34 Female Interviewee 4 Dutch 56 Male Interviewee 5 Albania 34 Male Interviewee 6 Albania 28/9 Female/Female Interviewee 7 Iraqi 21 Male Interviewee 8 Syria 38 Male Interviewee 9 Dutch 53 Female Interviewee 10 Iraqi 32 Female Interviewee 11 Dutch 49 Female Interviewee 12 Dutch 63 Female Interviewee Council Dutch Female Member Interviewee 14 Dutch 54 Male Interviewee 15 Dutch 38 Male Group Discussion Local Council

Example Interview

Interview 15

Voel je hier thuis?

Ja je voelt hier wel thuis omdat je hier woont. Dat is een sort gewoonte. Maar als ik in Leeuwarden zou wonen dan had ik me daar net zo thuis gevoeln als hier. Het is niet dat ik het hier so bijzonder vind in die zin. Dat maakt voor mij niet uit waar ik woon.

Voel je wel een beetje verbonden met de plaats St. Anna?

Ja vooral met de mesen. Met de plaats niet zo veel maar vooral met de mensen. Want als je in een dorp woont dan is het belangrijk dat je ook iets van vrijwilligerswerk kan doen, wat voor het dorp dan weer van belang is. Dat doe ik dan dus ook. Ik train hier de jongeren voetbal elftaal en ik ben secretaris van een kaatsvereiniging, een plaatslijke populaire sport is dat, ik zie je kijken Karts wat is het? Het is een Friese balsport. Elkdorp heeft bijna zo`n vereiniging en hier ben ik dus de secetaris in de vereiniging. Da heb je vijf vrijwilligersfunkties en dat find ik prima. Het greeft tenminste wat terug. Maar als ik echt meer tijd zou hebben dan zou ik andere dingen doen.

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

Wat den?

Iets met ouderen of gehandicapten of zo maar da moet ik dan echt tijd voor maken. Ik werk nu 40 uur per week dus ik ga dan niet nog iets anders doen. Da moet ik dan wel echt een hele dag voor vrij maken.

Hoe zou je St. Anna beschrijven?

Een middelgroot dorp waar niet iedereen elkaar meer kent en waar dat sociaal niveau niet heel hoog is. Het is de laatste 15 die ik hier woon niet heel erg verandert of zo maar je merkt wel. Het is wel een beetje verandert. Het is nu meer iedereen voor zich en niet meer het dorp met elkaar. Je hebt ook kleinere dorpen zoals Minnertsga hier verderop bijvoorbeld, die zijn wat closer met elkaar en dat is hier allemaal iets versplintert op verschillende lagen van de bevolking maar het basisniveau wordt dus wel steeds lager. Je merkt wel dat de mensen die wat hoger opgeleid zijn en met de betere banen steeds meer uit St. Anna wegtrekken. Dat kun je in de winkel ook wel merken. Dat is wel jammer maar het is wel zo.

Waaran zou dat liggen?

Naja zon betje wat ik al zei en dat heb. je Leeuwarden veel meer van dat sort mensen. Leeuwarden is veel breeder allermaal Als je dan met mensen praat die hier weg gaan dat hoor je vaak dat ze daar werken want het werk wat ze doen dat is hier gewoon niet en dan werken ze daar dan kunnen ze daar ook meteen gaan wonen. Je hebt toch wel meer mensen van het zeldfe niveau da en dat maakt het dan toch wel antrekkelijker dat vinden ze leuk.

En jullie blijven dan dus hier wonen omdat de zaak hier is?

Ja ook, maar ik zou eigenlijk ok wel naar Leeuwarden willen, heel eerlijk gezegt. Zeker wel. Het is gewoon echt een stad, dat is gewoon anders. Als je bij mij in de achtertuin gaat zitten en je lusisterd naar de buren dan denk je ook maar wat doe ik hier. Waar slaat dat op. Dat zegd wel wat.

Zijn er wel platsen in St. Anna die je heel leuk vind?

Ja zoals de sportaccommodatie, die is nieuw, die hebben ze helemaal vernieuwd, dat is sowieso wel leuk om da heen te gaan dat is een leuke ontspanning. Dan is iedereen ook wel een beetje, dat heb je waarscheinlijk self ook een beetje als je vrij bent dan ben je toch een beetje anders als dat je moet werken en de druk erop staat. Dat is wel leuk. En je kan hier op zich ook een wandeling maken of een fietstocht.

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

Zijn er ook platsen die je niet leuk vind?

Ne, er zijn eigenlijk geen plekken die ik niet leuk vind.

Wat maakt St. Anna so bijzonder?

Ja, ik denk niet dat St. Anna heel bijzonders is. Ja de taal misschien maar dat is eigenlijk meer de gemente. Dat zijn ses dorpen, zeg maar, Het Bildt. Maar dat is niet alleen maar St. Anna. Als je de gemeente op zich neemt, da valt St. Anna dan onder, dan heb je ook Seedijk, dat zijn dan wel bijzondere dingen. Hoe ze da ingevallen zijn, dat is dan geschiedenis, dat is wel interessant en dat maakt het wel heel bijzinder. Maar dat heb je in St. Ann ahier niet.

Wat denk je over de fusie van de gemeente?

Ja dat gaat wel invloede hebben op het dorp. Dat vind ik wel jammer. Dat is wel ook een faciliteit die uit het dorp weg gaat. En als een kleinere gemeente gaat fuseren met een grotere gemeente, dan is het vaak voor de kleinere gemeente niet van voordeel. Want de mensen in Franeker hebben geen binding met de mensen van het Bildt. Er gaan wel mensen mee vanuit onse gemeente, maar dat is dan wel anders. Het is hartstike zonder. Het gemeente huis blijft wel bestaan dus da komt dan misschien ook iets maar het is gewoon niet meer zo als het nu is en dat vind ik hartstike zonder. En voor de zaak zou het ook gevolgen hebben. Want nu komen er nog best wel veel mensen naar de winkel de waren dan eerst even in het gemeentehuis en dat zullen we dan wel gaan missen hier. Dat gaat dus zeker ook invloede hebben op de winkel. En ik denk dan moet je straks ook altijd naar Franeker, als je een rijbewijs moet hebben of je reispas. Nu kan je daar even langs gaan maar straks zou je ervoor wel een halve dag vrij moeten vragen want dan moet je daar erst heen reiden en wachten en zo. Dat is wel heel vervelend, en zeker als je het niet gewend bent. Nou ja het Bildt met het Bildts, dat is dan niet meer.

Wat denk je wat belangrijk is maar wat St. Anna niet heeft?

Ik denk dat St. Anna alles wel heeft maar de mensen die hier wonen die beseffen het niet echt. Want het gaat eigenlijk niet daarom wat je hebt maar meer daarom dat je dan ook dingen die je kan doen in je eigen dorp gaat doen. Want als je een dorp levend wilt houden dan moet je dat doen. Er is namelijk best veel te doen. Er is een zwembad, voortgezet onderwijs is hier gewoon, sport is hier te doen, er is en hele grote middelstand aanwezig dus je kan hier eigenlijk alles doen. Maar alsnog gaan de mensen hier naar Stiens toe bijvoorbeld. Alles is hier wel. En je moet je dan voorstellen, als je hier woont en iedereen gaat

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis hier weg en alles gaat dicht, dan wordt je huis hier ook steds minder waard. En als we dan straks zeggen we gaan hier weg omdat bijvoorbeld de school hier ophoud omdat ze allemaal naar Franeker gaan op school of naar Leeuwarden, dat kan natuurlijk ook, en dan gaan de families weg en wat hier dan over blijft zijn de oude mensen, dan kan je niet weg omdat je niets meer voor je huis krijgt. Ik zelf probeer gewoon zo veel mogelijk ook hier te doen want ik zit zelf in de middelstand in ik bezef me wat er gaat gebeuren, maar heel veel mensen beseffen dat niet. En ik denk dat dat wel iets is wat St. Anna nog mist. De mensen die dat bezeffen. Dan komen hier ook steeds minder mensen wonen want als je altijd eerst 10 km moet fietsen voordat je een brood kan kopen dan kom je ook niet in zo`n dorp wonen. Wie wil dat dan nog? En dat is dus ook de verbondenheid waar we mee begonnen zijn. Minnertsga heeft dat dus wel. Bijvoorbeld in Minnertsga is een buurtsupermarkt die had het waaranders waarscheinlijk nooit lang volgehouden maar de mensen daar hebben zo iets van ja die komt uit Minnertsga, die moeten we steunen. En die maakt er een rotzooi van, jonge jonge. Maar St. Anna is dus wel eenvan de belangrijkste en favourite dorpen hier in de omgeving. Dus St. Anna is voor de omgeving wel heel belangrijk. Dan zeggen zon Hema of zon Blokker misschien straks dat ze gaan stoppen en dat zou natuurlijk heel slecht zijn voor het dorp. Maar mensen moeten zich dat ook wel beseffen, anders is het dan helemaal gebeurt.

Maar ja de gemeente beseft zich dat wel denk ik. Ze hebben hier net de nieuwe school voor voortgezet onderwijs gebouwd, daarvoor moesten ze zelfs in de tijd wat terug gaan want met de sinkende cijfers hadden ze het anders niet meer morgen bouwen en ze zijn natuurlijk afhangelijk van de subsidies dus dat kon allemaal net. En het thuis voor de ouderen is ook helemaal uitgebreid en het AZC dat blijft ook dus dat is allemaal wel positief. Er zitten dus ook werk gelegenheid want ze komen hier ook. En da komt dus ook weer geld vandaan

Maar hier is ok wel vergrijzing hier met al de hoger opgeleiden die hier weg gaan.

Denk je dat het AZC toegevoede waarde is?

Ja ik denk dat het ten eerste voor de mensen die daar wonen wel een toegevoegde waarde is, omdat ze daar zijn kunnen. Het zijn natuurlijk allemaal mensen die in hun eigen land niet meer kunnen zijn. En de gemeente doet dat natuurlijk ook voor financiele voordelen want je krijgt er natuurlijk ook subsidie voor. En juist als je in een krimpgebied zit is dat wel een goede mannier om ook weer financieel geld binnen te krijgen. Ik denk dat dat an alle kanten wel goed is.

En sociaal?

Ja ik den dat het voor de mensen hier opzich ook wel goed is dat ze ermee gekonfronteerd worden. In het begin worden de vooroordelen wel een beetje befestigd maar ik denk dat het nu wel wat beter gaat.

Master Thesis – Sina Alea Kugis

Het is natuurlijk ook alweer 15 jaren geleden dat het AZC hier gefestigd werd. De mensen zijn hier langer dus ze weten ook meer hoe het hier graat. We hebben hier op diensdag nu ook iemand die moet 1.5 uur per week stage lopen en kennen lernen hoe het gaat hier in Nederland. En dat gaat ook best wel goed. Ze zijn net als andere 16 jarige jongeren en ik denk dat het hun ook wel goed bevalt. We hebben laatst vijf keer de zelfe jonge gehad hij was zo enthusiast. En ik denk dat het voor zijn Nederlands ook heel goed is. Hij is al 3 jaar of zo hier en kan nog geen wordt Nederlands. Dat zou het wel allemaal veel makkelijker maken. Ik kan me voorstellen dat het heel frustrerend is als je niets mag doen.

Denk je dat het AZC deel uitmaakt van het dorp?

Ja, dat denk ik wel. Dat einige waar je nog steeds tegen aanloopt is dus dat ze nog steeds dit frame van geheemhouding hebben zeg maar. Ik vind het te belagelijk om te verworden dat je daar in wilt investeren en dan mag het niet. Da loop je dus steeds tegen aan. Want als je daar naartoe gaat mag je nog steeds niet daa binnen. Maar als je wilt dat mensen begrip tonen, stimmuleer dat dan gewoon. Dan kweek je zeker veel meer begrip. Als er soms iets is met politie of zo, en dat is er heus wel, dan zeg er ook iets over, dat zou wel begrip kweken. Wees er dan gewoon open.

Leeftijd: 38

Gender: male