University of Groningen Speaking of Home Stock, Femke
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University of Groningen Speaking of home Stock, Femke IMPORTANT NOTE: You are advised to consult the publisher's version (publisher's PDF) if you wish to cite from it. Please check the document version below. Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Publication date: 2014 Link to publication in University of Groningen/UMCG research database Citation for published version (APA): Stock, F. (2014). Speaking of home: home and identity in the multivoiced narratives of descendants of Moroccan and Turkish migrants in the Netherlands. [s.n.]. Copyright Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Take-down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Downloaded from the University of Groningen/UMCG research database (Pure): http://www.rug.nl/research/portal. For technical reasons the number of authors shown on this cover page is limited to 10 maximum. Download date: 25-09-2021 Speaking of Home This work is part of the research programme Toptalent, which is financed by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). Printed by CPI Koninklijke Wöhrmann Cover design by Studio OKO GRAPhia This book has been typeset in Swis721 BT and Charis SIL. © Femke Stock 2014 ISBN 978-90-367-7155-9 (electronic version) ISBN 978-90-367-7156-6 (print version) NUR 763 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written consent of the author. Speaking of Home Home and identity in the multivoiced narratives of descendants of Moroccan and Turkish migrants in the Netherlands PhD thesis to obtain the degree of PhD at the University of Groningen on the authority of the Rector Magnificus Prof. E. Sterken and in accordance with the decision by the College of Deans. This thesis will be defended in public on Thursday 11 September 2014 at 12.45 hours by Femke Johanna Stock born on 14 September 1981 in Berlin, Germany Supervisor Prof. T.H. Zock Co-supervisor Dr. M.W. Buitelaar Assessment committee Prof. H.A. Alma Prof. D. Draaisma Prof. H. Ghorashi To Jasmijn, Noor, Selma, Jakob, Adam, Kaoutar, Youssef, Jonas, Amana, Farah, Aya, and Hassan; and all the other children born in the course of my research Contents Acknowledgments xiv Introduction 1 1 Research group: descendants of migrants, grown up and rooted 2 2 Theoretical framework: dialogical narratives on home and identity 3 3 Research questions 4 4 Chapter outline 5 5 Aims and audiences 7 1 | Social context and theoretical frame 9 1 The Dutch context: discourses of belonging and otherness 9 2 Background data: research on descendants of Moroccan and Turkish migrants in the Netherlands 16 2.1 Descendants of Moroccan and Turkish migrants in the Netherlands 16 2.2 Characteristics of the sample of informants 17 2.3 Survey data on home and belonging 21 2.4 Dutch qualitative research 23 3 Home 28 3.1 Roads untravelled: diaspora, transnationalism and hybridity 28 3.2 Home 31 3.3 The layeredness of home 33 3.4 Unpacking home: house and homeland 34 3.5 Family and familiarity 37 3.6 Private, feminine, exclusive? 39 3.7 Movement, stability, migration 42 3.8 Home and identity 43 3.9 To conclude 48 4 Identity through narrative and dialogue 49 4.1 Introduction 49 4.2 Narrative identity 50 4.3 Personal and social, structure and agency 52 4.4 Coherence and multiplicity 53 4.5 Identity – life story – interview 54 4.6 Advantages and disadvantages of my use of life story interviewing 58 Contents | ix 2 | A methodological narrative 63 1 Introduction 63 2 The story of my research 63 2.1 A research travelogue 64 2.2 A story inside a story: designing an interview format 70 (Un)Settling narratives: Farid’s housing history 74 2.3 The story continues 76 3 It takes two to talk – my role as dialogue partner in the research process 77 3.1 I as a German-Dutch/fellow migrant researcher 79 3.2 I as Dutch: one of us/one of them 79 3.3 I as interested 80 3.4 I as a fellow (?) believer 81 3.5 I as an outsider 82 3.6 I as a young woman 82 3.7 I as a (future) mother 83 3.8 I in relation to my interlocutors: expectations and felt obligations 84 3.9 Interviews catalysing change through dialogue 87 4 Stories left untold 88 4.1 Introduction 88 4.2 Marginal objects: material stories left untold 89 4.3 The story of case study selection: ending up with a women-only cast 91 4.4 More unique than the others? The selection of one quote over another 93 3 | Morocco – as seen from the Netherlands 95 1 Introduction 95 1.1 Outline 96 Naima 98 2 Arriving and sojourning 101 2.1 The moment of arrival 101 2.2 Holiday styles 104 2.3 Family settings 107 3 ‘There’ in Morocco, as opposed to ‘here’ 108 3.1 Real life country-talk 108 3.2 Moroccans in Morocco 110 3.3 (Social) infrastructure 116 3.4 That’s the life 122 x | Contents Naima’s village 127 3.5 The Village 128 4 Framing country-talk: an analysis 134 4.1 Multivoiced selfing and othering 134 4.2 Mirror, mirror: symmetrical depictions of asymmetrical homes 139 Contrasting cases: through with Morocco 141 5 Conclusion 143 6 Chapter epilogue: making sense of cultural multiplicity 146 Cultural multiplicity materialised 147 6.1 Contesting hybridity 147 4 | Homelands 155 Naima on ‘home’ 155 1 Introduction: Homelands 156 2 Points of departure: multivoiced narratives, differentiated understandings, embedded homelands 159 2.1 Differentiated understandings of home 159 Missing 160 2.2 Multivoiced understandings of home 160 2.3 Embedded understandings of home 161 3 Differentiated homelands 162 3.1 Introduction 162 3.2 A holiday home: temporary and timeless 164 Aygul: keeping her eyes on Turkey 169 3.3 Temporary but timeless: Family 4ever 172 3.4 Timeless roots and timely routes 174 Ozan: Routes over roots 184 3.5 Chapter pit-stop: looking back and ahead 186 4 Embedded homelands 189 4.1 Embedded meanings: time & development 189 Shifting positionings: back to Naima 193 4.2 Social embeddedness: who defines home? 196 Karima: positioning and being positioned 202 4.3 Embedded reflections 210 5 Conclusion 217 6 Chapter epilogue: Naima navigating worlds 222 Contents | xi 5 | Making sense of exclusion: a dialogical approach 231 1 Introduction 231 1.1 About this chapter 232 2 Excluded at home: descendants of migrants and Dutch society 234 2.1 Two conflicting problematisations of home 235 2.2 Responding to discrimination 237 2.3 A broader reading of social exclusion: four questions 244 3 Case study: the stories of Jamila 247 3.1 Jamila’s turnaround: introduction 247 3.2 Theoretical caveats 249 3.3 A new coalition: positions joining forces in support of migration 252 3.4 New perceptions of othering 256 Double Bind 257 3.5 Settings of othering: excluded at work, excluded at large 260 But you are not like them 264 Interfaces with Dutch society 269 3.6 Dutch positions: insiders wishing to move out 270 3.7 At home in the Netherlands? Internal contestations about a relationship in crisis 271 Oncoming traffic: Rachid’s turnaround 273 3.8 Moroccan voices 274 3.9 Marking the turnaround: ‘Since last summer…’ 276 Landmarks 277 3.10 Articulating internal positions: Jamila as religious / moral 278 3.11 Articulating external positions: significant others supporting the coalition 283 4 Reflection: placing Jamila’s case in perspective 285 4.1 (Dis)continuity in Jamila’s story 285 4.2 Nothing final 286 4.3 Jamila’s specificity 287 5 Case study epilogue 289 5.1 Two years later: new perspectives 289 5.2 Renewed belonging – as a Muslim 291 5.3 Happy ending? 299 6 To conclude 301 xii | Contents 6 | Home in the life story: a case study of two sisters 307 1 Introduction 307 1.1 Welcome to my place: Aziza – and Latifa 307 1.2 This chapter 308 2 Case study 312 2.1 Childhood: nostalgia 312 2.2 Migration & adolescence: two worlds 313 Two worlds 315 2.3 Leaving home: Latifa the runaway 316 2.4 Aziza: staying behind and making amends 320 2.5 Leaving without rushing: the merging of Aziza’s worlds 320 Moving out: freedom or responsibility? 321 2.6 Latifa: making her own home 323 Marriage between worlds 325 2.7 Aziza leaving another home: from visitor to home-owner in Morocco 326 2.8 Home no more: shifting perspectives on here and there 327 2.9 New dimensions: Aziza’s religious biography 329 2.10 Latifa: claiming her own personal relationship to God 334 Setting religion apart 338 2.11 Like leaving home all over again: Aziza’s Dutch connection 339 2.12 Dutch and/or Moroccan? Slippery labelling 340 2.13 Parents and parenting 341 Children are the future 345 2.14 Aziza’s place revisited 346 3 Conclusion 348 3.1 Family, gender, religion 348 3.2 Home in the life story 350 3.3 A case study approach: advantages and lessons 352 4 Chapter epilogue: speaking of home 354 4.1 Emic descriptions of ‘home’ 355 4.2 Latifa and Aziza: reflecting on ‘home’ 359 Contents | xiii 7 | Conclusion 361 1 Taking stock 365 2 Case study research 365 3 (Social) Settings of Home 366 3.1 Principal settings 367 3.2 Dutch and Moroccan ‘worlds’ 368 3.3 Home settings in this study 369 4 The Netherlands, Morocco, Turkey: asymmetrical homelands 370 4.1 Analysing country-talk: positioned identifications with two different countries 370 4.2 Unpacking binary categorisations: