How serious are ethnic jokes? This article investigates this question by looking at the relation between ethnic jokes and ethnic relations in the Netherlands. It analyzes two corpora covering the range of ethnic jokes collected using an (almost) identical survey among high school students in 1995 (

Purpose This article explores how newly-arrived children with a refugee background describe their everyday lives in the Netherlands, with a focus on how they perceive their peer relations and the broader social climate in the host country. Methods In this case study, focus groups were conducted with 46 Syrian-born children with a refugee background, ranging between the ages of 8 to 17 years old. All participants have a temporary residence permit and live in Rotterdam together with (part of) their family. A board game was developed as a research tool to stimulate children to share their perspectives on their friends and experiences with inclusion and exclusion. Results An important finding is that all of the children have friends in the Netherlands. The majority of their friends have an Arab background, and different reasons for this composition are discussed. Furthermore, although all of the children expressed that they feel welcome in Dutch society, they had also encountered exclusion, which generates emotional responses. Conclusion Using a theoretical boundary perspective, we show that children are involuntarily subjected to symbolic boundary drawing by others, while taking part in boundary work themselves too. Within the domains of the children’s social networks and the broader social climate in the Netherlands, we further examined the relations between symbolic and social boundaries.

‘Moroccan’ and ‘Surinamese-Hindustani’ Dutch have fewer chances on the Dutch labour market compared to ‘autochthonous’ Dutch. Although both groups face labour market discrimination, Andriessen et al. (2015) show that discrimination works differently for both groups. ‘Moroccan’ Dutch can compensate for the ethnic penalty by having more work experience than ‘autochthonous’ Dutch. ‘Surinamese-Hindustani’ Dutch can compensate by stressing their integration into Dutch society. This article shows why discrimination works differently for these groups, and explains when and how symbolic boundaries between social categories become permeable and can be crossed. To reveal the stereotypes, expectations and emotions employers have, twenty semi-structured interviews were conducted with employers in the hospitality and retail sector. It is shown that discrimination of ‘Surinamese-Hindustani’ Dutch candidates is not caused by negative stereotypes of the group, but rather by the fact that their name is not recognized as Surinamese-Hindustani but just as ‘stranger’: since they are unknown, they are unloved. For ‘Moroccan’ Dutch candidates, negative stereotypes and expectations do play a role. This group is more negatively evaluated and different types of anxiety play a crucial role. For ‘Moroccan’ Dutch candidates holds that: as they are known, they are unloved. This article adds complexity to classical discrimination theory and emphasizes the importance of emotions in symbolic boundary drawing and crossing.

UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) Etnische humor en etnische relaties in Nederland Moppen over buitenlanders en etnische groepen in Nederland, 1995-2012 Kuipers, G.; van der Ent, B.

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