Does the superdiversity label stick? Configurations of ethnic diversity in Dutch class rooms

Abstract

Superdiversity has become a popular term to depict the societal impact of migration in Europe, but does its heuristic value justify its popularity? The term superdiversity seems to be important to many scholars, but is it relevant to the lived experiences and applicable to the reality of migrants and non-migrants in societal institutions like education? This article aims to assess this heuristic value by applying superdiversity's connotations to findings of 125 interviews with students and teachers of a Dutch university of applied sciences. The two different configurations of diversity found, i.e. commonplace diversity and essentialist diversity, question superdiversity's heuristic value. First, students do not experience diversity as something exciting or 'super' or positive, as superdiversity authors suggest. Their main concerns, i.e. to enjoy education and to construct their identities in line with institutional demands, are not covered by the notion of superdiversity. Second, key descriptive meanings associated with superdiversity do not make sense to these configurations of diversity, i.e. discarding the ethno-focal lens and expectations of more or new and multilayered complexity. Findings point to conviviality, creolization, ethnic boundaries and groupism, not to superdiversity.

How official nationalism fuels labour market discrimination against migrants in the Netherlands and its institutional alternatives

“…From here, we (see Siebers, 2009, for work settings and Siebers, 2018, for education) argue that a similar differentiation between work‐related and work‐unrelated identities can be made on the symbolic level, depending on whether they align with the functional needs of work‐related behaviour and distribution of resources. For example, professions may be strong sources of satisfaction and identification, as Paul Du Gay (2000), drawing on Max Weber (1978 [1922]), argued.…”

Superdiversiteetti. Näkökulmia maahanmuuton monimuotoisuuteen

“…Myöhemmät tutkijat ovat kritisoineet sitä, ettei siirtyminen pois "etno fokaalisesta linssistä" välttämättä vastaa elettyä todellisuutta superdiversiteetin tutkimuskentillä. Toisin sanoen, etnis-kulttuuriset eronteot ovat usein edelleen vahvasti läsnä tutkituissa yhteisöissä (Siebers 2018). Tämä on nähtävissä myös haastatteluissa, jotka osoittavat, etteivät etniset rajanvedot tai rasismi ole poikkeuksellista opiskelijoiden kesken, saati heidän kokemanaan laajemmin suomalaisessa yhteiskunnassa.…”

Superdiversity as a trajectory of diversity in Norwegian early childhood education and care: From a collection of differences to participation and becoming

“…The first involves the increasing spread, speed and scale of migration (Meissner and Vertovec, 2014) and the growing 'diversification' of diversity, which created the need for a term that would be able to embrace the dynamics and complexity of ethnic diversity and the evolving character of migration, as well as the 'new conjunctions and interactions of variables [that] have arisen' (Vertovec, 2007(Vertovec, : 1025. Superdiversity is therefore driven by the intent to overcome the ethno-focal lens of migration studies by inviting multidimensional articulations combining diverse types of migration (including labour-related, short-term, long-term, refugee, asylum-seeking, expatriate and studentexchange migration) with other differences, such as socio-economic status, migration status, age, gender and (dis)ability (Meissner and Vertovec, 2014;Siebers, 2018).…”