An ethnical comparison between NYC and Amsterdam

Post-industrial society and globalisation have always fascinated me, attracted me even. I am probably one of those rare European socialists who see globalisation as the way forward. The ontology of this appeal can probably be found partly in my ‘entartete’ childhood as a Dutchman in Limburg, the most southern province of the Netherlands that distinguishes itself from the rest of the country in that it is largely Catholic and wasn’t part of the original seven provinces of the Dutch Republic. Real Limburgians consider anyone ‘from above the rivers,’the Maas and the Rhine, with a certain animosity. The other part of the ontology can be explained by my 10 years of ‘Limbo’ in Amsterdam. Inhabitants of Amsterdam are very similar to native New Yorkers, they will look upon any one not from their city with a certain derision. In addition, Limburgians are considered half Belgians, which to Dutch people are what mid-Westerners are to non mid-Western Americans. Such plays of fate of a personal history can sometimes create the most random obsessions in a character. Ever since I moved to the US, I immediately noticed how simple it is to feel at ease in New York City if you are used to Amsterdam. The two cities have a remarkably similar atmosphere. As a child of my (post-modern) time of course I never had the feeling of being at home anywhere, but despite this, I feel very quickly at ease in cities where an absolute lack of homogenuity governs. It is therefore that I enjoy to get lost in Bruxelles, but not in Barcelona, that I love NYC but not Antwerp, I do like Marseille, but not the Isle-de-Paris, Amsterdam but not Maastricht.
It is for these and other reasons that a comparison between the old and the new Amsterdam (NYC) so quickly comes to mind.

Traditionally (or at least from about 1600 A.D. on), the Unites States is considered to be a country of unlimited opportunities and this image has attracted immigrants from all around the world. The American Dream is to be found on every street corner, from paperboy to millionair. The US was also often seen as the Promised Land inspired by religious or colonial motives. In 1661 Dutchman Jacob Steendam, the first poet of New York, published a pamphlet called ‘Praise of New Netherlands,’ as the area between the Delaware and the Connecticut River was called at the time. His impressions of abundancy and richness still linger. Recent statistics show, for example, that in 2001 there existed 2.1 million Americans, out of 7.1 million people globally, with financial assets exceeding 1 million dollars (real estate holdings excluded). But for others, the American dream lies closer to myth. The Gini-index estimates that the division of income has been increasing steadily since 1967. Interestingly, the ratio of new millionairs to old millionairs (second generation or higher) has decreased sharply since 1971. Considering racial disparities, the average income per household of Afro-Americans and Hispanics is at least $10,000 a year lower than that of the White and Asian populations. According to the UN Human Poverty Index (HPI), the USA is ranked 7th, behind European countries like Norway, Belgium and the Netherlands, while according to the US Census Bureau 32.9 million Americans were considered poor.

American myth also sees the US as a frontier society, a country of immigrants constituted by founding fathers. Each American can tell with a folkloristic pride his personal Aeneid-genealogy, from the Sephardim, the German ‘Dorf-Juden’, and the Russian ‘Ostjuden’, the Askenazim, Southern Italians, Irish, Poles, or Mexicans, Puerto-Ricans, Koreans, Chinese to Indians. In 2001 1,065,000 immigrants were legally admitted to the US. But in a total population of 281.5 million this only accounts for 0.38% of the total population, compared to the Netherlands, which admitted 133,500 immigrants in 2001 in a total population of 16.1 million, or in other words 0.83% of the total population, more than double the percentage in the US. On the other hand, each American can be viewed as an ‘allochtoon,’ a Dutch word depicting one’s ethnical heritage as an immigrant. And while Europe is fearfully struggling with its image of an immigration continent, the US has embraced the immigrant as an Odysseus looking for a better future for his children. In Europe however the immigrant is considered a parasite who leeches off the welfare state.

A comparison of some core statistics immediately draws attention to the fact that the US makes a distinction between ‘race’, while in the Netherlands, and most of Europe, only the politically correct concept of ‘ethnicity’ is acceptable. The concept of race in Europe is considered dangerously discriminatory because of its application by the Nazis. Ethnicity, thus, refers to a concept distinct from race that includes one’s cultural, lingual, religious and national heritage.

If the use of ethnicity over race is to be valued, or if it is merely hypocracy (popular judgement based on race still reigns) is of course the question. In a country obsessed with political correctness like the Netherlands, it is no suprise that the sudden rise to power of the far-right populist Pim Fortuyn created a shock in mainstream public opinion. With his murder, some xenophobic sentiments may have been suppressed into the unconscioussness of Dutch politics again, but in the contemporary European political context fear of foreigners has become a ubiquitous factor.

Another detail of interest is the fact that since the 2000 US census people can indicate that they belong to more than one race. Due to the common practice of rape by former slavemasters and modern inter-racial relations, most Afro-Americans are closer to being white than being ‘black as cole’ as an old children’s song in the Netherlands goes. Yet, only 2.8% of the census takers indicated they belonged to more than one race. It is difficult to determine if this is caused by ethnical self-consciousness or external racial stigmatization. In any case, it shows that also in the US the concept of race is mingled with the concept of ethnicity, and that the difference between racism and cultural prejudice is a true melting-pot.

Population
Amsterdam (1998-2002) - 735.000New York City (2000) ñ 8.008.278
Netherlands: 394.172 (53%)
Surinam: 71.941 (10%)
Morocco: 57.093 (8%)
Turkey: 35.074 (5%)
Indonesia: 21.657 (vm) + 6241 (4%)
Germany: 17.149 (2%)
Antilles Aruba: 12.033 (2%)
Ghana: 9.187 (1%)
Great Brittain: 7.814 (1%)
White: 2.801.267 (35%)
Black: 1.962.154 (24.5%)
Native: 17.321 (0.2%)
Asian: 780.229 (9.7%)
Hawaiian/Pacific: 2.829 (0%)
Other: 58.775 (0.7%)
Mixed: 225.149 (2.8%)
Hispanic: 2.160.554 (27%)
Income per Household
24.800 euro (2000)
Average: 38.300 euro (2000)
Asian 47.500 euro
White 41.000 euro
Hispanic 29.700 euro
Black 26.300 euro

Historically, of course, NYC and Amsterdam are connected: when NYC was founded by the West Indian Company it was called New Amsterdam, after the town where the Company’s HQ was registered and most of its financiers lived. Both cities thrived as harbor towns that owed their wealth and importance to their location along important trade routes, and later would develop into important centers of finance and world markets. Now, their role as a hub is fulfilled by their major airports, and both cities are global magnets to many immigrants alike. In addition, both NYC and Amsterdam play an important role in modern art and music, with legenadary underground clubs like CBGB in New York and Paradiso in Amsterdam.

But it is mainly the integration of immigrants that is of interest to me in this column. Recently, the quarter around Mercator Square in Amsterdam was shocked by the death of Dris, a Moroccan killed by a police bullet. The massive protests and unrest that followed the event reminded me a lot of similar incidents in NYC involving Afro-Americans being fatally wounded by police bullets. In both cases, the dominating opinion amongst Afro-Americans or Moroccans is that the victim always is one of them. And despite the fact that most ethnicial groups succesfully assimilate, both groups in their relevant cities are considered to have special difficulties integrating. And there are more interesting similarities between Moroccan culture in Amsterdam and the Afro-American culture in NYC: both cultures are being stigmatized by a ‘gangsta’ and ‘little thieves’ image, which is not only adjudged by outside opinion but also internally promoted. Both groups also suffer from a lack of education tracing back to a background of illiteracy, and both are being pampered by a dozen of measurements under the common denominator ‘positive discrimination’ (a term widely used in the Netherlands) and ‘equal opportunity’. Equally, neither seems to be able to escape the vicious circle of their socio-economic position.

But, of course there are enormous differences in their histories and therefore in the causes of their problems: Moroccans often speak poor or minimal Dutch, while for Afro-Americans access to good and thus expensive education is a major concern. The financial resources available for schools make a big difference. In the Netherlands funding is provided on a per-student basis by the national government, while US schools are dependent upon local taxes for funding. As Moroccans immigrated to the Netherlands voluntarily from the 1960s and 1970s on, Afro-Americans suffered a forced migration, while until recently discrimination was institutionalized and civic rights fought for at high cost.

An interesting observation is the relative succes of Asians in both societies. While Max Weber explained the domination of western capitalism by its protestant culture, similarly it seems tempting to explain the success of Asians by their culture of Confucianism and Buddhism, which emphasizes economic fortune as a condition for personal development: the exorbitant importance that is placed on education and more traditional forms of financing and social-networks. For example, according to statistics in 1991, 60% of the grocery stores in NYC were owned by Koreans.

A comparison of university enrollments confirms this impression of succesful assimilation:
2002 white asian black hispanic
Yale University(tuition: $27.000) 74% 13% 7.5% 5%
2001 M F Alien White Black Asian Hispanic Unknown
NY State 42% 58% 5% 56% 13% 7% 10% 9%
Columbia(tuition: $28.000) Undergrad.   54% 8% 15% 8% 11%
Graduate   66% 5% 10% 5% 10%

Many problems are inherant problems of immigration itself, regardless of time and location. They are often manifestations of socio-economic changes occurring on a global scale.

While in the US a low social status for new groups of immigrants is considered normal for the process of integration, in the Netherlands the presence of poor immigrants is in general being problematized. Maybe Dutch culture with its civic tendency for normality, ‘being normal is already crazy enough,’ as the Dutch saying goes, has problems getting used to something estranging like immigrants.