3/22/2006
Integration and adaptation in Senegal
I just returned from Senegal and the project went very well (see the pictures).While I was there, I thought about issues of adaptation and integration. With our group of 12 Toubabs (white people), we were clearly the foreigners there. I made an analysis of how the processes of adaptation and integration took place there, and which were the success factors. I realised that there was a big difference between how the Senegalese treated us and how foreigners are usually treated in the Netherlands. Of course an important reason why we were much more welcome in Senegal was that we were bringing money and support to create a computer centre there. But that was not the only reason, the Senegalese culture is clearly much more hospitable. People greet each other in the street all the time, they do that just as much to foreigners as to locals. People invite you to their homes all the time, to talk and drink tea. A foreigner should be welcomed, he is asked to make himself at home and to feel at ease, to take some rest. The welcome of the stranger is unconditionally. People find it logical that strangers don’t behave in the same way as locals, so they don’t have to adapt completely and immediately. For Toubabs other, less strict social rules apply for how they should behave (and at the same time other prices apply, they have to pay at least twice as much).
I imagined what it would be like if Verdonks proposal would be accepted in Senegal: that I would only be allowed to speak Serrer in the village where we stayed (or also French in the most optimistic case, but for sure no English or Dutch). Or that I would have to pass my exams for a Senegalese assimilation course before I would be allowed to stay in the country.
The idea of a forced assimilation looked very strange to me there. On the other hand the issue of having the right to keep my own identity was no issue there either. I noticed that I really wanted to adapt to the Senegalese culture and to integrate as much as possible. I like the culture, I feel at home there, and I want to be part of it as much as possible. That’s a perfect integration model, I think, when foreigners are received with open arms and when they are very eager to fully accept the culture of the host country. It happened with many of the Dutch participants in the project, that they decided themselves, because they liked it, to integrate with the locals. We didn’t have to push them, they choose for it themselves and everybody liked it.The reality is of course not always so positive as this ideal of voluntary integration, and the situation is different in the Netherlands, but still I think that it's good to keep this ideal in mind, also when the reality is more complicated.
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Hoi Esther, goed te zien dat je mooie tijd had in Senegal.
Als een blanke Nederlander zich voorgoed in Senegal vestigt, met een Senegalese job en een Senegalees inkomen, zal hij/zij waarschijnlijk toch zijn/haar leven lang opvallen als buitenlander. En dus de buitenlanderprijzen betalen, al heeft hij/zij hetzelfde inkomen als de gemiddelde Senegalees.
Als een Noord-Afrikaan zich voorgoed in Nederland vestigt, zal hij/zij ook zijn/haar leven lang opvallen als buitenlander. En dus een grote kans op discriminatie hebben.
Soms denk ik weleens dat het mooi zou zijn de hele wereld in 1 keer te mengen. Allemaal koffiebruin, niemand valt op. Maar dan verzinnen we vast wel weer wat anders om op te selecteren...
Als een blanke Nederlander zich voorgoed in Senegal vestigt, met een Senegalese job en een Senegalees inkomen, zal hij/zij waarschijnlijk toch zijn/haar leven lang opvallen als buitenlander. En dus de buitenlanderprijzen betalen, al heeft hij/zij hetzelfde inkomen als de gemiddelde Senegalees.
Als een Noord-Afrikaan zich voorgoed in Nederland vestigt, zal hij/zij ook zijn/haar leven lang opvallen als buitenlander. En dus een grote kans op discriminatie hebben.
Soms denk ik weleens dat het mooi zou zijn de hele wereld in 1 keer te mengen. Allemaal koffiebruin, niemand valt op. Maar dan verzinnen we vast wel weer wat anders om op te selecteren...
# posted by 
: 5:51 PM
: 5:51 PM
Ja, allemaal koffiebruin zou wel helpen denk ik. Huidskleur is een zo duidelijk zichtbaar en onontkoombaar als criterium om onderscheid op te maken. En als we allemaal koffiebruin geworden zijn betekent dat dat alle rassen fijn met elkaar gemengd zijn en dat allerlei ouders met verschillende achtergronden samen hun kinderen hebben opgevoed, al die dwarsverbanden zouden vast en zeker het begrip tussen verschillende culturen vergroten en de polarisatie tegen gaan.
I agree foreigners do try to adopt the culture of the society they are in, and foreigners are always welcomed by the host. But in recent past here in Pakistan their security risk have been so much increased and people can fully integrate with them, and its worst at the places where they stay (hotels & motels). You always see them arguing with the police escorts about leting them go alone to visit monimental places... Bot police cant let them go alone because of the security which govt. has ordered for them since the recent domestic issues and international war on terror...
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# posted by : 11:22 AM
: 11:22 AM << Home
