Allochtoon
Encyclopedia
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
word (derived from Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
ἀλλος (allos), other, and χθον (chthon) earth/land), literally meaning "originating from another country". It is the opposite of the word autochtoon (in English, "autochthonous" or "autochthone"; derived from Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
αυτο (auto), self) literally meaning "originating from this country".
In the Netherlands (and Flanders), the term "allochtoon" is widely used to refer to immigrants and their descendants. Officially the term allochtoon is much more specific and refers to anyone whose parents were not both born in the Netherlands. Hence, third-generation immigrants are no longer considered allochtoon (if both their parents were born in the Netherlands). The antonym
Antonym
In lexical semantics, opposites are words that lie in an inherently incompatible binary relationship as in the opposite pairs male : female, long : short, up : down, and precede : follow. The notion of incompatibility here refers to the fact that one word in an opposite pair entails that it is not...
autochtoon is less widely used, but it roughly corresponds to ethnic Dutch. Among a number of immigrant groups living in the Netherlands, a "Dutch" person (though they are themselves Dutch citizens) usually refers to the ethnic Dutch.
In 1950, Dutch descent, Dutch nationality, and Dutch citizenship were in practice identical. The Netherlands was largely a mono-ethnic society with some colonial influences (if the Frisians are considered part of the Dutch ethnic group). In 1950, most Dutch were either Catholic or Protestant, with some atheists. Decolonisation and immigration from the 1960s on altered the ethnic and religious composition of the country — there are now about one million Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
s (6 per cent of the Dutch population). This development has made the 'ethnicity' and national identity of the Dutch a political issue.
Dutch nationality law
Dutch nationality law
Dutch nationality law is based primarily on the principle of Jus sanguinis and is governed by the Kingdom act regarding Dutch citizenship . Thus citizenship is conferred primarily by birth to a Dutch parent, irrespective of place of birth...
is based primarily on the principle of jus sanguinis
Jus sanguinis
Ius sanguinis is a social policy by which citizenship is not determined by place of birth, but by having a parent who are citizens of the nation...
("right of blood"). In other words, citizenship is conferred primarily by birth to a Dutch parent, irrespective of place of birth.
Definitions
The Dutch Government Central Bureau of StatisticsStatistics Netherlands
Statistics Netherlands, founded in 1899, is a Dutch governmental institution that gathers statistical information about the Netherlands. In Dutch it is known as the Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek, often abbreviated to CBS. It is a department of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and is...
(CBS) uses the definition that at least one of the parents is not born in the Netherlands.
A first distinction is made between first- and second-generation newcomers.
- A first-generation allochtoon is a person living in the Netherlands but born in a foreign country, and who has at least one parent who was also born abroad. The 'country of origin' is the country where that person is born.
- A second-generation allochtoon is a person born in the Netherlands with at least one parent born in a foreign country. When both parents are born abroad, the 'country of origin' is taken to be that of the mother. If one parent was born in the Netherlands, the 'country of origin' the other parent's country of birth.
Note that someone who is born abroad, but both of whose parents were born in the Netherlands, is an autochtoon.
A further distinction is made between 'western' and 'non-western' allochtonen. A non-western allochtoon is someone whose 'country of origin' is or lies in Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
and Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
, with the exception of Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
(or the former Dutch East Indies
Dutch East Indies
The Dutch East Indies was a Dutch colony that became modern Indonesia following World War II. It was formed from the nationalised colonies of the Dutch East India Company, which came under the administration of the Netherlands government in 1800....
) and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
.
This last distinction was made because the official definition of 'allochtoon' deviates from the common use in popular speech, where people refer to someone as allochtoon only when that person is an immigrant or an asylum seeker who is clearly distinct in appearance (race or clothing) or behaviour from the traditional Dutchman. However, in the official sense, the largest group of "allochtonen" are of German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
ancestry. The groups that people usually think of when they hear the word 'allochtoon' are those of Turkish
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, Moroccan
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
and Suriname
Suriname
Suriname , officially the Republic of Suriname , is a country in northern South America. It borders French Guiana to the east, Guyana to the west, Brazil to the south, and on the north by the Atlantic Ocean. Suriname was a former colony of the British and of the Dutch, and was previously known as...
se ancestry. As of 2006, these groups comprise roughly 350,000 people each, together constituting just over 6% of the population.
http://statline.cbs.nl/StatWeb/Table.asp?LYR=G2:0,G4:0,G5:6&LA=nl&DM=SLNL&PA=71090ned&D1=a&D2=a,!2-3&D4=a&HDR=T&STB=G3,G1 So a new term was introduced that lies closer to that meaning, 'niet-westers allochtoon', which excludes 'allochtonen' from Europe, Japan (a westernised country) and Indonesia (a former colony), but not those from the Netherlands Antilles
Netherlands Antilles
The Netherlands Antilles , also referred to informally as the Dutch Antilles, was an autonomous Caribbean country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, consisting of two groups of islands in the Lesser Antilles: Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao , in Leeward Antilles just off the Venezuelan coast; and Sint...
and Surinam, which seems odd because the Antilles are still part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (the inhabitants have a Dutch passport) and those from Surinam immigrated when that country was still part of the Netherlands. However, many Indonesian allochtones are white or of mixed race (former colonists), while most Surinam and Antillean allochtones are black (former slaves), so this definition coincides better with people's conception of the word.
Dutch Royal Family
Most members of the Dutch Royal Family are officially allochtonen, one of their parents being a Royal and his or her spouse being of foreign extraction. The only exception are the children of Princess Margriet of the NetherlandsPrincess Margriet of the Netherlands
Princess Margriet Francisca of the Netherlands is the third daughter of Queen Juliana and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands...
and her commoner husband Pieter van Vollenhoven
Pieter van Vollenhoven
Pieter van Vollenhoven, Jr. is the husband of Princess Margriet of the Netherlands and a member of the Dutch Royal House.-Early life and career:Born in Schiedam, he is the second son of Pieter van Vollenhoven, Sr...
.
See also
- Demographics of the NetherlandsDemographics of the NetherlandsThis article is about the demographic of the Netherlands, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.-Population size:...
- ImmigrationImmigrationImmigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
- Immigration policyImmigration policyAn immigration policy is any policy of a state that deals with the transit of persons across its borders into the country, but especially those that intend to work and to remain in the country. Immigration policies can range from allowing no migration at all to allowing most types of migration,...
- MulticulturalismMulticulturalismMulticulturalism is the appreciation, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultures, applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level, e.g...
- EthnocentrismEthnocentrismEthnocentrism is the tendency to believe that one's ethnic or cultural group is centrally important, and that all other groups are measured in relation to one's own. The ethnocentric individual will judge other groups relative to his or her own particular ethnic group or culture, especially with...
- NationalismNationalismNationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
- XenophobiaXenophobiaXenophobia is defined as "an unreasonable fear of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange". It comes from the Greek words ξένος , meaning "stranger," "foreigner" and φόβος , meaning "fear."...
- RacismRacismRacism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
Related concepts in other languages
- Gaikokujin (also "Gaijin") from JapaneseJapanese languageis a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
. - Farangi, Firang and FarangFarangFarang , also spelled falang, is the generic Thai word for a Westerner. A general term for foreigners is khon tang prathet . There is no expressly negative or positive implication in the word itself. However when it is used along with other words, it can bring a negative meaning depending on...
- various forms used to refer to Westerners/foreigners in the East