Migration Paradoxes of Non-Sovereignty: A Comparative Perspective on the Dutch Caribbean

• Author: Gert J. Oostindie
• Pages: 163-181

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- MIGRATION PARADOXES OF NON-SOVEREIGNTY -

Migration Paradoxes of

Non-Sovereignty:

A Comparative Perspective on the

Dutch Caribbean

GERT J. OOSTINDIE

For much of the twentieth century and all over the former colonial

world, colonial migrants studying or working in the various metropolitan

European countries were heavily influential in articulating anti-colonial

ideologies and, in the end, bringing sovereignty to their nations. This

historical link was severed at the closing of the twentieth century. By then,

migration had come to involve large cross-sections of the former colonial

populations rather than nationalist intelligentsia. Moreover, the option for

continuation of a non-sovereign status had become an internationally

accepted choice.

In the non-sovereign Caribbean, this has produced three paradoxical

outcomes. First, in spite of relative prosperity and well-being by regional

standards, large numbers of inhabitants of the non-sovereign Caribbean

have opted to exercise their full citizenship by settling in the metropolis,

expecting to improve their quality of life there. Second, the resulting

emergence of genuine transnational communities has effectively closed off

the option of full independence, as the two communities do not wish to

sever their relations. There is a third paradox to this outcome: while the

political option against independence is widely shared, there is a strong

current of anti-colonial resentment which elsewhere did inspire the choice

for full independence.

This chapter discusses the case of Dutch Caribbean migrations against

this broader background. Suriname opted for independence in 1975 and

experienced, among other setbacks, a massive migration to the Netherlands.

The predicament of Suriname in turn fuelled the Antillean refusal to become

independent. This choice, eventually, facilitated the emergence of a second

Caribbean community in the Netherlands. A comparison of the

characteristics of both communities and their impact on Dutch society

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- GOVERNANCE IN THE NON-INDEPENDENT CARIBBEAN -

discloses parallels as well as contrasts. The chapter ends with some

comparative reflections on the meaning of migration and cultural affinities

as well as antagonisms in the non-sovereign Caribbean vis-à-vis their various

metropolitan centres.1

MIGRATION AND DECOLONISATION:

HISTORICAL CONNECTIONS

In the history of all European colonial empires, one of the impulses to

the emergence of anti-colonial struggles originated from the metropolitan

sojourn of colonial subjects. Students studying the various academic

disciplines necessary to run a country at the same time became acquainted

with companions of their own and other colonies and developed a better

grasp of the stark contrasts between colonial pretensions and practice.

Demobilised soldiers experienced less than the appreciation they rightly

felt their metropolitan fellowmen owed them. Working class colonial

immigrants, while also exposed to overt racism, did have opportunities to

engage with trade unions. In short, and in particular in the first half of the

twentieth century, the metropolitan sojourn was a crucial rite of passage

for many a later nationalist leader.

The Dutch colonial orbit is no exception to this rule. While there had

been continuous but numerically insignificant and mainly temporary

immigration from the colonies all through the colonial period, this

accelerated in the interbellum. Of course, the immense Indonesian

archipelago provided the greater number of colonial migrants. The majority

of these originated from the colony’s traditional elites who were among

the tiny minority passing through Dutch-language education and hence

qualifying for metropolitan universities. In the Netherlands, they became

lawyers, medical doctors, engineers and the like. They also developed ideas

about an Indonesian nation that could do without the Dutch. In addition,

there were scattered working class immigrants and, more importantly,

revolutionary organisers welcomed into the ranks of the Dutch communist

party and soon incorporated into the Komintern (Poeze, 1986).

Migration from the Caribbean presents the same picture, even if the

numbers involved are scant. Pre-World War II Caribbean students in the

Netherlands, virtually all from the creolised elites, did form their own

organisations and the like, but did not engage in political issues. From

Suriname however also came a small contingent of working class migrants,