writing_womans_lives_symposium_paper_book_v2

context of education. In contexts where a dense body of minority students are present, they have
felt less belonging uncertainty. In the higher levels they felt belonging uncertainty more acutely since
they weren’t represented widely. Teacher’s reactions also have affected their feelings of belonging,
questioning the quality of their bonds to their educational setting.
The respondents devised some strategies for alleviating belonging uncertainty. Veiling early on
around age twelve and establishing themselves as veiled students in the new school worked to curb
unwanted questions. Making public speeches and establishing themselves also worked as a strategy.
Another strategy was paying attention to their attire in order not to come across as too foreign.
Moreover, by sticking together and cultivating their friendships through their ethnic networks and
with other Muslims, they were preoccupied with developing parallel feelings of belonging to their
own group for curbing the negative effects of belonging uncertainty.
Although this study focused on veiled students, during fieldwork the author also came to know
and spoke with various non‐veiled Turkish‐Dutch students. From these encounters, it was clear that
the less conspicous difference one manifested, the less they felt belonging uncertainty. It was
generally stated that the Dutch were more able to identify with Turks wearing Western attire, and
that they could approach them more easily. One non‐veiled woman said that with a non‐veiled Turk,
the Dutch would strike up a conversation more easily. Another one argued that if one veiled and one
non‐veiled Turk would compete for a job position, obviously the non‐veiled would be given the job,
as veils are deemed too foreign. However, they also sometimes felt belonging uncertainty due to
ethnic markers. One non‐veiled woman argued that dark skin colour manifested difference as some
Turks with fairer skin could pass as Dutch, and that they encountered less discrimination.
Keywords: Belonging, Veil, Education, Turkish‐Dutch women
Deniz BATUM
Radboud University, Institute of Gender Studies
d.batum@yahoo.com
Notes
1
Gregory Walton and Geoffrey Cohen, “A question of belonging: race, social fit, and
achievement,” Journal of personality and social psychology 92, no.1 (2007): 82.
2
Geoffrey Cohen and Julio Garcia, “‘I am us’: Negative stereotypes as collective threats,” Journal of
Personality and Social Pyschology 89, no. 4 (2005): 566; idem, “Identity, Belonging, and Achievement: A
Model, Interventions, Implications,” Current Directions in Psychological Science 17, no. 6 (2008): 365;
Angela M. Locks, Sylvia Hurtado, Nicholas Bowman, and Leticia Oseguera, “Extending Notions of Campus
Climate and Diversity to Students’ Transition to College,” The Review of Higher Education 31, no. 3
(2008): 280.
3
Adél Pásztor, “Imagined Futures: Why Business Studies Dominate the Higher Education Choices
of Second‐Generation Turks in the Netherlands,” Ethnic and Racial Studies 35, no. 4 (2012): 708.
4
Anthony Heath, Catherine Rothon, and Elina Kilpi, “The Second Generation in Western Europe:
Education, Unemployment, and Occupational Attainment,” Annual Review of Sociology 34, no. 1
(2008): 217.
5
Rick Wolff and Adél Pásztor, “Equal opportunity in a public system: experiences of ethnic
minority students in Dutch higher education,” in Higher Education and Equality of Opportunity:
Cross‐National Perspectives, ed.
Fred Lazin, Matt Evans, and N. Jayaram (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2010), 272.
6
Mieke Maliepaard and Mérove Gijsberts, Moslim in Nederland 2012 (Den Haag: Sociaal en
Cultureel Planbureau, 2012), 77.
7
Martin van Bruinessen, “After Van Gogh : Roots of Anti‐Muslim Rage” (paper presented at the
Seventh Mediterranean Social and Political Research Meeting, Florence, Italy, March 22–26,
2006); Frank Buijs, “Muslims in the Netherlands: Social and Political Developments after 9/11,”
Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 35, no. 3 (2009): 422‐423.
8
Maliepaard and Gijsberts, Moslim in Nederland 2012, 82‐86.
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