https://thesis.eur.nl/col/7047/ List of Publications en https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/78110/ Fri, 13 Jun 2025 00:00:01 GMT <div>Abdoellakhan, D.K.</div> Abstract<br /> Discrimination against Muslims is a pressing concern in the Netherlands and beyond, yet its health impacts remain underexplored in the Dutch context. Another knowledge gap concerns the influence of local contexts in shaping the discrimination-health link. While literature shows that neighborhood factors may buffer the health impacts of perceived discrimination, this potential remains understudied among Dutch Muslims. <br /> <br /> Therefore, this mixed-methods research aimed to investigate the association between perceived discrimination (everyday and major forms) and self-assessed health and mental wellbeing among Muslims living in the neighborhoods Feijenoord and Schiebroek in Rotterdam. Using a self-designed “Protective Factors Framework,” I also examined how neighborhood factors - cohesion and intergroup contact - might buffer the health impacts of perceived discrimination. These relations were tested through a quantitative survey (n=152).<br /> <br /> Thereafter, a qualitative focus group was conducted, involving Muslims of both neighborhoods (n=5). This method enriched the quantitative findings, and aimed to identify additional local strategies or policies (not measured in the survey), that could also protect Muslims against adverse discrimination effects. This participatory approach aligns with calls for co-creation and responsiveness in public governance. Through this mixed-methods design, the study produced findings that are both empirically grounded and policy-relevant. <br /> <br /> Results generally showed that perceived discrimination was negatively associated with health outcomes, with the negative effect of everyday discrimination being more pronounced. However, everyday discrimination effects were mitigated by neighborhood factors. Perceived neighborhood cohesion buffered the negative impact of everyday discrimination on mental wellbeing in both neighborhoods, while quality of intergroup contact showed a protective effect specifically in Schiebroek. Similar buffering effects were not observed for the effect of major discrimination on health outcomes.<br /> <br /> The focus group revealed feelings of exclusion from policymaking and reluctance to seek mental and legal support after having experienced discrimination. Participants emphasized the value of sustained contact with non-Muslims for reducing prejudice and improving wellbeing. Finally, Muslims shared strategies to strengthen police-youth relations, echoing survey findings on police-related discrimination. This novel, mixed-methods study led to actionable policy recommendations, discussed at the end of this research paper. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/78109/ Thu, 26 Jun 2025 00:00:01 GMT <div>Schippers, A.E.</div> Exclusion in nightlife spaces is rarely the product of explicit rules alone. Rather, it emerges through a complex interplay of informal discretion, aesthetic norms, and fragmented governance. In Rotterdam, this dynamic plays out within a nightlife sector that is formally committed to inclusion yet still marked by persistent risks of racialised exclusion. This thesis examines how clubs in Rotterdam balance door policy practices and club identity with efforts to promote inclusive access. Based on 12 semi-structured interviews with managers, bouncers, and professionals involved in nightlife policy in Rotterdam, this study explores how club-led cultural production, discretionary access decisions, and weak enforcement frameworks shape who feels welcome in nightlife spaces. The analysis foregrounds the role of club identity as an informal regulatory force, enacted through music programming, aesthetics, staffing, and marketing, which curates audiences long before guests reach the door. It also highlights how bouncers, operating as street-level bureaucrats, exercise discretion in ways that both reflect and reproduce racialised patterns of exclusion. Governance frameworks such as the Panel Deurbeleid provide voluntary guidance, but enforcement remains limited and fragmented, leaving much of the work of inclusion to individual actors navigating tensions between commercial imperatives and normative commitments. The study contributes to research on aesthetic governance, institutional racism, and informal regulation in nightlife, offering insights for both academic debates and local policy. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/78112/ Fri, 27 Jun 2025 00:00:01 GMT <div>Warmerdam, S.R.</div> This paper focuses on the Case Matcher algorithm used by asylum decision-officers at the Dutch Immigration and Naturalisation Services (IND). The algorithmic support tool enables users to consult older cases with similar characteristics, allowing for comparison-based decision-making. Case Matcher aims to make the refugee decision process (RSD) quicker and reduce inconsistencies in asylum assessment. The increase in use of algorithms in public administration have resulted in the concept of Algorithmic Governance, a topic concerned with the decisions made by algorithms about refugees and asylum-applicants as a way for institutions to control movement using technology. With Case Matcher, Algorithmic Governance becomes increasingly relevant within Dutch government bodies. This paper therefore questions: How does Algorithmic Governance influence the decision-making process of IND asylum decision-officers in the Netherlands? From interviews conducted with 14 asylum decision-officers, the implications of Case Matcher for the work of employees were analysed through the lens of ethical risks, responsibility & accountability, and efficiency & effectiveness. While Case Matcher was expected to significantly alter credibility thresholds and make comparison the default mode of judgment, the findings reveal more complex implications. Participants highlight a strong sense of responsibility regarding case assessment and emphasise the need to remain critical and self-aware when consulting Case Matcher to compare cases. Frequent use reduces the perceived efficiency of refugee status determination, and workload is seen as minimally affected by Case Matcher. Ethical risks such as over-reliance and misinterpretation are at risk when employees fail to receive coherent training sessions. However, these ethical risks appear to be mostly an effect of the organisational environment of the IND. That is; ethical risks are dependent on how employees choose to interact with the tool and how the organisational environment of the IND frames its use. This research shows that Algorithmic Governance does not have to erode human judgement and critical thinking in migration governance but can be a way of governing where human agency, institutional culture and tool design intersect. These findings help to move the conversation of Algorithmic Governance in the context of RSD beyond technological determinism and credibility discretion towards one that is more closely related to organisational behaviour and the collaboration of humans and algorithms. Future research should decentre algorithms and instead research how the use of algorithms such as Case Matcher depends on how the algorithm is interpreted and institutionalised within migration government bodies like the IND. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/78107/ Sun, 29 Jun 2025 00:00:01 GMT <div>Agyei, G.</div> This thesis contributes to scholarly debates on the sources of institutional trust in immigrant populations, specifically focusing on the factors influencing the trust of African second-generation immigrants in The Netherlands. Building on literature highlighting the role of pre-migratory experiences, as well as the influence of instability in the sending country on the political behaviour of immigrants in the receiving societies, the study explores how second-generations perceive political instability in their country of origin and how this shapes their trust in Dutch institutions. It brings an innovative contribution to the field from a methodological point of view, by adopting a qualitative research method to investigate narratives, opinions and reasoning behind the institutional trust of a demographic whose confidence in political institutions is often only represented in quantitative studies. It also brings further empirical evidence supporting the explanatory leverage of experiential theories on the sources of institutional trust by showing the important role played by day-to-day encounters with institutions in the development of second-generation trust or distrust. <br /> Results show that the institutional trust of Dutch-African second-generations is predominantly limited to the dimensions of functioning and reliability of the institutions, and seldom extended to the dimensions of fairness, transparency, and representation. This scepticism is often grounded on personal experiences of discrimination with institutions. Familial political socialization also plays a role in the transmission of perceptions of political instability in the country of origin, with this encouraging a limited ‘trust bonus’ on the efficiency of Dutch institutions, especially compared to the institutional dysfunctionality in the origin countries.<br /> https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/78111/ Sun, 29 Jun 2025 00:00:01 GMT <div>Van Swinderen, J.C.</div> This thesis investigates whether engagement with sleutelpersonen – active community figures <br /> connected to the municipality – affects the self-assessed knowledge of employment rights of <br /> Polish and Bulgarian labour migrants’ in Rotterdam. Awareness of such rights is often low <br /> among migrants, which contributes to vulnerability to labour exploitation. To address this, <br /> the municipality involved sleutelpersonen in outreach efforts. Using an explanatory <br /> sequential mixed-methods design, this study combines survey data (N = 108) with interviews <br /> among sleutelpersonen and practitioners. Quantitative results show no significant association between contact with <br /> sleutelpersonen and knowledge of employment rights. No moderating effect of bonding <br /> social capital was found. However, bonding social capital was strongly associated with <br /> knowledge of employment rights (β = 0.487, p < .001), which suggests the importance of <br /> close, trusting social ties. While Granovetter (1973) emphasised the informational value of <br /> weak ties, this study suggests strong ties may be more relevant for legal knowledge in recent <br /> migrant communities. Qualitative findings help explain the limited statistical effect of engagement with <br /> sleutelpersonen. Although brokerage theory highlights the potential of intermediaries to <br /> connect disconnected groups (Stovel et al., 2011), individual, relational and institutional <br /> obstacles to brokerage constrained their impact. Only a few sleutelpersonen acted as effective <br /> knowledge brokers, diffusing information through their networks and connecting migrants to <br /> formal help. Most lacked the time, networks, or organisational capacities to have broader <br /> impact. Their ambiguous role, diverging goals, limited contact with the municipality, and <br /> inconsistent institutional support further constrained their role in the spread of information. <br /> Their embedding in a welfare organisation rather than the municipality reduced their <br /> visibility and alignment with formal information flows. These findings suggest that strengthening bonding social capital within migrant <br /> communities may be more effective for improving rights knowledge than relying solely on <br /> community brokers. Still, sleutelpersonen may play a meaningful role in organising these <br /> activities and offering informal support. The study contributes to research on social capital <br /> and brokerage between migrants and institutions in local governance. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/78106/ Sat, 09 Aug 2025 00:00:01 GMT <div>Brugman, M.M.</div> This thesis explores how Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) respond to state-imposed constraints (SICs) when delivering humanitarian assistance (HA) to migrants at the Polish–Belarusian border. Since 2021, Poland has implemented increasingly securitized migration policies in response to the orchestrated arrival of migrants via Belarus. While Ukrainian refugees were largely welcomed, those arriving from Middle Eastern and African countries were framed as threats and subjected to deterrence measures including pushbacks, surveillance, and suspended asylum procedures. Against this backdrop, both local (LCSOs) and international (ICSOs) CSOs have become crucial HA providers, yet their ability to operate is increasingly constrained.<br /> <br /> Based on ten semi-structured interviews with LCSOs and ICSOs, this study shows that administrative/legislative constraints, such as anti-migrant rhetoric and legal ambiguity, affect all CSOs. However, physical/securitization and criminalization constraints disproportionately impact LCSOs, particularly due to their engagements in first-line HA. Building on the adjusted repression theory by (Honari, 2018), findings demonstrate a range of responses: desensitizing language to soften position, shifting tactics to other forms of HA, circumventing surveillance systems, and using de-identification to protect operations and individuals from criminal accusations. While many actors continue to resist these constraints, the criminalization of humanitarian assistance—through legal threats, fines, and prosecutions—has created a pervasive climate of fear. This not only undermines the ability of frontline actors to continue HA but shows a broader concern of shrinking civic space in securitized political contexts. <br /> This study offers an empirically supported analysis of how humanitarian actors respond to SICs by emphasizing the lived experiences of CSOs. The findings of this case study at the Polish–Belarusian border highlight the need for political accountability and legal protection, to ensure that HA can be continued to people in need within increasingly restrictive environments and safeguard our European and humanitarian principles. <br />