Clashing Identities? Mexicanity and Dutch Integration Policy

This research explores the relationship between Dutch integration policy and Mexican immigrants’ Mexicanity. Current immigration flows have resulted in stricter attitudes and policies towards newcomers. In this context, citizenship as the relation between the legal and the social has become the leading principle in Dutch integration policy. Accordingly, to become citizens, immigrants must prove their level of integration by being self-sufficient and actively engaged in Dutch society. Thus, this paper argues that the equalization of citizenship and integration by the Dutch government, oversees the interwoven and complex mechanism that immigrants face during their integration process. By focusing on Mexicans immigrants’ integration experience, this paper portrays how “real” integration is grounded. As Mexican immigrants move simultaneously amongst different political communities, being subject to specific circles of privilege or oppression. Their social locations, identifications, and emotional attachments greatly determine their integration process. This research makes use of citizenship in a wider context as an inclusionary or exclusionary tool of the state where individuals use their agency influenced by the politics of belonging to make the Netherlands their home.