"How can I enpower others, if I myself am not?"

In this research, mono-ethnic migrant organisations (MEMO’s) in the municipality of Rotterdam in the Netherlands have been examined by analysing their dependency on their policy context. Over the last thirty years or so, policies regarding the Dutch government’s support of MEMO’s have been subject to change, with MEMO’s slowly losing their external resources of financial support and access to the policy-making process. With MEMO’s still existing in a non-supportive policy context, the following main question required answering: To what extent are mono-ethnic migrant organisations dependent on their policy context in Rotterdam? A literature review has been conducted to illustrate this changing policy context of MEMO’s. To determine MEMO’s dependency, a multiple case-study has been undertaken. Eight people, working for MEMO’s, have been interviewed. In multiple ways, interviewees were asked whether they had acted upon the changes in their policy context, by either trying to adapt to them or by trying to influence the changes which were negatively affecting their organisations. These indicators of dependency have been based on the niche theory of interest representation, interpreting MEMO’s as ‘interest groups’, and on theories regarding interest groups and policy change. The conclusion of this research, based on the theoretical framework’s rationale, was considered insufficient, as the formed indicators did not seem to measure the dependency of MEMO’s. The adopted theories expected the MEMO’s to be more active and more political than they appeared to be through the research, eventually making it seem as if they are not dependent on their policy context. As the analysed MEMO’s almost all have lost some of their activeness because of decreasing external resources and as MEMO’s in the Netherlands are decreasing in general, one can image the inaccuracy of this conclusion. In the discussion chapter, the research is critically reflected upon, describing the mismatch between the adopted theory and the research case, and proposing further possible explanations and illustrations of the relation between MEMO’s and their policy context.