Ethnic Minorities’ Schooling Experiences in the Netherlands:

Ethnic minority young people in the Netherlands experience school as a key interface with the wider society and as a place of cultural encounters. Even though contact between a dominant and dominated group does often involve the disruption of the minority culture and assimilation into the dominant culture, the process in the Netherlands experienced by church-going Ghanaian ethnic minority young people is found in this research much more complex. This research explores the perceptions and identities of a group of second generation young Ghanaian-Dutch in The Hague, The Netherlands as they interact with the Dutch educational system and their Ghanaian church community. It examines the types of ethnic/national identities adopted by these young ethnic minority people as they interact and engage with both Dutch and Ghanaian social and cultural systems of their lives. The subjective understandings that these young people have of their ethnic identities and being Dutch are depicted. Three types of identities are evident among the second generation - a Ghanaian-Dutch identity, a Ghanaian identity and an immigrant identity. These different identities are related to the different perceptions and understandings of ethnic relations and schooling in the Netherlands. Findings show their identities are fluid, varied and contextual; underpinned by historical, social, political and economic process which related to the incorporation of their parents into the Dutch system. Most of the respondents have a relatively positive experience of schooling while a few were neutral. The model of combining both a dominant and subordinate culture in their identity formation seems conceptually useful, but may overstate the tension felt by most of the respondents. Parents‟ social network such as the church plays a major role in their lives and provides support for ethnic and immigrant aspects of identities. But overall, these findings indicate a sense of integration into the Dutch society.