sempozyum_bildiri_kitabi

BELONGING UNCERTAINTY: NEGOTIATING ISLAMIC IDENTITY IN
SCHOOL
Deniz BATUM *
In a given setting, minority situation undermines belonging to the majority group. Minority groups
can experience “belonging uncertainty” due to their different ethnic, religious, sexual or other social
identities. 1 In immigration contexts, whether if immigrants feel and experience belonging to their
surroundings is deemed highly important for their overall well‐being and success. It has been well
documented that immigrants suffer from persistent performance decrements in education or work
when their visible social identities are not valued and accepted by majority groups. 2
Given the relation between belonging and success, this article explores how second‐generation
practicing Muslim Turkish‐Dutch veiled students in Dutch higher education (HE) experience and deal
with issues of belonging during their educational careers.
This group is chosen to be studied firstly due to the significant underachievement of Turkish‐
Dutch women in HE, and secondly due to prononunced anti‐immigrant and anti‐Muslim stance
prevalent in the Netherlands in recent years. Turkish‐Dutch women, even in the second generation
are poorly represented in Dutch HE; being generally present in the lower educational tracks 3 with
high drop‐out rates 4 and they lag behind even when compared to other minority groups. 5 It is argued
that 20% of all Turkish‐Dutch second‐generation women veil. 6 As policymakers desire to increase
Turkish‐Dutch women’s participation in HE and access to higher paying jobs, information about
whether and how veiling may affect this is needed.
Moreover, immigrant Muslims have been discursively formed as racialised cultural Others, as
members of a backward culture, unable and unwilling to integrate in Dutch society. 7 Although
belonging uncertainty might also be experienced by non‐veiling, secular Turkish‐Dutch women due to
their ethnicity, in recent years religious difference became the most prominent and negative
attribute. Thus, veiled women’s manifest affiliation with Islam renders them especially prone to
belonging uncertainty. As second generation Turkish‐Dutch are highly self‐identified as Muslims 8 and
that more and more veiled women in this group are attempting to get into HE, it is pertinent to look
at their experiences. To understand the repercussions of veiling in terms of belonging by those
involved, this article discusses the ways in which students experience, express and appropriate
feelings of belonging when they veil in Dutch educational context. The article draws on participant
observation and 28 in‐depth interviews with veiled students in HE, analyzed using “grounded
theory.” 9
In the Netherlands, the presence of minority groups differs considerably between schools as
well as between levels of education. The type of school attended, and the composition of the class, in
particular the presence of other Muslim classmates emerge as important determinants of
experiences pertaining to belonging. Leyla, a 20 year‐old student of public relations took up veiling at
middle school during school term:
Dutch girls from class, not really friends but acquaintances... they wouldn’t ask me
directly, but I would hear them say “did she just get engaged? Why did she veil?” They
weren’t openly mocking me, but unfortunately I’d hear they were gossiping.
Leyla remembers being upset and annoyed with the rumours going on in the classroom when
she started veiling. However, she was able to brush off such negativity due to the support network of
fellow Turkish‐Dutch friends in her Amsterdam school, which had the second highest number of
Turkish‐Dutch in the country.
Taliha started veiling when she turned twelve. In her closely‐knit Turkish community veiling
was viewed as a developmental marker; it marked the end of childhood and beginning of young
adulthood, working as a rite of passage from which they derived positive feelings. As she was
*
Radboud University Institute for Gender Studies