816. Al jaren minder migratie, maar toch een 'crisis' - hoe kan dat?

·14 min·1 clip

Professor Peter Scholten reveals the Netherlands' biggest secret: there is no migration crisis despite public belief.

The episode features Peter Scholten, a university professor of immigration at Erasmus University, analyzing why the Netherlands perceives a migration crisis despite decreasing migration numbers. He begins by stating migration has fallen for years, with asylum migration below the European average for 25 years. Scholten introduces the concept of 'migration obsession,' a harsh belief in an overwhelming problem contrary to data. He outlines five factors driving this obsession. First, policy chaos, where stricter asylum measures don't reduce numbers and underfunded organizations like the Immigration and Naturalization Service create reception issues. Second, political strategy, where parties use migration to stoke fear during elections for votes. Third, media dynamics constantly frame migration as a crisis. Fourth, language that naturalizes migration as a 'stream' and labels second-generation citizens as migrants, having anti-democratic effects. Fifth, the 'migrantization' of problems, like attributing the housing crisis to asylum seekers when only 7% is linked to them, leading to bad policy. Scholten discusses societal consequences, such as protests at Malieveld where racism emerged, linking this to anomie—discomfort from rapid societal changes like globalization. He suggests solutions: political parties need clear stories about migration society, improving media literacy to combat disinformation, and researchers being critical in their language use. The episode concludes with a call for resilience and responsibility.

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