Moroccan associations in the Netherlands: how organisation leaders deal with the stigmatisation of the Moroccan community

The key issue of this paper is how representatives of Moroccan associations in the Netherlands have responded to the sudden rise of anti-immigrant sentiments and the stigmatization of Moroccans that has been taking place since the first decade of the twenty-first century in this country. Elaborate fieldwork done among representatives of Moroccan associations has been merged with several rounds of interviews conducted from 1997 to 2011, facilitating a longterm analysis. At the outset, the chapter focuses on four distinct periods: 1997, 2001-2004, 2005-2009 and 2011; followed by an attempt at demonstrating that it is possible to discern a certain development in the reactions outlined. Having dealt with the results chronologically, the analysis concludes with a typology of reactions, based on Gordon Allport’s theory of prejudice.