Governing diversity, experiencing difference The politics of belonging in ethnically diverse places

In the Netherlands, diversity relating to migrant background has become broadly perceived as impeding the belonging of particularly the ‘native’ population, spurring a concern with migrants’ cultural assimilation and social cohesion and participation. Urban policies focus in particular on ethnically diverse and socioeconomically deprived neighbourhoods. In these neighbourhoods, policy interventions create local places where residents can meet and participate together in order to prevent alienation and stimulate a shared sense of belonging. This dissertation asks how the governance of diversity through urban and neighbourhood policies influences residents’ lived experiences of difference and belonging. The research explored the divergence of urban discourses of belonging in Amsterdam and The Hague from the Dutch national discourse and provided insight into their local specificity as well as their translation into policy practice. Furthermore, the dissertation demonstrates how material and social neighbourhood contexts shape residents’ lived experiences of difference and belonging. It is argued that the experience of belonging to a particular place is always structured by broader socio-political imaginaries and power relations which constrict the ways in which belonging can be experienced.