Mens & Maatschappij - Current Issue

“Transforming societal discontent into innovative power”: Towards a democratic welfare state

First, this inaugural lecture argues that there are sources of discontent that undermine the social legitimacy of our welfare state; middle classes in danger of becoming alienated from the welfare state, undeserving beneficiaries having to meet stricter requirements, and social systems becoming entangled in complexity.

Second, it explores the innovative power of democratization in addressing discontent. Four interventions are discussed: strengthening 1) universal arrangements, 2) collective involvement, 3) trust in beneficiaries and civil servants, 4) ownership in social security. And it sketches how transformation can be achieved by allowing space for bottom-up initiatives aiming to renew the welfare state.

Characteristics of the ideal human trafficking victim: A media analysis

Christie (1986) suggests that victims/survivors conforming to the standards of the ideal victim are more likely to be recognized as victims – provided they have the social capital to claim that victim status. In this study, we examine a total of 101 newspaper articles from eight national Dutch newspapers’ reporting on various types of human trafficking, including labor, sexual, and criminal exploitation, through qualitative content analysis, using Atlas.ti. We conclude that ideal victim characteristics as described by Christie (1986) are present in the reporting, but do not dominate the overall representation of victims/survivors. The results show that framing of victims/survivors differs per type of exploitation.

The influence of the reception period on developments in perceived exclusion by Syrian refugees in the Netherlands

Policies can have a large impact on the lives of refugees, especially in the first few years after arrival. Prior research has mostly focused on their impact on ‘objective’ factors such as language acquisition or labor market integration. We expand on this by examining the longer-term impact of refugee’s experiences with Dutch institutions and policies on the perceived exclusion of migrants by Dutch society. This study uses three waves of survey data (2017, 2019, 2022) to explore the policy factors that influence perceived exclusion among Syrian refugees in the Netherlands. We aim to offer a more nuanced perspective on the impact of policies, by examining the role of objective aspects, e.g., the time spent in an asylum seeker center, and subjective aspects, e.g., satisfaction with the stay in the center. Our findings indicate that especially subjective factors matter. Those who were more satisfied with their stay in the center perceived less exclusion, and this effect did not decrease over time.