“Norms and values are not our concern” Diversity within the universal protocols at the municipality Veenendaal
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2019-08-16
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en
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At the municipality of Veenendaal, three prominent sentiments intersect. (1) Current integration discourse, which since the 2015 refugee situation, was brought back into the limelight. (2) The 2015 Participation Act, a new law that demands every person on welfare to be active and participate in society even when they are not working and (3) the municipality’s duty of objectivity towards all their welfare clients. Through qualitative research conducted among client managers re-integration at the Economics and Work department of the municipality of Veenendaal, this research aims to explain how the municipality copes with diversity within their client population in the context of the three intersecting sentiments.
I argue that the municipality creates a universal protocol that through interaction and documentation produces neutral, simple, universal subjects. Nevertheless, client managers still differentiate along racial lines using personal interpretation of which ‘Dutch’ cultural traits are needed to succeed in the labour market. However, ‘culture’ and difference overall are barely addressed by client managers within these protocols and the topics are outsourced to experts that work mainly outside these protocols. This gives client managers the opportunity to stay within universal protocols, where they do not have to negotiate diversity because within it difference does not exist because all clients are universal subjects.
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Faculteit der Sociale Wetenschappen