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Summary
Around
27,500 Somalis are living in the Netherlands. Since the late 1980s the Somalis have been coming to Holland as refugees. The continuing
conflicts and wars in their home country Somalia forced them to flee abroad and to come
here. At present, Somalia has no government. Most of
the Somali refugees find refuge in neighbouring countries in the region and
only a very small number come to Europe. Nonetheless, within the short time of five years, the Somali
community in the Netherlands has astronomically increased
to about 10,000 individuals of which the majority are younger than 20 years.
Many
Somali refugees in the Netherlands have adjustment problems which can largely be explained by the
difference of social norms, habits and lifestyles between the Somali and
Dutch societies. Somalis coming from a nomadic culture, are a group which
experiences one of the biggest differences possible in relation to the
societal norms of their host (Dutch) society. Consequently, the Somalis
remain far behind with respect to social mobility and achieve little success
both in education and at the job market. This dismal performance and the
limited participation of the Somali community in the mainstream Dutch society
indeed opens the risk of further isolation of the community. While at the
same time, the talent and the experiences of the individuals in the community
are not utilised and could be wasted forever. This can eventually develop a
negative perception of the whole Somali community which may become a further
impediment to their participation in the wider society in the country.
As
this research study clearly shows, effective and better communication is the
primary condition for a better understanding and a key to a successful social
integration. With respect to the Somalis, this process should be initiated at
the level of Somali individuals and their Dutch contact persons working in
the social institutions, with whom they frequently come into contact for help
and information. The intention of this study is to lay bare the bottle-necks
that the Somalis and the Dutch employees working in the social institutions
experience as they come into contact. The information in this study is
collected through literature study, informal conversations both through
individual and telephone contacts, interviews with focus groups and years of
research and participatory experience we observed over the communication
difficulties between the individual Somalis and the Dutch employees in the
social institutions. The significance of the study is that it offers
practical recommendations which will help to improve the communication
between the Somali and the Dutch society.
Chapter
one of the study lays the groundwork and describes the historical, social,
cultural and nomadic background of the Somali community in Somalia (their original homeland).
It explains that, due to the demands of the pastoral nomadic economic
existence by which they subsist, most Somalis in Somalia move and travel constantly in search of
water and pasture. This simple pastoral nomadic economy of the Somali society
has given rise to a simple social organisation. The Somalis still organise
themselves through clan associations. This means that the Somali society has
no hierarchical authority and no historical experience of a centralised
authority.
Building
on the discussion in this chapter, the second chapter recounts the social
position of the Somali community in the Netherlands. It describes the conditions of the
community in Holland, examines the possible causes of the adjustment problems they are confronted with and how their integration process within the wider Dutch society is faring. Some of the adjustment problems the Somali community is confronted with are caused by cultural shocks, identity crisis, double loyalties, etc; which the Somali individuals experience in the new environment. In addition, other concrete challenges that the Somali community is faced with are mass unemployment, early drop out from schools, social isolation, "qat" addiction and lack of trust in the governmental institutions.
Chapter
three deals with the subject of inter-cultural communication. It provides a
well-defined framework of references that will help the workers in the social
institutions to better prepare in the consultation with their Somali clients.
The knowledge of the social and cultural background of the Somali society we
discussed in the previous two chapters combined with the techniques of
inter-cultural communication will lead to enhance a better understanding and
an effective help service to the community.
In
chapter four, we account the outcome of the discussions with the focus groups
over the bottle necks in the communication between the individual Somalis and
the Dutch employees working in the social institutions.
This
research study attempts to answer the following questions:
How
is the contact between the Somalis and the Dutch social institutions at the
moment?
What
are the specific bottle necks which can be concretely identified?
Are
there specific factors on either side which hinder communication between the
Somalis and the Dutch social institutions?
We
learned in the process of collecting the research materials for the study
that written questionnaires or individual interviews are techniques Somalis
are hardly familiar with. Both techniques do not correspond with the Somali
oral tradition. The Somalis are accustomed to exchanging news and information
and have group discussions. It is because of this experience that we chose
the method of focus groups. In this study, we interviewed two focus groups in
which Somalis and employees working in the Dutch social institutions are
equally represented.
In
the two focus groups, the Somalis who participated come from Amsterdam, Arnhem, Delft, Nijmegen and The Hague. Seven were adults (four male, three
female) and one youth. Either of them hold a key position in the community or
play an active role in one or other of the Somali self help organisations.
With
respect to the representatives of the Dutch social institutions in the focus
groups, they were employees from the Bureau of New Comers, Dutch language
schools, the Department of Social Affairs, Employment and Labour services in
the local authorities, Department of policy making with respect to the New
Comers in Municipalities, Refugee Office, the Police, a Consultant Bureau and
the Central Organs of the Refugee Camps in Amersfoort, Delft, Rotterdam, De Lier,
The Hague and Tilburg.
The brain
storming and the exchange of views and experiences of the individuals in the
focus groups have produced a lot of information. Both the Somalis and the
Dutch in the focus groups have done their utmost to contribute to the two
round table discussions we organised in Delft and in Utrecht. They openly spoke about their
displeasure and frustrations over the existing difficulties in the
communication between the Somali community and the Dutch social institutions.
It was very useful that the participants in the focus groups narrated their
respective experiences over the nature of the bottle necks with respect to
communication. They described many bottle necks which very often repeat and
hinder normal communication between the individual Somalis and the employees
working in the Dutch social institutions.
We
detail in this study all the bottle necks the participants emphasised in the
hope that they would be considered in the process of developing a better and
effective communication. The representatives in the focus groups repeatedly
emphasised that the communication difficulties cannot be generalised since it
is not a problem that every Somali living in Holland or every Dutch employee working in
social institutions is suffering from. The results of the discussions of the
focus groups are organised in the following sequences: experiences of the
Dutch social institutions; experiences of the Somali community; general
bottle necks in communication; and specific bottle necks that the Dutch
social institutions experience.
At
the end of each meeting we asked the participants in the focus groups the
following question: How will the Somali community be over five years, if we
do not act immediately now? Answering the question, all participants in the
focus groups expressed their concern with the present condition of the Somali
community in the Netherlands. They suggested that extra
attention and commitment are needed both from the Somalis themselves and the
Dutch social institutions in order to guide the youth and help the single
mothers and the unemployed elders in the community.
In
chapter five, recommendations for better communication are presented.
On
the basis of a deeper analysis of the social and cultural background of the
Somalis and the inventories of the bottle necks which hinder the
communication between the Somalis and the Dutch institutions that we
formulated recommendations. It is very important that the bottle necks in
communication are not only seen as a problem between the individual Somali
client and the Dutch contact person working in an institution but also as a
problem between the Somali community as a whole and the Dutch social
institutions. Keeping this in mind, the recommendations are aimed at the
Dutch social institutions, the Somali community and the Dutch employees
working in those institutions.
Furthermore,
a close and a good working relationship between the Somali community and the
Dutch social institutions is a condition for a better communication. It is
also very important that the Somalis and the employees working in the Dutch
social institutions accept each other as partners and play an equal role in
finding solutions for the communication problems. The Dutch social
institutions have a responsibility to assess how communication between their
employees and the Somali clients is progressing and develop a plan
accordingly in order to improve it. The social institutions can increase
their know-how about the Somali community by recruiting Somali employees,
seeking contact with the Somali self-organisations, seeking advice from key
Somali figures as well as from experts on the Somali society in the Netherlands.
The
Somali community is also responsible for finding solutions to the problems
they experience in the country. For example, the Somali self-organisations
and the leading Somali figures in the community can initiate projects aimed
at bridging the communication gap between the community and the Dutch social
institutions. Of course, establishing such projects, the Somalis need the
support of the social institutions and the government. In this study, we
presented specific recommendations which are aimed at enhancing the capacity
of the Somali self-organisations, setting up self-help projects and the
provision of information about the social and cultural background of the
Somali society for the Dutch social institutions. Furthermore, we recommended
that extra attention be given to the young, the single mothers and the
unemployed elders.
Finally,
we proposed that the seriousness of the bottle necks in the communication
that we have recounted in this study not only require the intervention of the
Somali community and the social institutions but also the involvement of the authorities
, such as the higher levels of the government, the province and the municipality.
We should not underestimate the seriousness of these obstacles since they
slow the pace of the integration process of the Somali community into the
wider Dutch society. And the fact is that if we leave the community on their
own and do not help them to speeding up the pace of their integration process
into the wider society right now, certainly their social position will
deteriorate further as time passes by. This is a reality which will happen if
the government ignores the serious social situation the Somali community is
confronted with now and does not act immediately. The intervention of the
government must lie in areas such as ensuring proper registration, support,
stimulation and playing the role of facilitator in the solutions to the
community’s problems.
March
2000
Original
title
Communicatie, sleutel tot participatie
Published
by
Ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken en Koninkrijksaangelegenheden (Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations), The Hague, June 2000.
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