• University of Amsterdam

• Academic

• Labour & Income,
• Diversity,
• Demographics

Placing Protest in Amsterdam

In: Cities and Social Movements: Immigrant Rights Activism in the US, France, and the Netherlands, 1970-2015

In the 1970s, the Dutch government became increasingly anxious about foreign workers who had come to the Netherlands without a work permit. Understanding the place where protests erupted and the relations within and among them is crucial for understanding why Amsterdam's movement activity exploded in the 1970s and 1980s. This chapter starts by examining how the government began to curtail immigration in the late 1960s and 1970s. It argues that guest workers were initially enveloped in a tutelary regime but were able to break out of that regime through their disruptive actions in the 1970s. The 1975 decree aimed to draw a sharp line between legitimate and illegitimate immigrants but it also sparked the first explosive conflicts over immigration policies discussed in the chapter. The tightly knit movement and community organizations in Amsterdam's historical neighborhoods cultivated strong immigrant organizations which subsequently developed into city, national, and international hubs of immigrant rights activism.