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>> 287 10 Immigrant Youths’ Contribution to Urban Culture in Amsterdam Christine Delhaye, Sawitri Saharso, and Victor van de Ven Amsterdam’s cultural life has been changed in a variety of ways by the children of immigrants. Taking our lead from Ulf Hannerz (1992), in this chapter we look at Amsterdam’s culture from a processual perspective . Cultures are always in a state of flux, and this is obviously the case in contemporary globalized societies such as the Netherlands, which not only face growing internal diversity owing to, among other things, processes of professionalization and specialization but have also witnessed large-scale inflows of people from abroad. In seeking to shed light on the complex and varied ways that the children of migrants have influenced Amsterdam’s urban public culture, we are concerned with “culture” on three levels: everyday youth culture, mass popular culture, and the arts that are recognized and supported by the more highly educated sectors of society, often referred to as “high culture.” We conceive of these different levels as partially overlapping and loosely bounded sets of cultural expressions, which notwithstanding their fuzzy boundaries, differ not only in content but also with regard to the way that cultural expressions are formally codified and disseminated. In addition to documenting the many, and profound, ways that the children of migrants have affected Amsterdam’s cultural landscape, a central question in our analysis is the cultural interconnectedness that has developed at the three different levels out of the interactions among 288 > 289 parties attract large crowds, and religion and social control play important roles in who attends and how they are run. Those attending Turkish parties dance to their favorite Turkish music, a major reason why Turkish youth go. In explaining why they go to Turkish parties, young men also mentioned discrimination by other clubs; young women said that their parents permitted them to go only to Turkish clubs. Moroccan parties stand out in that they are organized in the afternoon or early evening , are sometimes sex-segregated, and do not serve alcohol—which is why parents allow their daughters to frequent them. As among Turkish young people, Moroccan men in Boogaarts’s study said they were drawn to Moroccan clubs because of discrimination in other clubs. Girls: Beauty and Sharing Experiences Girls’ subcultures revolve around girls sharing secrets with their best friends in the privacy of their bedrooms or are about socializing with a small group of friends. The inability to discuss cultural or religious difference hampers friendships across cultural lines. This comes out in Linda Duits’s (2010) ethnographic study of girls at two primary schools in Amsterdam.1 Friendships between girls who wore the hijab and those who did not were rare. This was not necessarily because the girls’ experiences were so different—actually, they had a lot in common—or because Muslim girls wearing the hijab were rejected. Girls who did not wear the hijab believed it should be respected because “it is their religion” or because “it is her choice,” or because “everyone has a right to be herself.” Choices involving religion or authenticity were not to be questioned; religious difference was a topic that was placed beyond the reach of debate. But the fact that the religious differences among them could not be talked about inhibited the development of confidentiality between girls of different religious backgrounds; as sharing experiences was central to their subculture, they felt they had little to say to each other. Fashion and ideals of beauty are important in girls’ subculture. For many young Muslim girls, religion seems to be perfectly compatible with fashion as they display a variety of fashionable styles of Islamic dress in the streets of Amsterdam. Carefully combining stylish hijabs with other fancy clothing items, these young Muslim girls create their own versions of sporty, urban, ladylike, or other trendy looks. Their 290 > 291 seems to transcend ethnic lines, involving youth of different immigrant origins as well as native Dutch youth from lower-socioeconomic backgrounds . For example, a street language has developed that is a mixture of Moroccan, Surinamese, and Dutch. Several ethnographic studies in Amsterdam reveal the dynamics of urban street culture and its variants in particular neighborhoods and amongdifferentethnicgroups.JanDirkdeJong’sstudyofthegroupculture of boys of Moroccan descent who hang out on the streets of Amsterdam Overtoomseveld (a district in Amsterdam-West) shows how they developedtheirownstreetculturethatendorsedcertaintypesof (serious)delinquent behavior. The boys developed this street culture, De Jong argues, in reaction to growing up as “foreigners” (children of immigrants...

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