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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
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African associations in the Netherlands, differences in number, type, interconnectedness and transnational ties
| Panel |
42. Transnational spaces/cosmopolitan times: African associations in Europe
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| Paper ID | 209 |
| Author(s) |
Heelsum, Anja van
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| Paper |
View paper (PDF)
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| Abstract | This paper deals with the associations of African immigrant groups in the Netherlands and is based on my study in 2005 among Angolans, Ethiopians, Eritreans, Congolese Nigerians and Sudanese in the Netherlands (Van Heelsum 2005; Van Heelsum & Hessels 2006). Similar work on Ghanaians and Somali’s will be used for comparison (Choenni 2002, Hessels 2000). The associational life in these communities differs considerably, both in terms of the number and type of associations as in terms of their interconnectedness through federations and ties to the home country.
The first part of the paper provides a description of number and type of African associations in the Netherlands. In the second part an explanation is sought why associational life is so different among the groups in this study, while the size of the communities is similar and they are operating more or less within the same opportunity structure. The three main points in this comparison come from a) the theory of organisational ecology (Hannan & Freeman, 1989), b) the civic community perspective (Putnam 1993, 2000) and c) the transnational perspective (Porters ea 1999, Horst 2006).
Organisational ecology theory forecasts an inverted u-curve development in the number of associations from the moment the first immigrants arrive until a community settles. The civic community perspective looks into social capital of members of associations, and their interconnectedness and networks. Drawing from the transnational perspective, we look at transnational contacts of the associations both towards the country of origin and towards other European countries and we will investigate whether or not circumstances in the country of origin provide an explanation of the differences between the African communities in Europe.
In the last paragraph we will draw conclusions on the question why the groups of the study differ so much and extend this reasoning to the possibilities for successful cooperation between NGO’s working in Africa and African associations in Europe.
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