PhD defence A.M. (Angelique) Fredriksz

Dissertation in short:

This study is a qualitative, narrative study of existential stories of Eurasian people of Indonesian Dutch descent, or Dutch Indonesians. The historical events during and after the Second World War forced hundreds of thousands of them to relocate to the Netherlands, a country they that were tied to, but often had never visited. In the following decades their relationship with the Dutch government proved difficult. Several emotionally charged issues were essential for Dutch Indonesians to feel accepted, understood and appreciated by their new fatherland. However, the Dutch government often took a rational stance in these matters, one with little to no sympathy nor fundamental comprehension of the position of Dutch Indonesians in society. The cause of this discrepancy in perceptions is due to the difference in narratives that make dialogue impossible between both parties.

In this thesis twenty-one Dutch Indonesians were interviewed about their experiences on their arrival in the Netherlands in the years after the Second World War. Accordingly, to encapsulate their experiences, the Innerview-Model was created. Interviews conducted with this model focus on an in-depth perception from the heart, whereby the listener tries to empathise as much as possible with the emotional rapture of the narrator. In this way the stories that emerged during research can touch on the deepest layer of the experience of the respondents.