Forever an Isolated Caste? ‘Mainstreaming’ of Repatriate Care in General Dutch Bodies of Social Work, 1960–1967

Abstract

Abstract The policy strategy of ‘mainstreaming’ is now common within Dutch diversity policy: it means newcomers are to make use of generic provisions meant for the population as a whole. The idea is that this leads to faster integration. According to the literature, the move to ‘mainstreaming’ started in the 1990s. In this article, I argue that ‘mainstreaming’ already occurred in the policies for ‘repatriates’ (migrants from Indonesia) in the 1960s, when their care was transferred from specialised organisations to general bodies of social work. From 1950 onwards, a network of Protestant, Catholic and neutral associations for repatriate care was created. By analysing documents from this network and from the Ministry of Social Work, I argue that the ‘mainstreaming’ of repatriate care can be explained by looking at the influence of social work experts, in combination with the influence of elaborate research reports on the degree of integration of the repatriates.