Een kolonie van Duitsers

This research took place at the Department of History at the University of Utrecht and was carried out by dr. M.L.J.C. Schrover. The project was financed by NWO. The project started on 1 March 1997.

Central to this project was the question why some groups of migrants assimilated earlier than others. Next comes the question of whether temporary minority existence should be seen as a cause for concern, or if it is just a normal stage in the assimilation process. This research project tries to explain the assimilation process by means of a control experiment. Two groups of immigrants have been selected, differing only on some aspects.

These immigrants all came from Germany and differ only in the following respects: religion, occupational structure, type of migration (single or as a group) and degree of self-organization. Three generations are being followed from their arrival and during their stay in the city of Utrecht. The first generation arrived in Utrecht in the period 1820 to 1850.

The HSN basic sample of the city of Utrecht for the period 1812 to 1835 serves as a control group. The immigrants are compared to three generations of Utrecht natives in a systematic way. To achieve sufficient numbers an oversampling of the basic sample took place (n=957).

The results were presented at the Third European Social Science History Conference in 2000, and at a workshop from the N.W. Posthumus Institute, called "Entrepreneurs and ethnic entrepreneurs. What is the difference?". Also some results were published in the Tijdschrift voor Sociale Geschiedenis and in the IMIS-Beiträge. In 2002, the final thesis was published: Marlou Schrover, Een kolonie van Duitsers. Groepsvorming onder Duitse migranten. Utrecht in de negentiende eeuw (Amsterdam 2002). In 2003, more results were published in Demos, bulletin over bevolking en samenleving and in Continuity and Change.

Top