A broken word: why Holland has changed

Update 25/2: Do Dutch politicians read my blog now? Here's one that has just claimed 'it might be time to do away with allochtonous'. Too bad he manages to say it in a very uninspiring way. People on blogs are now talking about what to replace the term with. Helloooo! It needs to be scraped!

----The original post:

Sometimes I have to try to explain that Holland has changed. It starts when whoever I'm talking to says things like:' You are lucky. People in your country are really tollerant/free/open minded.'

A simple 'It's different now' usually won't do. And I find myself struggling to explain just how things have changed. 'It has to do with allochtonous and autochtonous citizens, you see...' And usually they don't. Because in English those (Greek based) words are only used in their original (and rare) scientific context. In the field of bacteriology for instance. Or demographics, which is where it came from in the Netherlands. Autochtonous people are from a certain region of a country. They have probably migrated there at one time or another, but they belong to families that have stayed in that region for generations.

Allochtonous ('allochtonen' in Dutch) people are the newcomers in such a region. Simpel as that. No problem. It probably generated some fascinating statistics used in urban planning during the 70's and that was it. Until the word 'allochtonous' popped up in the media and got all confused with the words 'immigrant' and 'illegal immigrant'. By now (ten or fifteen years later) 'allochtonous' basically means 'foreigner/stranger/colored person that doesn't belong here and causes trouble.' And it sounds completely politically correct. So much better than 'Gook' or 'Black' or especially 'Arab'.

For some reason almost everybody in Holland forgot that, when it comes to people crossing your borders, these are the only categories that exist:

1) Tourists: they come, get stoned and drunk, look at the windmills and the red light district, write a postcard and go home.

2) Expats: they come into the country at keep their foreign nationality and legally do work we won't or can't do (as well).

3) Immigrants: these guys and galls come in search of a better future for some reason or another and apply for and then (here's the kicker) become Dutch nationals. Get it? They are now Dutch where ever they came from. Even if some of them do keep their old passports. Remember that.

4) Illegal imigrants: they come in the country under the radar without being granted asylum or jobs and try to scrape by without getting caught until they are and get thrown out the country.

5) Asylum seekers: the grueling in-between-status you have while you wait for your new nationality or for your journey back to where you came from.

Of course there are also Dutch nationals becoming expats or even emigrants, but these are less relevant here. So there you have it: 'allochtonous' is not even an option. And even if it was: in one or two generation they are supposed to be autochtonous any way. Of course the problem is that the Dutch have not fostered or demanded any of the new Dutch to adapt to Dutch society in any way. And when that got out of hand we failed to reach out and include those people, like say...the city of New York. You are a New Yorker even before you get citizenship. Bad English and all. In Holland you get excluded and branded 'allochtonous citizen'.

What is more: it has given rise to a whole bunch of ignorance based xenophobic ideas and tendencies. On both sides. Because what will you feel like with your new Dutch passport if you are not welcome? Dutch? Of course not. You are going to feel more Turkish/Morocan/Somalian/ whatever. That's what you know and probably miss. This effect will take at least decades to wear off, especially if no one can fix this word so that it means what it should mean again. Or just scrap it. Fine by me.

Anyway: next time I can tell whoever I'm talking to, to just read my blog. Part of this expat farang (ironically the Thai version of allochtonous) actually hopes that he or she will still not understand...