Brennan, ‘So much for Dutch tolerance’, 2017
- Category: Other
- Source: Academic
- Subject: Sexual Orientation/Sexuality, Gender Identity, Refugee/Asylum, Migration, Human Rights, LGBT+
- Place: Europe
- Year: 2017
- File: So much for Dutch tolerance: life as an LGBT asylum seeker in the Netherlands
- URL: http://theconversation.com/so-much-for-dutch-tolerance-life-as-an-lgbt-asylum-seeker-in-the-netherlands-80332
Sarah French Brennan, ‘So much for Dutch tolerance: life as an LGBT asylum seeker in the Netherlands’, The Conversation, 2017
Abstract
According to a report from 2011, approximately 200 people seek asylum in the Netherlands each year fearing persecution either for sexual orientation or gender identity. Across the EU, the report’s co-author told me that she roughly estimates there are 10,000 applications per year.
[…]
The Netherlands is particularly interesting. As the first country to legalise gay marriage, the Dutch see gender and sexuality as central to a proud progressive history. Amsterdam has long been a global gay capital.
Yet like much of Europe, the past 30 years has seen a resurgence of xenophobic populist nationalism in the Netherlands. Amid continuing waves of migration, notably from former Dutch colonies and Turkey and Morocco, nationalists warn of the threat to the national culture and the country’s liberal tradition, particularly from Muslims.