The presence of the past. Historical rooting of national identity and current group dynamics

Abstract

The historicization of national identity has become a focal point in Western European debates on cultural diversity, immigration and European integration. In various countries, including the Netherlands, there has been a renewed emphasis on national heritage and traditions in debates about the presence and influence of Muslim immigrants and European unification. Politicians have argued that people lack a sense of collective consciousness and belonging (see Duyvendak, 2011) and that greater knowledge of national history would strengthen the cohesiveness of Western European societies. In Dutch debates on national identity and cultural diversity the national past is put forward as a means to define who ‘we’ are as a national community, and what it means to be a national citizen. These public debates raise new questions about the consequences of this historical rooting of national citizenship for current group dynamics in culturally diverse settings. In this dissertation, I take a social psychological perspective and analyze how different temporal understandings of national identity affect current group dynamics among native majority members in the Netherlands. The main aims of this project are to examine the extent to which temporal understandings of national identity among natives affect their (1) identification with the nation, and (2) their evaluation of out-groups and other social developments that potentially undermine national identity. First, the results of the empirical chapters of this book suggest that a sense of national group and national self-continuity are important for natives’ identification with the nation, but also make them more likely to engage in defensive reactions towards out-groups (i.e., Muslim immigrants) and social developments (i.e., European integration) that potentially undermine national continuity. Second, national nostalgia was considered as a different form of national identity temporality and it was found that this sentimental feeling for the good old days of the country made natives more negative about Muslim immigrants, because it strengthened their belief in ownership of the country on the basis of their status as primo-occupants. Third, I analyzed two historical representations of national identity that figure prominently in Dutch discourses on cultural diversity, namely that of (1) being a nation rooted in Christian heritage, and (2) being a nation rooted in a tradition of religious tolerance and openness. It was found that the Christian representation can mobilize lower national identifiers and younger people (age 18-35) to become more negative about Muslim immigrants. Finally, it was shown that the religious tolerant representation makes natives more positive about Muslim immigrants, particularly those who strongly identify with the nation (i.e., higer identifiers). These findings highlight the importance of identity temporality for national self-understandings and for the analysis of intergroup dynamics. Native majority members draw on the national past to understand ‘who we are’, and this subsequently informs their attitudes towards social developments in the present. As such, analyzing the presence of the past is important for understanding national identity and group dynamics in contemporary multicultural Western European societies.