Article 6
Older Adults’ Attitudes to Ageing: The Jamaican Perspective Black
Skin, White Masks Revisited: (Post-) Colonialism* and Migration as the Social
and (Im)material Memory of Afro-Surinamese
Migrant Women in Postcolonial Netherlands
Pam H. Zuurbier
Anton de Korn
University of Suriname, Paramaribo
Abstract
This article describes the institutional forms of inclusion and integration that motivate the actions of Afro-Surinamese migrant women in the Netherlands. Drawing on the work of the French Caribbean psychiatrist Frantz Fanon (1925 – 1961), this article offers insights into the manner in which migration and social and (im)material memory is (re)produced as contentious repertoires. The essentialist views of the arrival society have a major influence on the behaviour of black and migrant women. On the one hand, this leads to mimicking integration behaviour, while on the other hand, the women resist it because the social and (im)material memory of the departure society demands it. Institutional forms of inclusion and integration pose dilemmas for black and migrant women and encourage them to mimic integration behaviour, extending the work of Fanon. Further research is required to better understand this phenomenon among Caribbean immigrants to the Netherlands and other high-income countries.