The ongoing debate on the allegedly failed integration of Muslim immigrants in the Netherlands is brought back into focus with the 'bed-bath bread-discussion'. Reason enough to re-issue the book Winnaars en Verliezers, een nuchtere balans van vijfhonderd jaar migratie [ Winners and Losers, a plain balance of five hundred years of Migration] published in 2011.
Migration historians Leo Lucassen and Jan Lucassen, respectively Research Director and Honorary Fellow at the IISH, wrote their book during the minority cabinet Rutte I, which was supported by Wilders (PVV). They intended to provide the emotional discussions about multiculturalism with historical facts and research-based insights about migration.
Because long before the immigration of Muslims, Catholics, Huguenots, Jews, Indonesians, Antilleans and Surinamese came to The Netherlands. In the 17th and 18th Century the larger part of immigrants consisted of unskilled labourers, sailors and seasonal workers from for example Germany. The Lucassen brothers did not use the comfortable bromide “migration is of all times and all will find their way eventually”.
Instead they clearly indicate “who won and who lost, economically, socially as well as culturally and politically… and they show that costs and benefits of migration can differ enormously."
The updated fourth edition is provided with a new epilogue, see attached PDF.
Leo Lucassen en Jan Lucassen, Winnaars en Verliezers, Balans van 500 jaar immigratie; Uitgeverij Prometheus/Bert Bakker 4de druk (2015) ISBN: 9789035136434 | € 29,95
