Minority Representatives' in the Netherlands: Supporting, Silencing or Suppressing?

Abstract

This article focuses on how often and in what ways 'minority representatives' address cultural and/or religious rights and freedoms by analysing parliamentary questions between 2002 and 2012. The research first analysed to what extent, if any, Member of Parliaments of minority origin highlight minority-related issues in their parliamentary questions. Thereafter, it analysed the content of those questions in more detail. Unlike much previous research, we did not take a favourable content for granted. The idea of 'suppressive representation' was introduced to describe those cases in which 'minority representatives' were restrictive towards cultural and/or religious freedoms of 'immigrant minorities'. Representation patterns show differences across group-and individual-level identities. © 2015 The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Hansard Society; all rights reserved.