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Johan Leman, 8 February 2024

If I compare the 1990s with today, I see 2 major differences at the base: the place occupied by social media (which has an effect that ‘announcements in policy making take a major place) and the post-‘nine eleven’ effect (which signifies that many people feel culturally threatened, what they relate at the presence of islam). 

Furthermore, 2 new dynamics in particular come into play. Firstly, more than in the past the new, volatile diversifying migrations affect social cohesion in the neighbourhoods where those people arrive, which as such may be positive, since it facilitates interculturalism avoiding closed community building. Secondly, increasing transnationalism demands better agreements with the countries of origin. One has to avoid that non-migrants have the impression that migrants may exploit more unknown opportunities than non-migrants.

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