ABSTRACT

In the context of migration and calls for group autonomy by migrant communities, individual migrants typically have to fight for autonomy in a variety of relationships at the same time: autonomy within the migrant community; autonomy of the young generation against the old generation; autonomy as a community against state institutions, and so forth. This chapter shows that a relational notion of autonomy is particularly useful to understand the paradoxical situation Moluccan women in the Netherlands face in having to demonstrate their integration into mainstream Dutch society while at the same time having to emphasize their difference in relation to Dutch state institutions or employers.