ABSTRACT
This chapter presents stories about voice and voicelessness in relation to mobilization against the asylum seekers' centre in Beverwaard. In particular, it illustrates how stories about voice contribute to complex processes of mobilization and demobilization through pathways of institutional and discursive opportunity structures. In this chapter, I argue how pre-existing local stories of voicelessness and political distrust interacted with the severely limited political opportunity structure of inhabitants and their individual perceptions of being ignored by political and media elites. I also reflect on the voice and discursive opportunities of those who did not protest against the asylum seekers' centre, in relation to the dominant narrative of protest. Together, these factors led to complex processes and shifts from mobilization towards demobilization over time.
