Ethnic complexity: routes to discriminatory repertoires in an inner-city neighbourhood

Research on interethnic relationships in urban neighbourhoods tends to focus on how the 'they' in a 'we/they' divide along ethnic lines is constructed. This article argues that such research often takes the 'we' for granted. The result is a slightly homogeneous picture of the native residents, as if they form one single group with an attitude towards migrants that can be explained en bloc. Dissecting an empirical complex picture of how native Dutch residents develop relationships with migrant neighbours, a case study of a Rotterdam neighbourhood is used to show that four routes to discriminatory vocabulary can be distinguished. By way of discussing these four routes, the article argues that the different theoretical perspectives should not be seen as an either/or choice, but that they need to be combined. In many accounts of racism and discrimination, the nuances within politically incorrect, discriminatory vocabulary are insufficiently stressed. These nuances, it is argued, relate to different sorts of conflict that need to be theorized.