Cutting out an irritating word

This morning’s De Morgen leads with a remarkable headline: “Why, at De Morgen, we are no longer using the word ‘allochtoon’” — a term used in the Netherlands and Dutch speaking Belgium to designate immigrants or their descendants, but contested by those who believe it to be a stigma.

With regard to his decision, the daily’s editor in chief, Wouter Verschelden, remarks —

This newspaper has decided to no longer use this extremely vague term, which by definition designates people who ‘are not from here’, but which in reality is never used to refer to Dutch, French or German people. It is a cover-all term with an unlimited number of meanings: Muslim, poorly educated, deprived, Arab, North African, non-European etc.

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The newspaper also notes that “allochtoon” amounts to a “unique linguistic phenomenon” —

In English and French, the term simply does not exist. [...] in these countries people are never lumped together by a single denominator”. [It is] a simplistic, unsubtle label for a group of people [because even immigrants children] “are very likely to be labelled ‘allochtonen‘. When are you no longer considered to be an allochtoon? Can quality journalism have recourse to such a term in the light of the awareness that it is a marginalising stigma?

“No”, announces the newspaper, which points out that it does not aim to downplay “problems linked to multi-ethnic and multi-religious cohabitation”. The daily’s decision is not a bolt from the blue; it takes into account recent events in the country, like the release of the filmFemme de La Rue — a documentary on sexual harassment perpetrated by young immigrants or young men of immigrant origin in the streets of Brussels — and the riots in Antwerp in response to the filmThe Innocence of Muslims, which was followed by controversy over Flemish nationalist leader Bart De Wever’s intention to replace the city of Antwerp’s slogan “The city belongs to all of us” if he is elected mayor on 14 October.