Decolonizing the integration discourse through embedded narratives

This article shows the colonial legacy and nationalistic foundation of Dutch integration policy and discourse. I begin by discussing the integration discourse’s implications for research and the exclusionary practices towards researchers of colour in Dutch academia. I argue for the importance of epistemic multiplicity and, in particular, the insider-outsider position of marginalized communities and scholars of colour as essential forms of knowledge to decolonize integration discourse, policy, and research. I then present data on the lived experience of Iranian-Dutch citizens with a refugee background to show the humiliating impact of the discourse and to argue for the importance of refugees’ embodied and embedded knowledge. Such knowledge helps unravel the normalized colonial foundation of the dominant integration discourse and contributes to decolonizing its implications by doing migration research through co-production of knowledge in practice.