The Netherlandic Presence in Ontario: Pillars, Class and Dutch Ethnicity

Terry A. Crowley is a professor of history at the University of Guelph,
and the author of Agnes Macphail and the Politics of Equality.

Are all Canadians ethnics, or is ethnicity simply a tag attached to
someone not like us? When does an immigrant become an ethnic? How
cohesive are ethnic identities in a country such as Canada, which came
to have the highest immigration rate in the world during the early
1990s?

Such questions animate this broad-ranging and sophisticated analysis of
Dutch Canadians by award-winning anthropologist Frans Schryer. Part
history, part social geography, and part sociological survey, his study
mounts an effective critique of contemporary multicultural thought. This
ethnic group is not forced by Schryer into a particular mold so that it
can stand in relief to so many others vying for attention.

Perhaps filiopietism never makes an appearance because the Dutch are
often said to have as many mental divisions as there are dykes in the
Netherlands. Religion, occupation, social class, gender, language, and
age perpetuate internal differences, which Schryer approaches both
diachronically and sychronically. By stressing the internal diversity
that emerges from the Dutch concept of “pillars,” Schryer not only
manages to display the full panoply of Dutch-Canadian institutions and
experiences, but also makes a vital contribution to immigrant history
and ethnic studies.

The book, which comprises 21 chapters that cover a wide variety of
topics, is an exhaustive account, but not an overspecialized scholarly
analysis. Not burdening his work with excessive quantification and
sometimes sharing his thoughts by writing in the first person, Schryer
conveys the larger problems involved in studying both immigrants and
ethnic groups. The Netherlandic Presence is a landmark in Canadian
ethnic studies as well as an invaluable contribution to understanding
Dutch Canadians.