Welfare Futures Recap: Eline Westra on Universality and Inclusivity
Inequality and Exclusion with a Colonial Undertone
Westra discussed, among other things, the so-called “pension gap”: the structural inequality in pension accrual for Surinamese Dutch citizens who worked in Suriname before migrating to the Netherlands. Together with Franca van der Horst, she analyzed more than a century of parliamentary debates and activism concerning the pension rights of (formerly) colonized citizens.
She showed how Dutch social policy, beginning with the 1919 constitutional amendment, was explicitly designed to exclude colonial “subjects.” These exclusions were rarely acknowledged, while racist assumptions about who “belongs to the Netherlands” became institutionalized. Even the Charter for the Kingdom (1954), which formally granted Surinamese citizens equal rights, did not bring meaningful change.
Although there was some political recognition in the form of a one-time compensation (up to €5,000), structural inequality remains. According to Westra, such measures fall short of addressing the deeper, systemic disparities rooted in the colonial past.
Black Feminist Activism: Ashanti
In her archival research, Westra also highlighted the work of Black feminist collectives such as Ashanti (1980–1987), a self-organized group of Surinamese-Dutch women. Through their own media outlets, they addressed issues such as poverty, racism, housing shortages, and labor market exclusion, with particular attention to the position of single mothers.
Ashanti criticized the dominant family model in social policy, which is based on a heteronormative dual-earner norm. For many women in their community, this model was unrealistic. Therefore, Ashanti demanded access to affordable childcare to break the cycle of welfare dependency and poverty.
A striking example Westra mentioned was the so-called “toothbrush inspections”: home visits to check whether a partner might be living in the household. Ashanti pointed out the racist and normative assumptions about family structures underlying such practices, which disproportionately affected women of color.
Ashanti’s activism exemplifies how intersectional feminism critically examines social policy and reveals how gender, race, and class intersect to create unequal access to social rights.
Modern Times, Old Practices
Although many examples stem from the 1980s, the themes remain highly relevant today. The childcare benefits scandal (toeslagenaffaire) is a recent and painful example of how racialization, bureaucratic distrust, and exclusion converge. Mothers of color are still overrepresented in poverty statistics, and pension inequality continues to exist.
According to Westra, these are not isolated incidents but expressions of structural exclusion, often concealed by political and societal silences. Racism is not explicitly named but normalized through implicit assumptions about who is - and is not- considered a full citizen.
So, What Next?
Westra concluded with a call to welfare state researchers: what do we do with these insights? She advocated for a research ethic that actively seeks out absences in policy texts and deliberately creates space for activist knowledge.
Archives of groups like Ashanti offer crucial insights that are often missing in both policy and academia. At the same time, these activist materials raise ethical questions: who speaks for whom? How do we avoid appropriation or harm when making marginalized voices visible?
By taking activist and historical research seriously, we can expose blind spots in social policy and contribute to a more just and equitable welfare state.