Looking back without Nostalgia (The Netherlands)
The ethnically diverse Surinamese population is a product of forced and voluntary labour migration designed to bring workers to the plantation economy. After the decolonization of Suriname in 1975, another wave of migration reached The Netherlands. The ailing Surinamese economy, the collapse of the plantation economy and the possibilities to build a new life in the country of the former colonial power caused an influx of almost 300,000 Surinamese.
James Whitlow Delano documented the current state of Surinamese immigrant communities, visualizing the way Suriname’s sugar industry indirectly influenced the multicultural character of The Netherlands.
