Between a rock and a soft place: dealing with troublesome young Moroccans

As politicians from the left and right call for a tougher approach towards young Dutch-Moroccans causing nuisance, the town of Dordrecht shows there is another way.

Mustafa Margoum never goes straight home from the mosque. Instead he makes a detour to the places in his Dordrecht neighbourhood where he knows the local kids like to hang out: the bench on the square, the park, the sports court. When he sees them, he stops to chat.

Just the other day a woman called him from one of the tenement buildings, he says. "They're here again," she whispered over the phone. "Are they causing trouble?" Margoum asked. Well, not really, but they're making a lot of noise.

Neighbourhood dad

Ten minutes later Margoum walked up to the kids. He didn't mention the woman; he just chatted about school and the upcoming football competition. Then he asked if the guys would mind moving down the road a bit. They did.

Mustafa Margoum is a "neighbourhood dad" in the Wielwijk area of Dordrecht, a city of 120,000 just south of Rotterdam. Three years ago, 20 to 25 fathers from the neighbourhood decided to form a network of "neighbourhood dads". Complaints about Moroccan kids have since gone down considerably. Three years ago there were on average 34 complaints at the bi-weekly neighbourhood meeting; now there are almost none.

Young Moroccan boys routinely make the news in the Netherlands, where problems with immigrants and their children seem to dominate public and political debate. Last week, home affairs minister Guusje Ter Horst announced that the government is putting a team of experts at the disposal of local authorities to help them deal with nuisances caused by young Dutch-Moroccans.

In Gouda, the chief of police has said he would like to see children under twelve who have caused trouble prosecuted.

'Send in the army'

Gouda made international headlines last year when bus drivers refused to enter the Oosterwei neighbourhood after Dutch-Moroccan boys were said to have thrown rocks and apples at their buses and a driver was the victim of a violent robbery. Geert Wilders' anti-Islam party PVV even proposed to "send in the army". That didn't happen, but politicians on the left and the right have been calling for a tougher approach ever since, and local authorities have proposed plans accordingly. But is the tough approach working?

No, says Lahousinne Ait Chitt, an adviser at a research centre for societal developments. "You have to involve the community. People are always asking when the Moroccan community is going to take its responsibility. But that's not going to happen on its own. We have to ask key figures in the community for help, people who enjoy respect in the community."

Driss Tabghi, a 59-year-old community organiser in Wielwijk, is such a man. When Tabghi - potbelly, gold watch - walks through the neighbourhood, Dutch women greet him with a big smile. "The neighbourhood has improved so much," says one woman who is pulling weeds in her garden. "I was going to move away but now I'm staying put. Of course, it's not perfect yet." She shoots a disapproving look at the neighbour's front yard where the weeds are knee-high. "We're going to something about that too," says Tabghi.

Cultural differences

Moroccan parents are not used to having to watch their children when they're outside, says Tabghi. "In Morocco, there is always somebody watching them on the streets. Parents know by now that this is not the case here. But they don't know what they should do differently. The kids take advantage of this vacuum of parental authority."

In the Wielwijk neighbourhood centre, where Moroccan mothers are cooking up a couscous, Driss Tabghi talks about how he started as a community organiser three years ago, together with Ait Chitt. Tabghi says he contacted the parents of the kids who were hanging out on the street, gained their trust and asked for their help. He also paid a visit to key community figures like the local imam. He set up a separate meeting for the mothers; knowing that otherwise only the dads would have shown up. It didn't take him long to find out who the people were who enjoyed respect in the community. When trouble is brewing, they're the ones Tabghi contacts - not the police.

Ait Chitt: "Nuisance we can handle ourselves. There are lots of decent Moroccan parents who are deeply ashamed when they have lost control over a son. Of course, it is up to them to ask 'Where did you get those new shoes?' when their kid does not earn money to afford them. But is much better if a Moroccan neighbour points it out to them than if the police have to come knocking. At the local swimming pool, all it takes is the presence of one Moroccan dad to stop the boys from behaving badly. I swear. And if it still gets out of hand, he can phone ten other dads for assistance right away. You would be amazed how quickly things calm down."

Success story

One pre-condition, Taghbi says, is that there has to be some contact between the community and the police before there are problems. "It has a preventive affect. Of course, when we're talking about real criminal behaviour, it becomes a matter for the police and no longer for the Moroccan community."

The network model was introduced in Dordrecht eighteen years ago. Nico den Toom arrived there in 1998, as a police adviser on ethnic minorities. Now he is chief of the neighbourhood police. Even when he is wearing civilian clothes, there is no mistaking Den Toom for anything other than a policeman. Dressed in yellow pants and a checked shirt, he gives the impression of being friendly but not to be messed with. If a Moroccan boy gives him the finger, Den Toom will always confront him. "We just don't do that here."

Den Toom regularly puts his list of prominent Moroccan community members to use. Like that time in 1998, when riots in Amsterdam risked sparking trouble in Dordrecht too. Den Toom enlisted the help of a few prominent Moroccans who in turn contacted the fathers who the promised to keep their sons away from the city centre that night. The police was prepared for trouble, but things stayed quiet in Dordrecht that night.

Ait Chitt has since introduced the same method in Gorinchem, Utrecht, Amersfoort and Leeuwarden, and he has written two manuals for local authorities. It is crucial that the municipality believes in the approach, and that a small budget is put at the disposal of the community. "Small amounts, like money for a training day or a workshop in social skills for the neighbourhood dads, a meeting place or a couple of cell phones for the network. It's a lot cheaper than all those expensive studies of the 'Moroccan problem'."

'We are watching you'

It also takes one person who enjoys the trust of everybody involved - someone like Taghbi. "There has to be a leader, otherwise it will fall apart." That's what happened in Gorinchem, where the nuisance increased, and in Dordrecht before Taghbi took charge.

So are the authorities in Gouda, where the police is calling for a tougher approach, involving the Moroccan community? Rachid Tighadouni organises activities for Dutch-Moroccans on the east side of Gouda. "The municipality has invested quite a bit in community organising, but the problems haven't gone away."

Why? "The neighbourhood centre closes at five, which is when most of the youngsters are just waking up. They live in the evenings and at night. It would be much better to involve the mothers and fathers because they're on call around the clock."

Tighadouni has serious doubts about the tough approach the Gouda municipality is now advocating. "These kids are bored, and they enjoy playing cat and mouse with the police. Now they have come up with the idea to send troublesome kids a postcard from the police with the words: 'We are watching you'. Well, if you really want things to escalate, that's exactly what you should be doing."