Moroccan panic: negative group image leads to uncertainty, stigmatisation and discrimination

Based on 'classical moral panic theory', Bouabid investigated in his dissertation 'De Marokkanenpaniek. An integrated moral panic approach to the Moroccan stigma in the Netherlands' is the social response to incidents in which Moroccan Dutch people play a role. He made a qualitative analysis of the media discourse and had conversations with dozens of Moroccan-Dutch young men.

Threat to Dutch culture
From the analysis of the social reactions he concludes that these reactions - in which 'the Moroccan' is always constructed as 'the problematic Other' (the 'folk devil') - focus on specific incidents, but are actually aimed at a latent concern in society with regard to 'the Moroccan'. This would pose a threat to the core values of 'Dutch society'. The incidents and the reactions to them are only acute manifestations ('signifiers') of this underlying concern: the socio-cultural and moral changes in the Netherlands and the ontological uncertainty of the majority culture on which the reactions actually focus. By characterising this 'misplacement', these social reactions to 'Moroccans' can be described as a 'classical moral panic', in other words, as 'the Moroccan panic'.

Painful
Bouabid also did open interviews and (participatory) observations about the way Moroccan-Dutch young men deal with these negative social reactions to 'the Moroccan' in daily life. They indicate that they experience these social reactions to 'Moroccans' - despite 'habituation' - again and again as painful and derogatory. This negative image in the media discourse regularly leads to uncertainty and experiences of stigmatisation and discrimination in their daily lives.

Living with it
Nevertheless, they mainly use relatively mild, accommodating and harmonious strategies to deal with this (mass) stigma, such as: ignoring the stigma, refuting the stigma, hiding the stigma by adapting to 'the Dutchman' or avoiding certain situations or places where stigma could occur. Relatively radical and/or conflicting strategies such as: fully conforming to 'the Dutchman', resisting stigmatization, completely isolating 'Dutchmen' or fully internalizing the stigma (secondary deviation), are not or hardly used.

Finally, a theoretical and empirical revaluation of the moral panic theory in this dissertation leads to the development of the more holistic 'integrated moral panic theory' with which other contemporary moral panic can also be understood and explained.