Simone Sassen

Living an Underclass Life: a Multi Sited Research of Crime and Migration As Income Strategies for Underclass Youngsters from Curacao Simone Sassen

This thesis seeks to analyze and understand how crime and migration to the Netherlands are being used as an income strategy by underclass youngsters from Curacao. Many underclass youngsters on Curacao grow up in poverty and receive improper education. Some of them even drop out of school to financially support the household. With such a bad start of their lives, many of them are bound to fail. Most of these youngsters choose crime as an income strategy because they cannot get legal employment. Some of them choose migrating to the Netherlands as an income strategy and others combine these two income strategies. After arriving in the Netherlands, many of these underclass youngsters encounter difficulties with housing, adjusting to their new environment, finding employment, etc. These problems cause some of the migrated youngsters to choose crime once again as a way to earn an income.