Feeling at home is a basic need, says researcher Patricia Wijntuin in Ongehoorde Verhalen

In the second live edition of Ongehoorde Verhalen, Omroep AfroNet spoke at TivoliVredenburg with researcher Patricia Wijntuin about feeling at home in Utrecht. The conversation covered neighbourhoods, benches, food and what employers can do.

On 10 October 2026, Omroep AfroNet recorded the second edition of Ongehoorde Verhalen live at TivoliVredenburg in Utrecht, part of De Tafel van Utrecht Podcast. The question of the afternoon: do you feel at home in Utrecht, or not? The conversation covered Black Utrechters, students, newcomers and people who grew up here and still don't always feel welcome. People in the hall and viewers at home could ask questions along the way.

At the table was Patricia Wijntuin, researcher at the Lectoraat Organiseren van Waardig Werk of Hogeschool Utrecht and at Universiteit Utrecht. She studies diversity and inclusion, and how space shapes the way people treat one another. Wijntuin said she lived in Suriname until she was twelve, then moved to Curaçao, and has now lived in the Netherlands for more than thirty years. The Omroep AfroNet host opened with an experience of her own: she, too, chose Utrecht deliberately, still had to find her place there, and believes that above all you make a home yourself.

A subject that found her

Wijntuin earned her doctorate with research on how Moroccan-Dutch young people feel at home in two Utrecht neighbourhoods. She said she did not consciously choose that subject. On the train from Amersfoort to Utrecht, her supervisor's partner remarked that it wasn't so strange: people who don't come from the Netherlands themselves are often searching for a place. Her conclusion: "het onderwerp heeft mij gevonden."

She gives her students the same advice. She always tells them to choose something close to their heart and something they are passionate about.

What makes a neighbourhood feel like home

For her research, Wijntuin spoke with young people in Kanaleneiland and Hoograven. She noticed that at the time Kanaleneiland was mostly reported on negatively, even though people were happy living there. So she followed her curiosity. In her view, people want the same things everywhere: a place with people who are like you, where you speak the same language and where you can smell your mother's fish in the apartment block.

Years later she went back and felt less at home there. In her view the neighbourhood had changed a great deal, with a lot of new construction and owner-occupied homes, and the pleasantly messy mix in which everyone moves among everyone else had almost disappeared. According to Wijntuin, feeling at home has a lot to do with familiar landmarks, such as someone on a bench whom you see every day and who eventually says hello. She called them anchor points.

Home is also emotional, she stressed. It lives in language, in food and in the garden. In her current research on the gardens of older migrants, she sees people bringing seeds from their country of origin and planting them here, hoping a piece of Suriname will grow. She says people from Ethiopia and Italy do the same. She called feeling at home a basic need: you want to be seen and acknowledged.

She herself moved within Utrecht, from busy Rivierenwijk to quieter Oudwijk. It took a year before she felt at home there. She first made sure it felt good inside, because with that anchor you dare to face the world outside.

Benches, food and in-between spaces

What can we do? Wijntuin pointed to public spaces that make meeting possible, such as a bench in the right spot. At work, she said, you can organise in-between spaces where people talk about what it is like to work in an organisation and what belonging means to them. She also mentioned Mixed Feelings, an initiative by two young people with a mixed background who discovered that feeling at home is not a given when you stand between groups. Her simplest tip: "zorg gewoon voor lekker eten."

Asked how things are going in the Netherlands now, she was honest. The public debate about people with a migration background sharpens, for her, the question of who is allowed to be at home. In response to a question from the audience about polarisation, she said she has no magic word. In her teaching she tries to make room for all voices, including ones she finds difficult, except the extremes that are openly racist or sexist. Extremes make the news faster, she said, while there are many people in the middle. She praised the Jeugdjournaal, which shows small, beautiful things.

Work, origin questions and young talent

For employers, Wijntuin said, it starts with awareness: everyone is diverse, including those who don't see themselves that way. She called diversity and inclusion a long-term effort, because bringing people in is not the end of the job. To young people of colour who want an academic career, she turned the question around. Organisations should look at how they recruit and, for example, also spread the vacancy through the networks of different communities.

Wijntuin also spoke about her own work in a predominantly white environment. In her experience, people don't readily expect her to be a lecturer. She does not want to be the spokesperson for everyone of colour, and some subjects, such as reflecting on the history of slavery, she no longer takes on at one of her two employers. Her employers were not part of the conversation, so their response is not included in this article. As a tip to young people she offered this: talk to people you admire, so that you learn their route and can look for a path of your own.

On the question "waar kom je vandaan?" she said the difference lies between a question with a judgement and genuine interest. On ethnic profiling she said this is not her expertise. In her view it has to do with prejudice and calls for training in organisations such as the police. The host closed with the words that everyone has a story.

Background

Wijntuin received her doctorate in 2019 from Radboud Universiteit with the thesis Mijn buurt is leuk en gezellig. According to the knowledge platform KIS, she interviewed thirty Moroccan-Dutch young people from Kanaleneiland and Hoograven, and almost all of them used the word gezellig for their neighbourhood. About her garden research she wrote on LinkedIn that she and a colleague visit home gardeners across the country, including in Limburg and The Hague. She says she shapes the research together with the older participants. Black Achievement Month, which she mentioned in the conversation as an initiative that connects Utrechters, takes place every October according to the organisers. This year's theme is Turning Black Excellence into Change, with activities in Utrecht, among other places.

You can watch the full broadcast on the Omroep AfroNet channel.

Bronnen

• Omroep AfroNet op YouTube: de volledige live-uitzending
• KIS: Podcastgesprek met Patricia Wijntuin over beeldvorming en buurtbinding
• KIS: Thuis zijn in een achterstandswijk
• Trajectum (Hogeschool Utrecht): Nieuw licht op de achterstandswijk
• Hogeschool Utrecht: Patricia Wijntuin
• LinkedIn: Patricia Wijntuin
• Black Achievement Month