Contested e-literacies in Dutch as a Second Language: Exploring the Interface between Policy and ICT Practices

Building on an overview of the history of civic integration policy in the Netherlands, we show how – parallel to the development of a stricter integration policy – we see an exponential growth of ICT in the Dutch as a second language sector. While ICT used to be a means for learning support in second language classrooms, it seems to have become a key factor for the newly arrived migrant to manage his own learning and integration. This stress laid on ICT, though, impinges upon (low-educated) migrants as a new obstacle where it is the being literate the precondition upon which someone becomes more easily integrated and through that can stay. To back this claim, our contribution looks at ICT applications and at how they get picked up – or else – by learners. The contribution concludes denouncing that the transformational power of ICT is institutionally adopted in integration classes in that it serves the purpose of becoming a fast track lane for integration exams. The paradoxes emerged from the learner’s view, however, stress that the diversity of migrants’ own learning development requires diversity in and reflection on ‘self-teaching devices’ when ICT applications are brought into classes on the basis of policy requirements.