How Mensen met een Missie is tackling polarisation
A tense hush in the classroom. Choosing a longer route through your own neighbourhood. An online exchange that spirals into insults. Look closely and you’ll see it everywhere: the cracks in our society are widening. Polarisation is no longer an abstract idea: it’s a lived reality. According to the Netherlands Institute for Social Research (SCP), three in four Dutch people feel divisions are increasing. More and more, people withdraw into their own bubbles, trust each other less, and stand firmly on opposite sides. To help address this, Mensen met een Missie is launching a new project in the Netherlands this autumn.
Prime Minister Schoof recently described polarisation as one of today’s greatest challenges. He openly questioned whether our society can carry on this way. A sobering remark that highlights how fragile our social fabric has become. Research from Radboud University confirms this concern: many people say they would rather travel ten minutes further for groceries than live close to people with a different migration background.
The impact is significant. People who think, believe, or live differently are crossing paths less and less. Trust erodes, suspicion grows, and hostility becomes more likely. Where walls rise, the bridges a democracy depends on begin to disappear. It’s a slow but steady process that undermines the very foundations of our shared life.
The impact on youth
For young people, polarisation is especially tough. Just as they are forming their identities, they are confronted with a world full of divides. Many feel forgotten by politics and written off by society, even though they are the ones building the future of the Netherlands: as tomorrow’s carers, technicians, entrepreneurs and teachers. A recent survey revealed that 64% of young people feel excluded from conversations on subjects like migration and discrimination. This leads to frustration, sadness and silence, allowing prejudice to persist. Young people struggle with worries about climate change, wars and their own future prospects, but often lack a safe space to really talk about them.
If we want to secure the future of our society, the starting point must be with young people. They can learn not to look away from difference, but to face it with courage. By listening, asking questions, and staying open to other perspectives, they can grow into a generation that builds bridges instead of deepening divides.
Our response: Ken je mij?
What happens when you take the time to really listen to someone who thinks differently from you? Mensen met een Missie believes in the connecting power of dialogue. Because behind every opinion is a person. And behind every prejudice lies fear or misunderstanding, which fades when people truly get to know each other.
That’s why we are launching Ken je Mij? (translated: Do you know me?) at MBO Utrecht this school year. MBO colleges are places where differences in religion, background, gender and political views come together daily. Students there don’t just learn a profession, they also learn how to relate to one another. It’s a practice ground for democratic citizenship, making it the natural place to start change.
Ken je mij? is a practical dialogue programme that equips students and educators to deal with differences and tension. Students learn to recognise their own assumptions and practise talking about sensitive issues like identity, religion and discrimination. Teachers are trained to lead difficult conversations with confidence and act as impartial facilitators. Parents and local residents are also involved through neighbourhood tours and closing dialogues, so the impact extends well beyond the school.
The programme draws on proven approaches, such as Gordon Allport’s contact theory and Marshall Rosenberg’s Nonviolent Communication. Through visual methods, practical exercises and role play, we bring abstract issues to life. And by training both students and teachers as dialogue facilitators, we make sure the skills stay rooted in the education system.
Towards a wider movement
Utrecht is just the beginning. If the pilot is successful, we aim to embed the programme and roll it out to other MBO colleges. Ultimately, our ambition is to create a nationwide initiative that addresses polarisation on several fronts: in education, in communities, and in policy.
Building connection together
Dutch youth deserve better than a society that overwhelms them with worries but offers little perspective. They deserve a place where their voices count, where their questions are taken seriously, and where they learn that democracy is about making space for difference, not simply about who has the loudest voice.
Polarisation is putting our society under strain. Yet there is reason for hope. By teaching young people to keep talking – even when the conversation is tough – we can raise a generation ready to bridge divides. With Ken je mij?, we are taking an important step towards a society where differences don’t tear us apart, but bring us closer together.
