Managers praised colonized workers precisely for lacking entitlement, not skill

Evidence

Expert knowledge did not always confirm state fantasies. Two factory managers whose advice was sought about the craft-based initiative held that the real problem was not, as most authorities insisted, the youth. The Inlandsche kinderen with whom they had worked shared little of the pejorative profile that so prevailed. They were neither lazy nor incompetent but “industrious and well-behaved,” eager to learn skills but lacking opportunity and stimulation that would push them in that direction. Nor were they wanting when compared to European recruits. These managers saw the Inlandsche kinderen as preferable to them—if, that is, they received the proper training. But here, too, “preferability” was in part an affective measure: modest aspirations, gratitude for such jobs, zeal that would stop short of the demand for entitlements. As they wrote, “the Inlandse kind [sic] [already had] knowledge of the language, population, customs and climate while the European would need an acclimatization period. [He] would feel attached to the enterprise established in his fatherland’s interest. Not belonging to the favored class of Indies society, his expectations and sense of entitlement will not be high.” It was this population that could provide what the colony needed, “a ready supply for the [maritime] industry of subordinate technical personnel.” — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 740

Categorization

• XREF: The valuing of low expectations as worker virtue resonates with colonial paternalism studies and Weberian critiques of docile labor forces.