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Disentangling the Relationship between Young Immigrants’ Host Country Identification and their Friendships with Natives
Abstract
Immigrants who strongly identify with the host country have more native friends than immigrants with weaker host country identification. However, the mechanisms underlying this correlation are not well understood. Immigrants with strong host country identification might have stronger preferences for native friends, or they might be more often chosen as friends by natives. In turn, having native friends or friends with strong host country identification might increase immigrants’ host country identification. Using longitudinal network data of 18 Dutch school classes, we test these hypotheses with stochastic actor-oriented models. We find that immigrants’ host country identification affects friendship selections of natives but not of immigrants. We find no evidence of social influence processes.
... Despite the significance of this research agenda, its general analytical focus on patterns of tie formation and school composition has been associated with two limitations that our study seeks to overcome. First, with few exceptions (Boda and Néray 2015;Leszczensky et al. 2016;Boda 2018;Leszczensky and Pink 2019), social network analyses of ethnic boundary making have generally failed to consider the role played by students' subjective identities. As both identities and social affiliations are core components of boundaries (Wimmer 2008, p. 975), examining students' identifications and their consequences for tie formation is crucial to capture strategies of ethnic boundary making. ...
... And such friendships should in turn support the development or maintenance of an identity as German. On the basis of a relatively small number of schools, previous work has asked to what extent minority students' national identification breeds cross-group friendship and vice versa (Munniksma et al. 2015;Leszczensky et al. 2016). In our large-scale contextual analysis, there is no need to disentangle the reciprocal relationships inherent in these processes. ...
... Previous network-analytic studies on ethnic boundary making have been restricted by the limited scope of available network data. For example, the most detailed longitudinal studies of identification and friendship formation are based on only nine lower-track schools in Germany(Leszczensky and Pink 2019) or schools from a single Dutch city(Leszczensky et al. 2016). ...
... Despite the extensive use of the term "national identity," prior work has focused largely on national identification, that is, the extent to which individuals view themselves as members of the host nation. For example, national identification has been assessed with single-item questions such as "Do you feel Dutch?"-rated on a 5-point Likert scale (Leszczensky et al. 2016), or with multiple items that assess degree of attachment to the host society such as "Germany is dear to me; I feel like I am part of Germany"-rated on a 5-point Likert scale (Jugert et al. 2019;Leszczensky 2018), and private regard about the host society such as "I am content to belong to Germany" (Jugert et al. 2019). This operationalization provides information about content aspects of identity (Umaña-Taylor et al. 2014), but tells little about an individual's engagement in the process of coming to a particular identity (i.e., exploration). ...
... Considering friendship selection, findings indicated that immigrant youth in Germany who had a stronger host country identification demonstrated a greater tendency to befriend native German youth (Leszczensky 2018). Similarly, with immigrant youth in the Netherlands, strength of host country identification was associated with immigrant youth befriending native youth and not befriending other immigrants (Leszczensky et al. 2016). A more complex pattern of friendship selection emerged once students' host-country, dual-country, or heritage-country identification were considered such that ethnic majority youth from Germany preferred to befriend the following categories of friends in descending order: host country identifying, followed by dual-country, and finally heritage-country identifiers (Jugert et al. 2017). ...
... Regarding peer socialization processes (hereafter referred to as peer influence), Leszczensky et al. 2016 documented significant and positive peer influence on host country (the Netherlands) identification such that all youth became similar in their host country identification to the levels reported by their friends, and that this peer influence effect was significantly stronger for native youth relative to their immigrant counterparts. Moreover, Jugert et al. 2019 tested a proposition from social identity theory that peer influence on aspects of social identity would only operate in samegroup relationships. ...
The development of peer relationships and of one’s identity are key developmental proficiencies during adolescence. Understanding how immigrant and non-immigrant adolescents are developing a sense of their national identity and the role that this plays in how they select their friends and are influenced by their friends is essential for developing a more comprehensive understanding of adolescent development in context. The current study used longitudinal social network analysis to examine the interplay of national identity development and friendship network dynamics among immigrant and non-immigrant adolescents in Greece (N = 1252; 46% female). All youth with higher national identity resolution (i.e., youth’s sense of clarity regarding their identity as a member of Greek society) in Grade 8 were more often nominated as a friend in Grade 9. During the transition from 8th to 9th grade, all youth became more similar to their nominated friends in terms of their Greek national identity exploration (i.e., degree to which they had engaged in activities to learn more about Greek society). During the transition from 7th to 8th grade, there was significant variability in peer selection on national identity exploration and resolution between immigrant and non-immigrant youth. Specifically, immigrant youth demonstrated selection effects consistent with notions of homophily, such that they were more likely to nominate peers in 8th grade whose levels of national identity exploration and resolution were similar to their own when in 7th grade. In contrast, non-immigrant youth preferred peers in 8th grade with low levels of national identity exploration (regardless of their own levels of exploration in 7th grade) and peers whose levels of national identity resolution in 8th grade were different from their own in 7th grade (e.g., non-immigrant youth who reported high national identity resolution in 7th grade were more likely to nominate peers who had low national identity resolution in 8th grade). There were no differences by immigrant status in peer influence, suggesting that the significant peer influence effects that emerged during the transition from 8th to 9th grade in which youth became more similar to their friends in national identity exploration may reflect a universal process. These results chart new directions in understanding contemporary youth development in context by showing that adolescents develop their national identity and friendships in tandem and that certain aspects of this process may vary by immigrant status.
... Despite the significance of this research agenda, its general analytical focus on patterns of tie formation and school composition has been associated with two limitations that our study seeks to overcome. First, with few exceptions (Boda and Néray 2015;Leszczensky et al. 2016;Boda 2018;Leszczensky and Pink 2019), social network analyses of ethnic boundary making have generally failed to consider the role played by students' subjective identities. As both identities and social affiliations are core components of boundaries (Wimmer 2008, p. 975), examining students' identifications and their consequences for tie formation is crucial to capture strategies of ethnic boundary making. ...
... And such friendships should in turn support the development or maintenance of an identity as German. On the basis of a relatively small number of schools, previous work has asked to what extent minority students' national identification breeds cross-group friendship and vice versa (Munniksma et al. 2015;Leszczensky et al. 2016). In our large-scale contextual analysis, there is no need to disentangle the reciprocal relationships inherent in these processes. ...
... Previous network-analytic studies on ethnic boundary making have been restricted by the limited scope of available network data. For example, the most detailed longitudinal studies of identification and friendship formation are based on only nine lower-track schools in Germany(Leszczensky and Pink 2019) or schools from a single Dutch city(Leszczensky et al. 2016). ...
... First, Leszczensky et al. (2016) relied on two waves of data that covered a one-year period. One might question whether such a rather short period of observation suffices to detect social influence processes. ...
... Having more periods of observation over a longer period of time is desirable to test general social influence mechanisms. Second, like most other longitudinal studies (e.g., Leszczensky, 2013;Munniksma et al., 2015;Rutland et al., 2012), the study by Leszczensky et al. (2016) used a rather rough measure of host country identification. Given the difficulties of measuring ethnic and national identities (see, e.g., Phinney and Ong, 2007;Schwartz et al., 2014), a more refined measurement would increase the reliability of findings. ...
... Given the difficulties of measuring ethnic and national identities (see, e.g., Phinney and Ong, 2007;Schwartz et al., 2014), a more refined measurement would increase the reliability of findings. Third, Leszczensky et al. (2016) examined classroom friendship networks, which consisted of about 25 students, thus being relatively small in size. Larger networks that consist of more actors and ties between these actors, by contrast, provide more statistical power for estimation. ...
Recent network research indicates that native youth prefer to befriend immigrants with stronger rather than weaker host country identification. Surprisingly, however, no respective preference of high-identifying immigrants for native friends has been found, and there is little evidence that friends influence immigrants' identification. Seeking to make sense of these unexpected findings, my aims are twofold: First, I reproduce an earlier study using three waves of newly collected network panel data. Second, going beyond a robustness test with better data, I suggest that relative group size within school accounts for earlier findings. I hypothesize that immigrants' host country identification only affects their own friendship choices in schools with high shares of immigrants, because only in those schools they can be picky about befriending natives. Stochastic actor-oriented models support this notion, pointing to an interplay of preferences and opportunities in shaping the relation between host country identification and interethnic friendships.
... For example, immigrant-origin minority youth in the Netherlands who had more majority friends were more identified with the majority Dutch group (Munniksma, Verkuyten, Flache, Stark, & Veenstra, 2015). Longitudinal findings provide further support for bidirectional relations between majority friendship and majority belonging (Leszczensky, Stark, Flache, & Munniksma, 2016). ...
... Specifically, we established that friendship with native majority peers predicted more positive majority group attitudes and stronger identification. We replicated previous results associating majority friendship with majority belonging in minority youth (Leszczensky et al., 2016;Munniksma et al., 2015). In line with Hypothesis 1b on unequal treatment and majority belonging, the results further showed that discrimination experiences and perceived unfair treatment predicted less positive majority group attitudes and weaker identification. ...
As most immigrant‐origin minority youth grow up in ethnically diverse social worlds, they develop a sense of belonging to both the national majority and the ethnic minority group. Our study adds to a growing body of research on minority experiences of intergroup contact by (1) including both minority and majority group belonging as outcomes and (2) examining the interplay of majority contact with unequal treatment. We surveyed 1,200 Turkish and Moroccan‐Belgian minority youth in 315 classrooms across 65 schools, using multiple measures of intergroup contact, unequal treatment in school, and minority and majority group belonging. Multi‐level models showed that minority youth who experienced more intergroup contact, and less unequal treatment, reported more belonging to the majority group. In addition, contact predicted less belonging to the minority group only in the presence of unequal treatment: For minority youth who perceived less unequal treatment, either individually or collectively, intergroup contact was unrelated to minority group belonging. We conclude that majority group contact and belonging need not come at the cost of minority group distancing in the absence of inequality.
... This information is more accurate than asking how many friends of other ethnic groups one has because all friends report their own ethnicity (Kalter, 2015). This advantage is even more relevant when characteristics of friends are considered that cannot easily be observed, such as attitudes or identity (Leszczensky, Stark, Flache, & Munniksma, 2016). Friends' reports about who their friends are can even be used to identify indirect relationships with people from other ethnic groups (Munniksma et al., 2013;Wölfer et al., 2017;Wölfer, Schmid, Hewstone, & van Zalk, 2016). ...
... Controlling for friendship selection, research in the United States has shown that ethnic-racial identity development of youth is indeed influenced by friends' ethnic-racial identity (Santos, Kornienko, & Rivas-Drake, 2017). On the other hand, research in European countries has shown that the strength of ethnic minority youth's host country identification is not affected by the level of their friends' identification (Leszczensky, 2018;Leszczensky et al., 2016). Friends can also affect the perception of ethnicity attributed to peers. ...
... We analyzed all 37 classrooms at once using SIENA's multi-group option (for an example, see Leszczensky, Stark, Flache, & Munniksma, 2016). This approach allows estimating interactions due to the bigger statistical power provided by a large sample. ...
... Robustness checks indicated, however, that, in the present study, this selection effect was mainly driven by the group of Turkish and Moroccan students who selected friends with similar (positive) attitudes toward their own ethnic group. Moreover, adolescents preferred friends with the same gender and of the same ethnicity (Geven et al., 2013;Leszczensky et al., 2016;van Zalk et al., 2013). ...
Research has shown that adolescents’ intergroup attitudes are subject to friends’ influence, but it remains unknown if certain friends are more influential than others. Popular adolescents may be especially influential of their friends’ intergroup attitudes because they can set peer norms. We examined several indicators of popularity in social networks as possible determinants of social influence: sociometric popularity, prestige popularity, being a clique leader, and frequency of contact with friends. Longitudinal analysis of adolescents’ friendship networks (12–13 years, N = 837) allowed estimating influence of friends on adolescents’ intergroup attitudes, while controlling for the tendency of adolescents to befriend peers with similar intergroup attitudes. Results showed that adolescents’ intergroup attitudes changed in the direction of friends’ intergroup attitudes. Only peers who are popular in terms of having many friends (sociometric popular) were especially influential of their friends’ intergroup attitudes. These findings may inform future interventions aiming to reduce prejudice.
... Die subjektive Wahrnehmung von Ethnizität ist ferner wirkungsmächtiger als "objektive" Kategorien wie das Geburtsland oder das Herkunftsland der Eltern. Jugendliche ohne Migrationshintergrund schließen etwa häufiger Freundschaft mit Jugendlichen mit Migrationshintergrund, wenn letztere sich stärker mit dem Aufnahmeland identifizieren ( Leszczensky et al. 2016). Tatsächlich bevorzugen Jugendliche ohne Migrationshintergrund ihresgleichen nicht gegenüber Altersgenossen mit Migrationshintergrund, die sich ganz oder teilweise als Angehörige des Aufnahmelandes identifizieren (also z. ...
... B. Kalmijn 2015; Platt 2012)? Sind interethnische Freundschaften tatsächlich eine Voraussetzung für emotionale Integration in Form der Entstehung von Zugehörigkeitsgefühlen ( Leszczensky et al. 2016; Leszczensky 2018b)? ...
... Moreover, adolescents typically seek the social approval of their peers, which can be obtained by conforming to norms and assimilating their behaviors and opinions (Deaux and Martin 2003;McFarland and Pals 2005). Adolescents are therefore likely to adjust their own level of ethnic identification to that of their friends (Leszczensky et al. 2016). ...
... In Europe and elsewhere, ethnic minority group members typically have higher levels of ethnic identification than do natives, which may ipso facto hamper their integration into friendship networks of the ethnic majority group. Consistent with this interpretation, earlier research shows that ethnic majority youth prefer ethnic minority peers with strong host-country identification, which is often antithetical to strong ethnic identification (Leszczensky et al. 2016). Concerning the more specific question of whether strong ethnic identification prevents the formation of inter-ethnic friendships, our findings point to a more complex picture. ...
Individual preferences for same-ethnic friends contribute to persistent segregation of adolescents’ friendship networks. Yet, we know surprisingly little about the mechanisms behind ethnic homophily. Prior research suggests that ethnic homophily is ubiquitous, but a social identity perspective indicates that strong ingroup identification drives ingroup favoritism. Combining a social identity perspective with a relational approach, we ask whether the presumed increased homophily of high identifiers extends to all ingroup members, or whether it is conditional on the strength of same-ethnics’ identification. We propose that the strength of ethnic identification affects not only how much individuals desire same-ethnic friends, but also how attractive they are as potential friends to others. Fitting stochastic actor-oriented models to German adolescent school-based network panel data, we find that ethnic homophily is driven by an interplay of peers’ ethnic identification: high identifiers befriend same-ethnic peers who share their strong ethnic identification, while excluding same-ethnic low identifiers. Low identifiers, in turn, tend to avoid befriending inter-ethnic high identifiers. Our relational approach reveals that ethnic homophily is hardly ubiquitous but requires strong identification of both parties of a (potential) friendship.
... Extensive research has related minority national identification to individual experiences of culture contact and acculturation attitudes on the one hand (Ashmore et al., 2004;Umaña-Taylor et al., 2014;Verkuyten, 2014) and to perceptions of intergroup relations in the wider society on the other hand (Verkuyten and Yildiz, 2007;Mähönen and Jasinskaja-Lahti, 2012;Martinovic and Verkuyten, 2012;Wiley, 2013). In parallel, an emerging stream of research on minority peer relations has yielded mixed findings of positive, zero, or reverse effects of majority peer presence and contact on minority national identification (Agirdag et al., 2011;Leszczensky et al., 2016). ...
... The construct validity of our measures is, however, supported by our tested models; associations, also those with control variables, are meaningful and in line with our theoretical expectations. Moreover, our measure of national self-identification has been used successfully in previous studies (e.g., Leszczensky et al., 2016;Fleischmann and Phalet, 2018), and research has shown that single-item measures can assess social identification adequately (Postmes et al., 2013). Still, it would be good for future research to use composite measures to replicate our findings. ...
Prevailing definitions of national identities in Europe equate belonging to the nation with “fitting in” culturally and leave immigrant minorities who are culturally different from the majority group struggling to belong. The present study focuses on an under-researched minority perspective on the intersubjective cultural contents of the national identity. We propose that minorities' national belonging is contingent on their perception that minority peers who deviate from the majority culture are accepted as real nationals. Our study aims to establish (a) minority perceptions of the national fit and acceptance of culturally different peers, and to test (b) the consequences of perceived fit and acceptance for minority adolescents' own national belonging, and (c) its affordances by the local peer context. Drawing on a large random sample of 1,489 Moroccan and Turkish minority youth (aged 12–18) and their peers across 312 classes in 63 Belgian schools, we varied cultural difference from the majority in three vignettes describing imaginary acculturating peers. Minority participants rated to what extent they saw each peer as a real national (perceived fit) and whether other nationals would accept this peer (perceived acceptance). As a measure of their own national belonging, they indicated their national self-identification. Additionally, the multi-level design included classroom contextual measures of majority peer presence and peer acculturation norms (peer norm of heritage culture maintenance). As expected, minority youth who perceived better national fit of culturally different peers, self-identified more strongly as nationals than those who perceived worse fit. This association was not explained by their own acculturation attitudes. In line with the contextual affordance of national fit, only in classes with majority peers, minority youth perceived higher national fit and acceptance of culturally different peers when peer norms supported the maintenance of a distinct heritage culture. We conclude that the national belonging of minority youth is contingent on the peer context through the perceived fit and acceptance of culturally different peers.
... Yet adolescents' friendship choices are not only shaped by contact opportunities; even in diverse schools, youth tend to select their friends among those who are similar to them in terms of gender, ethnicity, religion, socioeconomic status, and so forth (McPherson, Smith-Lovin, & Cook, 2001). The composition of ethnic minorities' friendship networks is related to their national identification, such that those with more majority friends identify stronger with the nation (Leszczensky, Stark, Flache, & Munniksma, 2016). We therefore expect that Muslim youth with more majority friends will have higher levels of national identification. ...
... Finally, we expected the share of majority friends to account for the Muslim penalty on national identification because of the positive association between having majority friends and identifying with the nation (Leszczensky et al., 2016). Indeed, we found the share of majority friends to be the strongest indirect path and thus to contribute most to the explanation of the difference in national identification between Muslims and majority youth. ...
How inclusive are European national identities of Muslim minorities and how can we explain cross-cultural variation in inclusiveness? To address these questions, we draw on large-scale school-based surveys of Muslim minority and non-Muslim majority and other minority youth in five European countries (Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Survey [CILS]; Belgium, England, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden). Our double comparison of national identification across groups and countries reveals that national identities are less strongly endorsed by all minorities compared with majority youth, but national identification is lowest among Muslims. This descriptive evidence resonates with public concerns about the insufficient inclusion of immigrant minorities in general, and Muslims in particular, in European national identities. In addition, significant country variation in group differences in identification suggest that some national identities are more inclusive of Muslims than others. Taking an intergroup relations approach to the inclusiveness of national identities for Muslims, we establish that beyond religious commitment, positive intergroup contact (majority friendship) plays a major role in explaining differences in national identification in multigroup multilevel mediation models, whereas experiences of discrimination in school do not contribute to this explanation. Our comparative findings thus establish contextual variation in the inclusiveness of intergroup relations and European national identities for Muslim minorities.
... Children and adolescents judge similarity on many dimensions, such as gender, ethnicity, attitudes, values, and interests (Aboud & Mendelson, 1996). Regarding identification, previous research showed that ethnic minority adolescents who identify with the host country are more likely to have ethnic majority friends than those who do not identify with the host country (Agirdag, van Houtte, & van Avermaet, 2010;Leszczensky, 2013;Leszczensky, Stark, Flache, & Munniksma, 2016;Phinney et al., 2006;Sabatier, 2008). ...
... Only few studies have assessed aspects of ethnic minority adolescents' ethnic self-identification and their friendships in school. In a study with Dutch adolescents, Leszczensky et al. (2016) found support for the assumption that ethnic majority adolescents prefer to befriend ethnic minority adolescents with a strong host country identification. However, they found no support for the idea that ethnic minority adolescents with a strong host country identification also prefer ethnic majority adolescents. ...
This study investigated the effects of ethnic minority adolescents’ ethnic self-identification (host country, dual, or heritage country) on friendship choices among ethnic majority and minority peers. Hypotheses were derived from similarity–attraction and social identity theory and tested using longitudinal social network data from 1,004 middle school students (5 schools) in Germany. Results showed that ethnic minority adolescents’ ethnic self-identification affected friendship selection beyond ethnic homophily. While host country and dual identification was beneficial with respect to friendships with both ethnic majority and minority peers, heritage country identification was detrimental to relations with both of them.
... Local friends [71,72] Friends with local household registration [7,73] Friends without local household registration [74,75] social activities [76,77] Acceptance of local culture Local identity [61,78] Cultural and customary identity [79,80] The overall framework of this study is summarized in Figure 1. ...
This study explores the factors influencing the migration intentions of the new generation of migrant workers from the perspective of employment quality. Utilizing differential analysis, correlation analysis, and the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) model, this study analyzes data on hukou transfer intention obtained through an exploratory questionnaire survey. The results indicate significant differences in migration intentions among new-generation migrant workers differentiated by job industry, job position, gender, household registration type, and housing type. Additionally, age, the number of local family members, and housing satisfaction are strongly correlated with migration intentions. Path analysis reveals that employment stability, income–expenditure match, and social integration significantly positively affect migration intentions. This research provides a unique perspective on employment quality and offers theoretical foundations for policies related to migrant workers’ hukou transfer intention.
... Prior research has primarily focused on the extent to which individuals perceive themselves as part of the host nation (Umaña-Taylor et al., 2014) and the strength of this identification. For example, national identification has been measured using single-item questions like "Do you feel Dutch?" (Leszczensky et al., 2016) or multiple items assessing attachment to the host society, such as "Germany is dear to me; I feel like I am part of Germany" (Jugert et al., 2019;Leszczensky, 2018). Strength has often been assessed using tools like the Identification Scale (Barrett, 2006) or single items like "How strongly do you feel British?" (Fleischmann & Phalet, 2018). ...
... SAOM techniques are now increasingly being applied to questions in integration research. One example is the work of Leszczensky et al. (2016), who investigate the coevolution of friendship networks and host country identification with the help of The Arnhem School Study (TASS). The study finds no support for influence mechanisms. ...
... Based on the current results we cannot rule outand in fact would assume -that minorities' emotional fit facilitates contact and friendship with majority peers. This may be so because a minority individual who experiences emotions that are congruent with the majority culture communicates that they share an understanding of the social reality with majority members, which may bring them closer together (Anderson et al., 2003;Gottman & Levenson, 1992) and afford friendships (Leszczensky et al., 2016). However, some of our findings do suggest that minorities are socialized to experience majority emotions through interactions and relationships with majority others: The highest association of emotional fit was with reciprocal (rather than unilateral) friendships, and with majority peers who were well-connected in the network. ...
The typical emotional responses to certain types of situations differ across cultures. Being reprimanded by your teacher in front of the class may be cause for anger and indignation among pupils in one cultural context, but for anger, shame, and possibly respect for the teacher among pupils in another cultural context. The consequence for immigrant-origin minorities is that they may not fit the emotions of the majority culture. Previous research has found that minorities who have majority contact have higher emotional fit with the majority culture. In the current study, we suggest that friendships with majority peers are particularly important to minorities' emotional fit. Students (945 minority and 1256 majority) from a representative sample of Belgian middle schools completed a sociometric questionnaire on their classroom friendships and rated their emotional experiences in two situations. Multilevel models yielded higher levels of emotional fit for minority youth with many (vs. few) majority friends as well as for minorities whose majority friends are connected (vs. less connected) to each other, or who are well-connected in the majority peer network. Having majority friends predicted emotional fit over and above majority contact in general.
... Second, we follow previous research showing that factors of social integration, such as interethnic friendship, are empirically associated with national identification and causally precede identification (Leszczensky et al. 2016). To empirically assess this claim, and to rule out that national identification determines perceptions of social cohesion in the neighborhood, we use two-wave cross-lagged panel models to test for the causal direction of the relationship in a profound way. ...
Immigrants' identification with the receiving society is a core dimension of their integration process. Previous research has much focused on the relevance of language acquisition, job market placement, and intergroup friendship as drivers of identification. At the same time, neighborhoods as immediate living environments reflect a relevant experiential setting in which immigrants learn about the social fabric of the receiving society and to which degree (local) public authorities take their concerns into account. This study examines how perceptions of neighborhood social cohesion and disorder relate to immigrants' identification with the receiving society. Using geo-coded panel data from the Netherlands Longitudinal Lifecourse Study, we find robust empirical evidence that high levels of perceived neighborhood social cohesion predict higher degrees of immigrants' national identification mainly by facilitating intergroup interaction. Our results suggest that perceptions of and experiences in immigrants' immediate living environments are highly relevant for outcomes related to their integration within the receiving society.
... In recent years, many scholars have extensively examined the ways in which minority ethnic youngsters identify with their 'host' country, whether they become friends with the majority ethnic group, and hence the extent to which they are 'integrated' or not (e.g., Alvarez Valdivia et al., 2015;Leszczensky et al., 2016;Schulz and Leszczensky, 2016). Others, however, have increasingly called for a rejection of these notions of integration and assimilation as a 'one-way-street' and also for consideration of how 'native', 'white' people integrate or assimilate in a diversified society where minority ethnic citizens increasingly form a numerical majority (Alba and Foner, 2015;Crul, 2018;Crul et al., 2013;Jiménez, 2017;Kasinitz et al., 2008;Schinkel, 2018). ...
Antwerp children grow up in a society characterized by unprecedented diversity. This diversity is strongly reflected in primary schools, where about three-quarters of the pupils have a migration background. At the same time, the city has a large ethnic gap in its poverty rates and life chances are unequally distributed along ethnic lines as well. Yet, while there is much research on the dynamics and impact of these inequalities, little is known about children’s perceptions and how they navigate such inequalities.
Building on insights from cultural sociology and the ‘New Sociology of Childhood’, this dissertation aims to add to the literature on symbolic boundary making by examining how children negotiate ethnic and social class boundaries in their super-diverse environment. Drawing on three rounds of in-depth interviews conducted over a two-school year period with children aged 11-14, and the parents and teachers of some of them, I discuss how children express a great deal of agency as they negotiate the unequal environment in which they find themselves. They do not passively draw on existing public repertoires to make sense of this environment, but they actively choose, combine and reconstruct those symbolic boundaries, repertoires and identity categories that support both their own perceptions and their self-concept.
... From previous research, we know that the ethnic composition of the school is significantly related to (sub)national identifications of young people (Agirdag et al., 2011). Moreover, positive intergroup contact between ethnic minority and majority peers plays a significant role in the development of a sense of national belonging Leszczensky et al. 2016). All participating students are attending schools in a highly diverse city. ...
Schools are an important setting wherein different identity dimensions are made available to youth. This paper argues that European identity can be a relevant unifying collective identity in ethnically diverse contexts. We study whether (or not) students who are confronted with a European and/or a multicultural dimension in their school curriculum, identify more strongly with a European identity. More specifically, we analyse whether the importance of these dimensions for European identification differs between a sample of ethnic majority and ethnic minority students. The results show that both the European and the multicultural curriculum predicted a stronger European identity for both groups. The effects of both dimensions on European identity were similar for ethnic majority students, while the multicultural dimension had significantly stronger effects on European identity for ethnic minority students. The paper thus highlights how curricula contribute to changing patterns of identification in a diversifying society.
... In addition to these studies on adult migrants, there is also a line of research focusing on national identification in migrant children and adolescents. While some studies in this field confirm the results found in studies with adults (Phinney et al., 2006;Sabatier, 2008;Agirdag et al., 2011;Munniksma et al., 2015;Fleischmann and Phalet, 2018), others did not find this relation in their samples (Leszczensky, 2013;Leszczensky et al., 2016;Leszczensky, 2018). Therefore, in children the relation between having native friends and national identification appears to be more disputed, especially since the studies indicating no relation tended to use longitudinal analyses strategies, which are more suitable for analyzing causation 1 . ...
A key element of migrants’ well-being is their emotional integration, that is, the extent to which they perceive themselves as members of society and their identification with the country they are living in. To foster this sense of belonging, many integration programs aim to increase the migrants’ social integration, for example, by organizing events for migrants to meet natives in various settings. The validity of this strategy is supported by decades of international research. It remains unclear, however, which aspects of social integration are most relevant for national identification. Multiple theories concerned with contact and group identification support the assumption that contact to natives should foster a sense of belonging and national identification. However, for a contact situation to bear this potential, a certain set of criteria, including aspects like direct personal contact, a similar social status, and the presence of egalitarian norms, needs to be fulfilled. It is expected that these characteristics are more likely to be fulfilled within family and friendship settings than in contact situations within the employment context. Hence, I expect contact to natives within the network of friends and family to be more greatly associated with migrants’ national identification. I analyzed data from a 2013 cooperation between the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) and the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), that is, the IAB-SOEP Migration Sample, as well as the 2014 wave of the SOEP. The subsample used included 2,780 first- and second-generation migrants living in Germany. The results indicate that not all kinds of contact are equally linked to national identification. In contrast to expectations, in neither the cross-sectional models nor the lagged models was living together with native family members significantly linked to national identification. Similarly, the association between having predominantly native co-workers and national identification was insignificant when controlling for migrant-specific characteristics. Only the relation with having predominantly native friends was significant and positive across all models. This as well as a comparison of the associations lead to the conclusion that when it comes to migrants’ national identification native friends might be the most relevant form of contact to natives.
... For instance, past research analysed how reciprocity in resource exchanges works in the networks of migrants who live in different nation-states, and thus who are entitled to different rights, rules, and regulations (Bilecen, 2020;Faist & Bilecen, 2015;Kornienko et al., 2018;Mazzucato, 2008). Another strand of research investigated the homophily of ties, that is, the tendency to associate with similar others (McPherson et al., 2001; in migration research mainly in terms of ethnicity), which migrants have to others in the receiving contexts that have implications for their social incorporation (Leszczensky et al., 2016;Smith et al., 2016). ...
Acknowledgement of the prominent role of social networks in migration studies marked a significant departure from earlier studies, suggesting that social networks determine migration decisions, trajectories, and outcomes. While social network analytical tools have not always been used in empirical investigations of migratory phenomena, studies on migration that use relational approaches also show an inherent network thinking. In this paper, we review the state of the art of the literature on migration and social networks, highlighting the advances made by empirical research using network thinking, particularly in different stages of migration and for operationalizing transnational phenomena related to migration. Based on this review, we detect the role of networks in different stages of migration, and we reflect on the remaining challenges for future research regarding the role of social networks within migration scholarship.
... Thus, a significant benchmark for gauging refugees' resettlement's success is how well they become embedded in the broader community (Ager & Strang, 2008;Strang & Ager, 2010). While some refugees seek to separate themselves from their broader communities, many others become quite fully involved within them (de Vroome, Coenders, van Tubergen, & Verkuyten, 2011;Leszczensky, Stark, Flache, & Munniksma, 2016). Colic-Peisker and Walker (2003) noted that the Bosnian refugees they interviewed in Australia had suffered from being marginalized due to stigmatization. ...
Facilitating refugees’ transitions to host country society is of interest to their host countries and municipalities, employers within those countries, and the refugees themselves. We develop and test a model of how social identity processes, as outlined in self-categorization theory, influence how perceiving one is treated as an insider encourages behaviors reflecting social engagement with host country nationals, both within and outside of work. In a sample of 389 Syrian refugee employees in 88 supervisory units, perceived insider status was indirectly related to work initiative and community embeddedness through organizational identification. These indirect effects were moderated by diversity climate and perceived stigmatization of refugees in the broader society. Perceived insider status had its weakest effect on identification, and was not related indirectly to the outcomes when diversity climate was lower and perceived stigma was higher. We discuss the implications for theory development and practice concerning how social identity salience can inhibit personal affirmations at work from encouraging members of marginalized groups to demonstrate a deeper commitment to the organization and society.
... Although people may also adapt their values to one another, selection, rather than influence, is thought to be the prevailing cause of similarity among contact partners(Cohen 1977;Leszczensky et al. 2016). ...
This article investigates whether gender-role values are linked to refugee women's social contact in Germany. By building on the "preferences-third parties-opportunities" framework, we explicate a direct and an indirect path through which gender-role values may be related to refugee women's minority-majority, intra-minority, and inter-minority contact. By applying median regressions, marginal structural models, and inverse probability of treatment weighting to data from the 2016 IAB-BAMF-SOEP refugee survey, we show that refugee women's own gender-traditional values and those of their partners are associated both directly and indirectly with less social contact for these women. Effects of gender-role values on refugee women's social contact are more pronounced for minority-majority contact than for the other two types of social contact assessed. With the effects of refugee women's and their partners' gender-role values being rather small against alternative explanatory factors, we conclude that in contrast to the view traditionally held by the populist right, traditional gender-role values hold refugee women back from establishing social contact in the host society only to a very limited extent.
... These studies often focused on the majority's attitude towards reducing prejudice and discrimination against minorities (Aboud, 1993;Bigler & Liben, 1993;Killen, 2007). After the first study on minority children (Clark & Clark, 1950), other studies were conducted with racial minority children (Bigler & Liben, 2007;Flanagan, Syvertsen, Gill, Gallay, & Cumsille, 2009) and ethnic minority immigrants (Alba, 2005;Leszczensky & Pink, 2016;Leszczensky, Stark, Flache, & Munniksma, 2016;Munniksma, Verkuyten, Flache, Stark, & Veenstra, 2015;Sabatier, 2008;Stevens, Pels, Vollebergh, & Crijnen, 2004;Verkuyten, Thijs, & Stevens, 2012) in the last two decades. ...
This study aimed to examine the relationships between Muslim-Turkish children born in France and their French peers. 96 students aged 9-15 participated in the study. 60 of the students were girls, and 36 were boys. The drawings, interviews about the drawings and answers given to the open-ended questions were evaluated together. The data were analysed by the maxqda 2018 software. The study was designed with the research method of phenomenology and analysed by the induction method. The data were depicted in two main themes as tolerant and discriminatory relationships. Differences in terms of gender and age in these themes were examined. Girls made more friends with their French peers. The friendships with the peers increased from 9 years old to 10-12. However, this rate decreased at 13-15 years. Boys expressed that they were exposed to discriminatory attitudes and behaviours by their native friends more. There was an increase from 9 to 10-12 in perceived racial/ethnic exclusion. This decreased at 13-15 years of age. There was a continuous increase in perceived religious exclusion with increasing age.
... However, research suggests that there is a difference between potential and actual ties, as Third, our segregation measures were somehow a-spatial, because the definition of each individual egohood actually splits the remaining population in two, that is, those inside and those outside the egohood, regardless of the actual distance between ego and each alter. Considering a more detailed definition of geographical and social space as an endogenous force of segregation might be the next step of our work (Leszczensky, Stark, Flache, & Munniksma, 2016). ...
This paper looks at the causal impact of residential segregation on income among migrants in Brescia, a wealthy industrial city of about 200,000 inhabitants in North‐Eastern Italy, where almost one citizen out of five is born abroad. Using a new register‐like dataset including economic and demographic microdata from administrative sources, we geo‐localised each migrant household and created for each individual an “egohood” by imposing buffer circles with the same diameter (250 or 500 m) around his or her residential location. Within this spatial area of reference, we calculated indices of ethnic segregation and exposure to Italian natives, thus measuring the individual network of potential contacts with co‐ethnics and with Italians.
Following social networks and social capital theories, we expected ethnic segregation to have a negative impact and exposure to natives to have a positive impact on income and tested our hypotheses with a set of ordinary least squares and two‐stage least squares with instrumental variables regression models. Results showed a robust and negative effect of ethnic segregation on income, whereas a small and positive effect of exposure to natives was not robust to endogeneity checks. We also found substantial heterogeneity among migrant groups defined by macroareas of origin: Exposure to Italians was found to have the expected impact only among migrants coming from Eastern Europe and from the Middle East and North Africa.
... The relationship between ethnic and national identity can thus be inverse (Verkuyten & Yildiz, 2007), positive (Gong, 2007), or independent of one another and rather determined by a range of other factors (Sabatier, 2008). Previous work suggests that identity of minorities and immigrants can be influenced by socioeconomic background, family and friendships, neighborhoods, and macro-level factors (Leszczensky, Stark, Flache, & Munniksma, 2016;Markus & Hamedani, 2007;McCrone, 2002;Phinney et al., 2001;Sabatier, 2008;Supple, Ghazarian, Frabutt, Plunkett, & Sands, 2006). Identity can thus be defined and understood not only by personal characteristics, but also in relation to the larger framework and context where one is situated. ...
This paper examines determinants of identity through examining the generational status, religiosity, and school context of migrant youth in Europe. The first part of this study focuses on the presumptions of assimilation theory for identity by testing for generational differences and evidence of ethnic revival in acculturation identity. This study also explores the influence of religion- which has often been perceived as a hindrance to integration- and school context on the types of identities students express. The questions are explored using the migrant sample of the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Survey in Four European Countries (CILS4EU; England, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden). Results of multilevel logistic regressions challenge previous presumptions of identity among migrant youth and find no strong evidence for either assimilation or ethnic revival among second generation students compared with their first generation peers. However, evidence of assimilation is observed among students with a foreign-born and native parent. Religious salience, perceived discrimination, and high share of migrants at the school-level are also associated with a lower likelihood of assimilated identity and higher likelihood of integrated and separated identities, suggesting the social and contextual nature of identity formation and highlighting the role of ethnic diversity in facilitating dual identities.
... But because previous developmental research generally focuses on a single social identity, it is as yet unknown whether identification with multiple social identities develops in parallel, or whether developments diverge for different categories of one's social identity. It could be, for instance, that the attachment to one's ethnic and religious identity is strengthened during adolescence if youngsters become increasingly involved with co-ethnic and co-religious peers (Maliepaard & Phalet, 2012), or that ethnic majority friends increase ethnic minority peers' national identification (Leszczensky, Stark, Flache, & Munniksma, 2016). If national identification does not develop in the same direction or to the same extent as ethnic or religious identification over the same period, for instance in response to experiences of discrimination, this would imply a lowering of initially positive associations between ethnic or religious identities and national identity. ...
The notion that ethnic and religious minority identities are inherently incompatible with the national identities of European immigrant‐receiving societies is popular in public discourse. Although findings documenting such negative associations seemingly support this claim, other research shows that the intergroup context matters for the extent to which minorities’ ethnic and religious identities are conflicting (i.e., negatively associated) or compatible (i.e., positively associated) with European national identities. However, previous research relied on cross‐sectional data and therefore could not capture the dynamic process through which minority youth come to develop compatible or conflicting identification patterns. We extend this work with a longitudinal approach by capturing developmental trajectories of identity multiplicity among ethnic minority early adolescents in Germany over three waves with 9‐month intervals. At each measurement point, participants reported their ethnic, religious, and (German) national identification and their experiences with discriminatory treatment. We estimate a cross‐lagged panel model to study how identification relates to perceived discrimination and how this affects (changes in) associations between ethnic, religious, and national identification of minority youth. Our results show prevalent positive associations between ethnic, religious, and national identification across minority youth in the sample. Those who report more frequent discrimination, however, lower their (German) national identification over time, which in turn predicts increased minority identification. We conclude that identity threat indeed triggers a development of more conflicting identification patterns.
... Employment (a dummy variable indicating whether the respondent has a paid job) and having a Dutch partner (a dummy variable indicating whether the respondent has a Dutch partner) are important proxies of migrants' engagement in the Netherlands, because most new ties in the destination context are established mainly through the work place or marrying a native person27 (Lubbers et al., 2010;Ryan, 2011Ryan, , 2015. Dutch language proficiency (a continuous variable reflecting the mean score of the respondents' self-reported ability to understand, speak, write and read Dutch) we include in the model because it facilitates social interaction and allows migrants to develop close and trustworthy relationships (Leszczensky et al., 2016;Ryan, 2015;Toruńczyk-Ruiz, 2008). Finally, we include time spent in the Netherlands (a continuous variable) because it is associated with migrants' friendship ties. ...
The process of modernisation brought about new contexts, such as ageing, individualism, and migration – to just name a few – posing questions about the organisation of support and the role of different providers in individuals’ support networks. A key premise across Europe has been the idea that kin and non-kin ties should take more responsibility in the future, but little is known about the circumstances under which they are willing and able to do so. This holds particularly true for non-kin ties – ties which are not related by blood or legal arrangements, e.g. friends, neighbours and colleagues. Non-kin ties have been largely neglected in European research on support. A link between generous social spending and non-kin support has been established, but questions such as how do non-relatives situate in individuals’ support networks remain open. Our knowledge remains equally scarce when it comes to the mechanics underlying non-kin help. This dissertation addresses this knowledge lacuna and poses two key questions: (1) To what extent do non-kin ties form part of individuals’ support networks across Europe? and (2) How are contemporary cultural, social, and demographic contexts, at both the individual and the country level, linked with potential and actual non-kin support in Europe?
... The sample for the analyses exclusively consisted of adolescents with an immigrant background (N = 1,318). According to a widely used definition in the field of ethnic and migration studies (CBS 2001;Leszczensky et al. 2016), immigrant adolescents were included when they or at least one of their parents were born outside the Netherlands, covering first and second-generation immigrants. Immigrant adolescents were coded to their parents' country of origin, and when both parents were born in the Netherlands and the child was born abroad, the child was coded as native. ...
Previous studies have discovered a somewhat paradoxical empirical pattern whereby members of some higher educated first- and second-generation migrant groups in the Netherlands, who are structurally better integrated, harbour more negative attitudes toward natives than their lower educated counterparts, a.k.a. ‘the integration paradox’. This finding goes against intergroup contact theory which predicts that the greater contact with natives among highly educated migrants should improve their attitudes toward natives. Here we ask whether this negative relationship between education and attitudes toward natives can already be observed at an earlier stage in the lives of immigrants, in adolescence. In survey data on Dutch first- and second-generation immigrant adolescents, we find no integration paradox: Instead, education positively predicts attitudes toward natives. This positive relationship can largely be attributed to the greater opportunity for befriending native peers in higher educational tracks, which in turn produces more favourable attitudes toward natives, consistent with contact theory. We conclude that if the integration paradox is a robust phenomenon in adulthood, it is either restricted to migrants who do not grow up in the Netherlands, or the attitudes of immigrants radically change after they finish high school.
... Furthermore, there is increasing evidence that peer processes do not operate identically for all individuals (e.g. Leszczensky et al., 2016;Veenstra et al., 2013;Wang et al., 2015), highlighting the importance for future work to further consider how and why these differences exist. Our study begins to consider these questions by uncovering that, for certain problem behaviors, there are gender differences in adolescents' experiences with peer influence and friend selection. ...
We examine gender differences in the extent to which the social network processes of peer influence and friend selection explain why adolescents tend to exhibit similar risky behaviors as their friends for three problem behaviors (smoking, drinking, and delinquency). Using dynamic Stochastic Actor-Oriented Models (SAOMs), we analyze five waves of data on a large sample of 13,214 adolescents from 51 friendship networks. While both processes explain patterns of risky activities for girls and boys, the delinquent behavior of girls is more susceptible to influence and girls are especially likely to select friends who have similar smoking behaviors to their own.
... Some students with foreign-born parents may identify more strongly with the host country and declare themselves as members of the https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socnet.2018.08.006 majority group, whereas others may identify more strongly with their minority group and declare themselves as members of the minority group. Whether students identify with the majority or the minority group may affect their social relations (Leszczensky et al., 2016), including whom they bully or by whom they are bullied. Moreover, students' ethnicity might be perceived by their peers differently compared to how they identify themselves (Boda, 2018;Boda and Néray, 2015). ...
In this study, we investigate the associations between self-reported and victim-reported bullying and two dimensions of ethnicity (self-identification and ethnic perceptions) among non-Roma majority and Roma minority Hungarian secondary school students. Results of the meta-analysis of exponential random graph models for 12 classes (347 students, 4 schools) show that both self-declared Roma and non-Roma students are more likely to report that they bully peers they perceive as Roma compared to peers they perceive as non-Roma. This is after controlling for gender, socio-economic status, and structural characteristics of the bullying networks. Similar associations have not been found, however, analysing victims’ reports.
... 3 Notwithstanding this implicit assumption, there are strong theoretical reasons to expect that context matters: The same concept of identity is, in fact, dependent on the place where it originated and evolved (Nogu e & Vicente, 2004). Social interaction does not take place in a vacuum and, as research in social networks has shown, the immediate social setting serves as an intervening mechanism (Leszczensky, Stark, Flache, & Munniksma, 2016;Simpson et al., 2011): individuals interact between each other, which is likely to have an impact on their identity. ...
Regional and national identities are significant determinants of people's support for secession. Most previous works, however, have implicitly assumed that national identity has a linear unconditional effect. We complement previous works by showing that the relationship between identity and support for secession changes as a function of the context in which an individual interacts, an effect particularly important among those with mixed national and regional identities. The first stage of our empirical analysis is based on a pool of 22,000 individuals in the context of Catalonia (Spain). Findings confirm that dual-identity individuals are especially affected by their immediate surroundings: the probability to vote in favour of independence among them substantially increases when the percentage of people speaking Catalan increases. On a second stage, we explore the existence of a social interaction mechanism by employing a survey that measures the preferences of people's close networks. We show that individual's interaction in like-minded networks modifies the relationship between identity and secession, with the effect being again strong among dual-identity individuals. This group is six times more likely to vote for secession when having only pro-secession close contacts, as compared to having none. These results have implications for studies on regionalism and preferences for territorial decentralization.
... Studies on identification showed that the causal link between social networks and identification goes into both direction. Whereas social networks influence identification (McFarland and Pals, 2005;Munniksma et al., 2015), identification also affects whom people befriend (Leszczensky et al., 2016;Munniksma et al., 2015;Rutland et al., 2012). Similarly, there might be a bidirectional causal link between classification and social networks. ...
The thesis focuses on the positive and negative relations between Roma and non-Roma Hungarian students. Educational integration of Roma pupils is a widely researched topic in Hungary (Berényi, Berkovits, and Erőss 2008; Havas and Liskó 2005; Kertesi and Kézdi 2011; Kertesi and Kézdi 2009), but less is known about the relational integration of classmates of different ethnic background. This study aims to fill this gap and investigates the extent and quality of positive and negative relationships between Roma, constituting the largest ethnic minority group in Hungary, and non-Roma Hungarian students. To better understand the nature of ethnic classification, we also concentrate on the determinants of ethnic classification among secondary school students. Moreover, we examine both ethnic self-identification and peers’ perceptions of classmates’ ethnicity in our empirical analyses.
... Rutland et al., 2012). The latter finding also fits with other research showing that cross-ethnic friendships are more likely to occur if ethnic minority students identify strongly with the host country (Leszczensky, Stark, Flache, & Munniksma, 2016). ...
This study examined direct and interactive effects of social-emotional adjustment, national
and ethnic identification and school ethnic composition on friendship homophily among 214
ethnic minority and 183 ethnic majority English children, aged between 5 and 11 years. The
data came from a longitudinal study, which included three time points, spanning a twelvemonth
period. Results of multi-level latent growth curve models showed that among ethnic
minority English children (teacher-rated) peer problems and ethnic identity were associated
with more friendship homophily whereas a bicultural identity was not related to more
friendship homophily. Among ethnic majority English children the effects of peer problems
and English identity were moderated by school ethnic composition, such that these factors
were not associated with more friendship homophily in more ethnically diverse schools. The
findings are discussed based on theories of intergroup contact and intergroup threat.
... This increased ethnic identity may then translate into stronger preferences for same-ethnic friends. While scholars have recently begun to study the link between ethnic identity and friendship formation in classrooms (Leszczensky, Stark, Flache & Munniksma, 2016;Munniksma et al, 2015), this research has not yet considered the role of relative group size and ethnic composition. We believe that future studies of ethnic homophily in friendship networks would benefit from considering the link between relative group size, ethnic identity, and friendship formation suggested by ODT. ...
This study investigated how students’ ethnic pride was related to variation in ethnic composition between classrooms as well as within the same classroom over time. Predictions derived from Optimal Distinctiveness Theory (ODT) were tested among 13 to 14 year old ethnic majority and minority students (N=1,123). Lending support to ODT, a curvilinear relation between the share of same-ethnicity classmates and students’ ethnic pride was found in a cross-sectional analysis, with ethnic pride peaking in classrooms with approximately 50 percent same-ethnicity classmates. In line with ODT, longitudinal analyses revealed ethnic pride decreased for students who moved away from a share of 50 percent same-ethnicity classmates. Less consistent with ODT, however, ethnic pride also decreased for students who moved closer to this point of optimal distinctivenss.
... While cross-cultural engagement can increase the likelihood of approval and support from the mainstream people, minorities may begin to make better sense of the "other culture" and its practices as they participate in it. Accordingly, native majority members tend to evaluate minority members more favorably if the latter group is perceived to be willing to adopt the host country's culture (Van Oudenhoven, Prins, & Buunk, 1998), and native students choose to befriend immigrant students with high (as opposed to low) national identification (Leszczensky, Stark, Flache, & Munniksma, 2016). A perception of acceptance by the members of host society may, in turn, enhance the feeling of relevance of the acculturation context to the self and feeling right, thus well in it. ...
Most immigrant adolescents in Western Europe seem to feel well despite social-economic-cultural disadvantage. Researchers tend to relate the well-being of these youths to immigrants’ distinctive experiences associated with their background culture, i.e., relatedness. Combining insights from resilience and acculturation perspectives in light of an ecological perspective, we tested the hypothesis that communal (e.g., school) and individual resources (e.g., autonomy) that highlight mainstream culture and values of independence are also conducive to the well-being of immigrant youth, especially when these youths are high on mainstream culture adoption. A questionnaire study among immigrant and nonimmigrant vocational school students in Belgium (N = 290) revealed that not only relatedness but also school engagement and autonomy were predictive of a high well-being of immigrant youth, particularly of those who adopted mainstream culture. Results suggest that in different cultural contexts acculturating youth rely on multiple resources to cope with social adversity and use acculturation orientations to maximize their benefit from these resources.
... Friends' National Identification * A slightly different version of this chapter, co-authored by Tobias Stark, Andreas Flache, and Anke Munniksma, was published in Social Networks (Leszczensky et al. 2016b). For the sake of consistency, I have rewritten this chapter from a first-person perspective and have added cross-references to the other chapters of this book. ...
The stronger young immigrants identify with the host country, the more native friends they have–and vice versa. While this association between emotional and social integration has been established by cross-sectional studies, little is known about how and why it emerges. This cumulative dissertation contains four longitudinal studies that were conducted to answer this overarching question and respective follow-up questions.
... The sample for the analyses exclusively consisted of adolescents with an immigrant background (N = 1,318). According to a widely used definition in the field of ethnic and migration studies (CBS 2001;Leszczensky et al. 2016), immigrant adolescents were included when they or at least one of their parents were born outside the Netherlands, covering first and second-generation immigrants. Immigrant adolescents were coded to their parents' country of origin, and when both parents were born in the Netherlands and the child was born abroad, the child was coded as native. ...
In Israel, the majority of Jewish and Arab students attend ethnically-segregated schools. However, a new phenomenon has emerged in recent decades: ethnically mixed schools – either because they are intentionally designed to be bilingual and multicultural, or the circumstantial outcome of a demographic mix. The research compares the self-identifications of Arab students attending segregated schools and mixed schools of various kinds, and examines their attitudes toward Jews. The findings suggest that students attending mixed schools tend to define themselves in national terms, as social identity theory predicts. In addition, while Arab students attending circumstantially-mixed Hebrew schools tend to define themselves as Israelis, those attending multicultural and segregated schools tend to define themselves as Palestinians. The “Arab” self-definition is common to all research participants. Additionally, Arab students who identify as Israelis tend to have more positive attitudes toward Jews, but no significant correlation between Palestinian self-identification and negative attitudes toward Jews was found.
Interethnic friendships are highly beneficial for decreasing ethnic prejudice. However, this is not true when friends identifying with different ethnic groups perceive each other as of the same ethnicity. We investigate the extent to which people categorize their friends “incorrectly”, that is, not matching these friends’ self-identifications. We thus move beyond the established practice of conceptualizing ethnic categorization as an individual characteristic (“who is categorized into which ethnicity”), and define it on the level of pairwise relations (who categorizes whom into which ethnicity), which enables us to model the effect of friendship on ethnic categorization. Using dynamic social network models, we also disentangle this effect from the simultaneous effect of categorization on friendship, taking characteristics (e.g. self-identifications) of both the observed and the observing individual into account. On data of 12 Hungarian high-school classes with one minority group, the Roma, we find that students of the majority group tend to select and keep friends whom they observe as majority members. In contrast, students of the minority group do not prefer other minority members when choosing friends, but tend to categorize their existing friends as minority peers. We conclude that these are two different manifestations of the preference for same-ethnic friends.
The study focuses on the relationship between intercultural friendships, social identities, and well-being of ethnic Russians in three different contexts of the North and South Caucasus. We revealed the positive relations of intercultural friendships with the host society identity in all contexts and with the well-being of Russict ans in the culturally diverse contexts. Ethnic identity is positively related to the self-esteem of Russians in two more inclusive contexts, and, negatively associated with their life satisfaction in the least inclusive context. The ethnic and host society identities mediated the relationship between intercultural friendships and psychological well-being only in the most inclusive context.
This article reviews empirical evidence on the reciprocal relation of ethnic minority group
members’ national, ethnic, and dual identification on the one hand and their friendships with both minority and majority group members on the other. Emphasis is given on studies that apply methods of longitudinal social network analysis in order to draw inferences about how these group identifications shape social relations and/or how social relations in turn shape individuals’ group identifications. After outlining theoretical mechanisms and showing the advantages of a social network approach, the article summarizes findings on how ethnic, national, and dual identification affect individual preferences for having same- or inter-ethnic friends. Evidence on how friends in turn influence group identifications is also reviewed. The article closes by discussing practical implications of the existing evidence and by pointing to open questions and next steps for further research on the nexus of group identifications and friendship.
Due to the ever-increasing trend in globalization and the importance of gaining international experience, the number of students seeking academic and cultural experiences abroad continues to grow every year. The present study longitudinally examines contact with host-nationals, changes in cultural identity, and sojourners’ identification with their host country. To that end, four waves of data (n = 157–198) were collected among German students who spent a semester abroad in Indonesia. Over time, these students had more contact with host-nationals and experienced changes in their cultural identity. Lagged structural equation models reveal that contact with host-nationals was positively related to identification with the host country and that this relationship was mediated by changes in individuals’ cultural identity. Host-country identification was, in turn, related to students’ overall satisfaction with their stay abroad. This study underscores the importance of engaging in contact with locals when staying in a foreign country and contributes to literature by investigating the role of cultural-identity change as an underlying mechanism in the relationship between intergroup contact and host-country identification.
Während der 1970er und 1980er Jahre erschienen in den führenden soziologischen Fachzeitschriften wichtige netzwerkanalytische Arbeiten zu unterschiedlichen Themenfeldern. Im Zuge dessen wurden neue zentrale und lokale Maße, aber auch innovative Methoden etwa zur Analyse von Rollen und Statuspositionen entwickelt. Man interessierte sich für soziale Strukturen und betrachtete die Netzwerkanalyse als angemessenes Paradigma.
Standard large-scale survey designs and methods enabled integration research to progress far in recent decades, emphasizing especially the structural aspects of ethnic minorities' integration. To further increase our understanding, the role social aspects play in the complex process of integration merits more attention. Within this endeavor, network analytical designs and techniques provide a particularly promising complement to the standard empirical research agenda. Network analysis provides adequate measures for diverse subaspects of social integration and allows to tackle key open questions and issues, such as disentangling mechanisms of choice from those of opportunity structure or of selection from influence. The use of network analytical tools in integration research corresponds to the more general program of analytical sociology calling for a stronger weight of contexts and social interactions within the next generation of empirical research. While standard survey designs and data sets study integration processes pretty much as if actors behaved in isolation, integration is actually a heavily interactive and highly complex dynamic process.
Comparatively few studies quantitatively examine the mechanisms underlying the formation of and change in young immigrants’ ethnic and host country national identifications. A key reason for this research gap is the lack of an accurate measure of ethnic and national identity that meets the demands of integration research, i.e., includes a native reference group and is applicable to various age groups. In this article, we propose and test such a measure.
As ethnic identity and national identity both are types of social identity, our measure distinguishes three crucial dimensions of social identity. The cognitive dimension not only captures whether immigrants and their descendants actually conceive of themselves as belonging to the country of origin of their families but also captures the presence of potential dual identities. The evaluative dimension assesses how non-native and native youths evaluate their group memberships, respectively. Finally, the emotional dimension measures their respective strength of commitment towards their family’s country of origin as well as towards the host country.
After presenting our measure of ethnic and of national identity, we test it quantitatively on native and non-native children and youths aged between 9 and 17 years. Our analyses confirm the suspected multi-dimensionality of both ethnic and national identity. We also ascertain the invariance of our measure across immigrants and natives as well as across different immigrant generations and age groups. The results further indicate strong reliability and construct validity. We therefore conclude that our proposed measure not only adequately captures different dimensions of ethnic and of national identity but that it is also applicable to different ethnic and age groups, thereby providing a valuable tool for studying immigrants’ identification.
Children’s peer relationships are frequently assessed with peer nominations. An important methodological issue is whether to collect unlimited or limited nominations. Some researchers have argued that the psychometric differences between both methods are negligible, while others have claimed that one is superior over the other. The current study compared both methods directly in a counterbalanced design among 112 8–12-year-old elementary school children. Overall, both methods revealed comparable results, although some significant and noteworthy differences were found. The use of unlimited nominations was recommended for questions related to social status (preference, popularity). Some method differences varied by gender. Implications for future peer relations research were discussed.
Multiplicative interaction models are common in the quantitative political science literature. This is so for good reason.
Institutional arguments frequently imply that the relationship between political inputs and outcomes varies depending on the
institutional context. Models of strategic interaction typically produce conditional hypotheses as well. Although conditional
hypotheses are ubiquitous in political science and multiplicative interaction models have been found to capture their intuition
quite well, a survey of the top three political science journals from 1998 to 2002 suggests that the execution of these models
is often flawed and inferential errors are common. We believe that considerable progress in our understanding of the political
world can occur if scholars follow the simple checklist of dos and don'ts for using multiplicative interaction models presented
in this article. Only 10% of the articles in our survey followed the checklist.
Researchers have become increasingly interested in disentangling selection and influence processes. This literature review provides context for the special issue on network–behavior dynamics. It brings together important conceptual, methodological, and empirical contributions focusing on longitudinal social network modeling. First, an overview of mechanisms underlying selection and influence is given. After a description of the shortcomings of previous studies in this area, the stochastic actor‐based model is sketched; this is used in this special issue to examine network–behavior dynamics. The preconditions for such analyses are discussed, as are common model specification issues. Next, recent empirical advances in research on adolescence are discussed, focusing on new insights into moderating effects, initiation of behaviors, time heterogeneity, mediation effects, and negative ties.
How can we reduce ethnic friendship segregation in ethnically heterogeneous schools? The Common Ingroup Identity Model suggests that interethnic friendships are promoted by those intervention programs that focus on the interests students have in common. The authors argue that the outcome of these common interest interventions may crucially depend on sufficient consensus in participants’ opinions regarding the shared interest. Such an intervention may backfire and increase ethnic segregation if participants from different ethnic groups have different opinions about the common interest. The authors test their argument analyzing the dynamics of friendship networks and opinions in 48 school classes with an actor-based stochastic model. Their findings suggest that salient common interests in ethnically mixed school classes can indeed reduce ethnic segregation. However, they also found that friendship selection on the basis of similar opinions can foster ethnic segregation. This occurred when ethnicity was correlated with the opinions that students held regarding the salient interest, even when these students did not prefer intra-ethnic friendship per se.
A study was conducted to test experimentally whether majority members' perceptions of which acculturation strategies minority members prefer would causally impact on majority members' own acculturation preferences, especially their preference for integration. Participants (N = 113) were exposed to videos in which actors who posed as Pakistani minority members voiced different acculturation preferences (integration, assimilation, separation or control condition). Their views were presented as representative of their ethnic group. The effect of this on white British majority participants' own acculturation preferences was measured. As expected, perceived acculturation preferences significantly impacted on own acculturation preferences. In line with predictions, participants' level of prejudice significantly moderated these effects.
This study compares the networks and social capital of native Dutch inhabitants with that of migrants in the Netherlands. We discuss the research literature, come up with new predictions and provide empirical analyses. Our data stem from three different surveys. For the comparison of personal networks we used the Amenities and Services Utilization Survey (AVO, 1999, n = 13 122 of which about 9 percent belong to an ethnic minority). For the comparison of social capital we combined two other sets of data: the Survey of the Social Networks of the Dutch (SSND, 2000, n = 1 007, of which 7 percent belong to an ethnic minority) and a survey among residents of two disadvantaged neighborhoods in The Hague (n = 406, of which 70 percent belong to an ethnic minority, i. e., Moroccan, Turkish, Surinam, or Antillean). The first data allow for a comparison of core discussion networks (s. e. g. Marsden 1987, 1988), while the latter two allow to compare social capital delineated through the position generator (Lin/Dumin 1986). We found that personal networks are remarkably homogeneous with regard to ethnicity, but that the degree to which people associate with their own group differs between immigrant groups. Our results also indicate that meeting places in the Netherlands are segregated according to ethnicity. Finally, social capital of immigrants is drastically lower than that of migrants.
A deeper understanding of the relation between individual behavior and individual actions on one hand and the embeddedness of individ- uals in social structures on the other hand can be obtained by em- pirically studying the dynamics of individual outcomes and network structure, and how these mutually aect each other. In methodolog- ical terms, this means that behavior of individuals - indicators of performance and success, attitudes and other cognitions, behavioral tendencies - and the ties between them are studied as a social process evolving over time, where behavior and network ties mutually influ- ence each other. We propose a statistical methodology for this type of investigation and illustrate it by an example.
The study examines change over time in sentiments toward out-group populations in European societies. For this purpose data were compiled from four waves of the Eurobarometer surveys for 12 countries that provided detailed and comparable information on attitudes toward foreigners between 1988 and 2000. A series of multilevel hierarchical linear models were estimated to examine change in the effects of individual- and country-level sources of threat on anti-foreigner sentiment. The analysis shows a substantial rise in anti-foreigner sentiment between 1988 and 2000 in all 12 countries. The rise in anti-foreigner sentiment was steep in the early period (between 1988 and 1994), then leveled off after that. Although anti-foreigner sentiment tends to be more pronounced in places with a large proportion of foreign populations and where economic conditions are less prosperous, the effects of both factors on anti-foreigner sentiment have not changed over time. The analysis also shows that anti-foreigner sentiment is more pronounced in places with greater support for right-wing extreme parties. The impact of individual-level socioeconomic characteristics such as education has remained stable over the years, but the effect of political ideology has increased. The meaning and significance of the findings are discussed within the context of European societies.
Two studies examined whether developing a common ingroup identity among Blacks and Whites can improve Whites’ interracial evaluations. In Study 1, White participants interacted with a Black or White confederate under conditions designed to produce cognitive representations as fellow group members or as separate individuals. Consistent with the Common Ingroup Identity Model, Whites evaluated Blacks more favorably when they interacted with them as members of the same group than as separate individuals. Study 2, conducted as fans entered a football stadium, revealed that Whites complied more frequently with a Black interviewer’s request to interview them when they shared common university affiliation, relative to when the Black interviewer was affiliated with the opposing team.
Using an experimental design, native majority group children (8-13 years, N = 842) evaluated acculturation strategies (assimilation, integration, and separation) adopted by immigrant and emigrant peers. There were medium to large effects of the perceived acculturation strategies on children's peer evaluations. Overall, assimilation was valued most, followed by integration and separation. These effects were in part mediated by perceived national belonging. In addition, the effects were stronger for lower status compared to higher status immigrant groups, and for children with higher compared to lower national identification. For emigrants, separation was valued most, followed by integration and assimilation. This indicates that the intergroup processes rather than migration per se are important for children's acculturation perceptions and evaluations.
The generalization of attitudes toward individual outgroup members into attitudes toward the outgroup as a whole can affect intergroup relations. However, little is known about the relative strengths of the generalization of negative and positive interpersonal attitudes into attitudes about the outgroup. The unique contribution of negative (disliking) interpersonal attitudes to intergroup attitudes was examined and its strength was compared with the effect of positive (liking) interpersonal attitudes, using cross-sectional (Study 1; N = 733, age 10-12) and longitudinal data (Study 2; N = 960, age 12-13). Disliking uniquely contributed to respondents' outgroup attitudes. The generalization of interpersonal liking and disliking was about equally strong in both studies. This underpins the importance of examining the effects of both positive and negative intergroup contact experiences on the formation of outgroup attitudes.
This chapter identifies the most robust conclusions and ideas about adolescent development and psychological functioning that have emerged since Petersen's 1988 review. We begin with a discussion of topics that have dominated recent research, including adolescent problem behavior, parent-adolescent
relations, puberty, the development of the self, and peer relations. We then identify and examine what seem to us to be the most important new directions that have come to the fore in the last decade, including research on diverse populations, contextual influences on development, behavioral
genetics, and siblings. We conclude with a series of recommendations for future research on adolescence.
In various European countries, policy-makers strive for educational desegregation to enhance pupils' national identifications. Since little empirical evidence supports such a policy and social identity theorists emphasize the importance of context, this article examines the impact of ethnic school composition – measured by the proportion of non-natives and ethnic heterogeneity – on the national (Belgian) and sub-national (Flemish) identifications of pupils. Multi-level data analyses from the surveying of 2,845 pupils (aged 10–12) in sixty-eight Flemish primary schools reveal differential effects for natives and non-natives. While the proportion of non-natives at school is negatively associated with non-native pupils' identifications, it is positively related to native pupils' identifications. In general, the ethnic heterogeneity of the school is negatively associated with pupils' national and sub-national identifications. Our findings indicate that the relation between ethnic school composition and pupils' identifications is mediated by the latter's inter-ethnic friendships. The consequences of these findings for educational policy are discussed.
The term "sociometric methods" refers to a large class of methods that assess the positive and negative links between persons within a group. The basic principle of the sociometric method is that every group member has the capacity to evaluate every other group member on one or more criteria in a round-robin design. In the literature on peer relations, the term "sociometry" often has a narrower meaning, that is, the assessment of sociometric status in peer groups. Sociometric methods have been used extensively in the study of peer relations to assess the "attractions" and "repulsions" between children. In this chapter, I address four aspects of sociometric research with children and adolescents. First, central issues in the use of sociometric methods to study peer relations are discussed, including the meaning of sociometric status, the basic procedure, basic elements of sociometric procedures and definitions of terms, and a detailed discussion of the methodological variations within each of the building blocks of sociometric methods. Second, theory relevant to sociometric measurement is discussed. Third, key classical and recent studies are presented that mark important milestones in the development of sociometric methods. The number of sociometric studies published during the more than 70 years since Moreno's original publication is large. The critical studies I present are selective, because of space limitations. Fourth and finally, directions for future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Longitudinal social network data on adolescents in seven schools are analyzed to reach a new understanding about how the personal and interpersonal social dimensions of adolescent religion intertwine together in small school settings. We primarily address two issues relevant to the sociology of religion and sociology in general: (1) social selection as a source of religious homophily and (2) friend socialization of religion. Analysis results are consistent with Collins' interaction ritual chain theory, which stresses the social dimensions of religion, since network-religion autocorrelations are relatively substantial in magnitude and both selection and socialization mechanisms play key roles in generating them. Results suggest that socialization plays a stronger role than social selection in four of six religious outcomes, and that more religious youth are more cliquish. Implications for our understanding of the social context of religion, religious homophily, and the ways we model religious influence, as well as limitations and considerations for future research, are discussed.
Integrated schools may still be substantively segregated if friendships fall within race. Drawing on contact theory, this study tests whether school organization affects friendship segregation in a national sample of adolescent friendship networks. The results show that friendship segregation peaks in moderately heterogeneous schools but declines at the highest heterogeneity levels. As suggested by contact theory, in schools where extracurricular activities are integrated, grades tightly bound friendship, and races mix within tracks, friendship segregation is less pronounced. The generally positive relation between heterogeneity and friendship segregation suggests that integration strategies built on concentrating minorities in large schools may accentuate friendship segregation.
Identity and Participation in Culturally Diverse Societies presents an original discussion in an edited volume of how the links between identity, political participation, radicalization, and integration can provide a scientific understanding of the complex issue of coexistence between groups in culturally diverse societies. • Offers a scientific understanding of the complex issue of coexistence between groups in culturally diverse societies • Utilizes original theory which combines social psychology, sociology, and political science • Includes an original and extensive discussion of combining the concepts of identity and diversity • Innovatively and engagingly employs the latest research and state-of-the-art theory.
The Handbook of Rational Choice Social Research offers the first comprehensive overview of how the rational choice paradigm can inform empirical research within the social sciences. This landmark collection highlights successful empirical applications across a broad array of disciplines, including sociology, political science, economics, history, and psychology. Taking on issues ranging from financial markets and terrorism to immigration, race relations, and emotions, and a huge variety of other phenomena, rational choice proves a useful tool for theory- driven social research. Each chapter uses a rational choice framework to elaborate on testable hypotheses and then apply this to empirical research, including experimental research, survey studies, ethnographies, and historical investigations. Useful to students and scholars across the social sciences, this handbook will reinvigorate discussions about the utility and versatility of the rational choice approach, its key assumptions, and tools.
The growing global trend of migration gives social psychological enquiry into acculturation processes particular contemporary relevance. Inspired by one of the earliest definitions of acculturation [Redfield, R., Linton, R., & Herskovits, M. (1936). Memorandum on the study of acculturation. American Anthropologist, 38, 149–152.], we present a case for considering acculturation as a dynamic intergroup process. We first review research stimulated by the dominant perspective in the field, Berry's acculturation framework. Noting several limitations of that work, we identify five issues which have defined our own research agenda: (1) the mutual influence of acculturation preferences and intergroup attitudes; (2) the influence of the perceived acculturation preferences of the outgroup on own acculturation and intergroup attitudes; (3) discrepancies between ingroup and outgroup acculturation attitudes as a determinant of intergroup attitudes; (4) the importance of the intergroup climate in which acculturation takes place; and (5) acculturation as a process—developmental and longitudinal perspectives. We review research of others and our own that document each of these points: longitudinal and experimental studies, rarities in the acculturation literature, figure prominently. Research settings include Turkish–German relations in Germany, indigenous–nonindigenous relations in Chile, African migrants to Italy and ethnic majority–minority relations in the United Kingdom. We conclude with an agenda for future acculturation research and some policy implications of our analysis.
Adolescents’ school-based friendship networks tend to be segregated along ethnic lines. But few studies have examined whether variation in network boundaries affects the degree of ethnic friendship segregation. We use rational-choice theory to argue that ethnic homophily is more pronounced for friendships between classrooms than for those within classrooms. We empirically test this hypothesis using two-wave German panel data (N = 1258) and stochastic actor-oriented models (RSiena). In line with our theoretical argument, we find that the tendency to form same-ethnic friendships is indeed stronger at the grade level, which translates into stronger ethnic segregation in friendship networks at the grade level than at the classroom level. Implications for research on ethnic segregation in school-based friendship networks are discussed.
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Many studies find that high shares of native friends are positively related to immigrant youths' identification with the host country. By examining various immigrant groups together, these studies imply that having native friends matters in the same way for the national identification in different immigrant groups. In contrast, we argue that the extent to which having native friends affects immigrants' national identification depends on both immigrant group characteristics and the receiving context, especially on ethnic boundaries and related group differences in perceived discrimination and the compatibility of ethnic and national identities. Analyses based on data from the National Educational Panel Study in Germany that are representative of 15-year-old adolescents in secondary schools indeed reveal pronounced group differences: While national identification of ethnic German repatriates as well as of adolescents of former Yugoslavian and southern European origin is related to the share of native friends, as hypothesized, we do not find this association for immigrants of Turkish and Polish origin. Our finding underlines the importance of theoretically as well as empirically accounting for group differences.
Social structures are defined by their parameters--the criteria underlying the differentiation among people and governing social interaction, such as sex, race, socioeconomic status, and power. The analysis of various forms of differentiation, their interrelations, and their implications for integration and change is the distinctive task of sociology. Two generic types of differentiation are heterogeneity and status inequality. Nominal parameters divide people into subgroups and engender heterogeneity. Graduated parameters differentiate people in terms of status rankings and engender inequality. The macrosocial integration of the diverse groups in modern society rests on its multiform heterogeneity resulting from many crosscutting parameters. For although heterogeneity entails barriers to social intercourse multiform heterogeneity undermines these barriers and creates structural constraints to establish intergroup relations. Crosscutting lines of differentiation thus foster processes of social integration, and they also foster processes of recurrent change. Strongly interrelated parameters impede these processes of integration and adjustment, however. (Such relationships between parameters--for example, between the occupation and income of individuals--must not be confused with the relationships between forms of differentiation--for example, between the division of labor and income inequality in societies.) Pronounced correlations of parameters reveal a consolidated status structure, which intensifies inequalities and discourages intergroup relations and gradual change. The growing concentration of resources and powers in large organizations and their top executives poses a serious threat of structural consolidation in contemporary society.
Research on ethnic prejudice among children is important for contemporary multicultural schools seeking to enhance communication among students from different ethnic groups and provide effective intercultural education. Current scientific discourse points to the appearance of new implicit forms of prejudice, witnessed in modern multicultural societies, while traditional explicit prejudice tends to decline. However, empirical studies concerning the blatant–subtle distinction of prejudice in children are scarce. This paper examines ethnic prejudice in 329 ethnic majority preadolescents (aged 10–13 years) attending 10 urban and rural schools in central Greece. Data were collected using questionnaires constructed on the basis of focus group discussions with children, in addition to sociometric tests. Findings support the subtle–blatant distinction of prejudice in children and indicate that although blatant prejudice expressed as personal rejection is indeed low, perceptions of ethnic minority groups as a ‘problem’ for school life, as well as subtle prejudice, are substantial. Ethnic minority children are less popular and stigmatizing behaviour is common. Intimacy with an ethnic minority classmate is associated with lower levels of blatant prejudice at the individual level but the other forms of prejudice are not affected.
This study set out to examine to what extent ethnic ingroup friendship in secondary school classes are a by-product of cultural and socioeconomic ingroup friendship. Based on homophily theory, we expected similar opinions, leisure activities, religion, risk behaviour and socioeconomic factors to (partly) explain ethnic ingroup preferences. Multilevel p2 models on 13,272 pupils in 625 secondary school classes in England, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden showed that adolescents tend to have friends similar in ethnicity, cultural and socioeconomic characteristics. We find no evidence, however, that ethnic homophily is explained by cultural and socioeconomic homophily.
This article provides a social psychological analysis of immigrants’ identification with the country of settlement, that is, their host national identification. We first discuss national (dis)identification in relation to dual identity and religion. Subsequently and drawing on acculturation research and the social identity perspective, we discuss four conditions that can stimulate or hinder the development of national identification: sociostructural circumstances, perceived discrimination, identity undermining, and in-group norms. Furthermore, we underline the relevance of studying two largely unexplored yet important consequences of immigrants’ national identification: the evaluations of other minority groups and political involvement. We conclude by recognizing the value of a dual identity and by proposing a number of policies that might facilitate its development. We also discuss the obstacles toward the creation of a harmonious dual identity. These obstacles are related to the way in which the national category is defined and to the four conditions mentioned.
In this chapter I review recent research on the nature, meaning, and impact of extrafamilial relationships during adolescence. I use findings of quantitative and qualitative studies to develop the idea that close friendships, wider networks of peers, and romantic relationships have distinct meanings and significance for the developing adolescent. Sociologists' work inevitably focuses attention on the ways in which the adolescent's social addresses and locations (gender, race, social class) influence many aspects of these early relationships. The review also highlights some limitations of the dominant perspective on adolescent relationships, attachment theory, and provides suggestions for future research (particularly in the area of romantic relationships, where the literature is growing but still relatively undeveloped).
Despite the fact that key sociological theories of self and identity view the self as fundamentally rooted in networks of interpersonal relationships, empirical research investigating how personal network structure influences the self is conspicuously lacking. To address this gap, we examine links between network structure and role identity salience. We identify two features of personal networks that potentially affect how social ties shape identity salience: (1) proportion and strength of ties to role-based others (RBOs) and (2) embeddedness of RBOs, or the breadth of access that a role-based group has to the rest of an individual’s network. Across three role identities (student, religious, and work), we find that our measure of embeddedness predicts role identity salience but that the proportion and strength of ties do not. Thus, our study does not support the proposition that identity salience is a product of an individual’s social and emotional attachment to role-based groups. Rather, our findings suggest that a role identity becomes more salient as role-based others become more tightly woven into an individual’s social fabric.
Two-hundred-and-fifty-eight White British (ethnic majority) and British South Asian (minority) children (5, 9 and 13 years old) chose potential friends from descriptions of peers who had traits and preferences that were either consistent (normative) or inconsistent (deviant) with ethnic group membership. White children chose peers from the ethnic ingroup. Younger Asian children (5 years) more often selected an outgroup peer, although ingroup choices increased with age (9 and 13 years). Normativity and strength of ethnic identification did not affect choices. However, children who selected an outgroup child tended to have more cross-ethnic friendships than those who did not. The implications for theories of group dynamics and intergroup contact are discussed.
We examine the validity and reliability of a single-item measure of social identification (SISI). Convergent validity is shown with significant positive correlations with previously published unidimensional and multidimensional measures of in-group identification and other group-relevant measures (e.g., entitativity and collective self-esteem). Divergent validity is shown via nonsignificant correlations with social desirability measures. Predictive validity is shown with positive correlations with group-relevant behavior (e.g., volunteerism and voting). External validity is shown with correlations with other in-group identification measures in a community sample. The reliability of the scale is shown by examining scores of the SISI for six different identities at three points in time.
To advance social integration, policy makers strive for the educational desegregation of immigrant students in Flemish schools. Given the lack of empirical research supporting this policy, this article examines the association between the ethnic composition of schools and native and immigrant students' interethnic friendships, social participation, and sense of belonging in school. Blau's structural theory offers the theoretical rationale for these associations and the coherence of the three indicators. Multilevel analyses of data from a 2004–05 survey of 11,872 students, 1,324 of whom were immigrant students, in a sample of 85 Flemish secondary schools demonstrate that school ethnic composition is associated with interethnic friendships and social participation for native students, but not for immigrant students, whereas socioeconomic status is decisive for immigrant students' interethnic friendships. Neither immigrants' nor natives' sense of belonging in school is associated with ethnic composition. Hence, while the findings do not provide support for either school segregation or desegregation policies aimed at improving the social integration of immigrant students, mixing schools appears to have a positive influence on the social integration of Flemish youths. The consequences of these findings for future research and social policy are discussed in the conclusions.
Longitudinal sociometric data on adolescent friendship pairs, friends-to-be, and former friends are examined to assess levels of homophily on four attributes (frequency of current marijuana, use, level of educational aspirations, political orientation, and participation in minor delinquency) at various stages of friendship formation and dissolution. In addition, estimates are developed of the extent to which observed homophily in friendship dyads results from a process of selection (assortative pairing), in which similarity precedes association and the extent to which it results from a process of socialization in which association leads to similarity. The implications of the results for interpreting estimates of peer influence derived from cross-sectional data are discussed.
Integrated schools may still be substantively segregated if friendships fall within race. Drawing on contact theory, this study tests whether school organization affects friendship segregation in a national sample of adolescent friendship networks. The results show that friendship segregation peaks in moderately heterogeneous schools but declines at the highest heterogeneity levels. As suggested by contact theory, in schools where extracurricular activities are integrated, grades tightly bound friendship, and races mix within tracks, friendship segregation is less pronounced. The generally positive relation between heterogeneity and friendship segregation suggests that integration strategies built on concentrating minorities in large schools may accentuate friendship segregation.
Social psychologists studying intergroup relations acknowledge the importance of social context but remain strongly focused on the individual in both theoretical and methodological respects. The present study tries to go beyond this ‘individualistic’ perspective by using multilevel analysis to address the effects of both individual and contextual variables and their interactions. Ethnic group evaluations among Dutch and Turkish children (10–13 years of age) were examined. First, the results showed that intergroup evaluations are determined not only by characteristics of the child but also by the context in which the child is situated. Second, contextual variables not only affected ingroup favouritism directly but also moderated the relationship between identification and ingroup favouritism. Third, children in classes in which the teacher pays attention to ethnic discrimination and cultural differences indicated less ingroup favouritism. Furthermore, relative group size did not affect ingroup favouritism directly, rather it was found that only children who constituted a numerical minority revealed a positive association between identification and ingroup favouritism. Additionally, at the individual level ingroup favouritism was explained by identification, the perception of the teacher's reaction to ethnic harassment among classmates and subject ethnicity. It is concluded that a multi-level approach can make a contribution to the existing literature on intergroup evaluation and towards a more contextual social psychology. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Social Scientists rarely take full advantage of the information available in their statistical results. As a consequence, they miss opportunities to present quantities that are of greatest substantive interest for their research and express the appropriate degree of certainty about these quantities. In this article, we offer an approach, built on the technique of statistical simulation, to extract the currently overlooked information from any statistical method and to interpret and present it in a reader-friendly manner. Using this technique requires some expertise, which we try to provide herein, but its application should make the results of quantitative articles more informative and transparent. To illustrate our recommendations, we replicate the results of several published works, showing in each case how the authors' own conclusions can be expressed more sharply and informatively, and, without changing any data or statistical assumptions, how our approach reveals important new information about the research questions at hand. We also offer very easy-to-use Clarify software that implements our suggestions.
In this paper we interrelate different theories of identity and describe how various social contexts and cognitive motives influence the process of identity change. We consider two competing theories about the linkage of contexts with motives for identity change: the effect of category traits, based on social identity theory, and the effect of social networks, based on identity theory. To explore these relations, we use data collected on more than 6,000 adolescents at six high schools in two consecutive school years. Multilevel logit models reveal a strong relationship between contexts and perceived identity imbalances, and a strong effect of identity imbalance on identity change. More important than category traits are the social network characteristics of prominence, homogeneity, and bridging; these form social contexts that affect perceptions of identity imbalance, and the perceptions in turn lead to a heightened incidence of identity change.
How will racial divisions in student friendship networks change as U.S. schools incorporate a growing Asian and Hispanic population? Drawing on theories of race in assimilation processes and the effects of relative group size on intergroup relations, several hypotheses are developed to address this question. These hypotheses are tested using data on friendships among students in grades 7 to 12 from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Key findings are that (1) cross-race friendships including Asian and Hispanic students are more common than those between white and black students, but race and Hispanic background have significant influences on student friendships that persist over immigrant generations; (2) black or white racial identifications are strongly associated with the friendship choices of Hispanic students; (3) cross-race friendships increase with school racial diversity; and (4) own-group friend selection intensifies for students in small racial minorities in a school. The results support theories of racially segmented patterns of assimilation in primary group relations and suggest that students in small racial minorities seek to maintain a friendship network including several own-race friends. Implications are discussed.
This article introduces the theoretical approaches of contact, group conflict, and symbolic prejudice to explain levels of
exclusionary feelings toward a relatively new minority in the West European context, the immigrant. The findings indicate
that even after controls for perceived threat are included in the model, intimate contact with members of minority groups
in the form of friendships can reduce levels of willingness to expel legal immigrants from the country. A contextual variable,
level of immigration to the country, is also introduced into the model because it is likely that this variable affects both
threat perception and exclusionary feelings. While context does not seem to directly affect levels of willingness to expel
or include immigrants in the society, it does have a rather powerful impact on perceived threat. Perhaps even more importantly,
the findings suggest that contact mediates the effect of the environment, helping to produce lower levels of threat perception
in contexts of high immigration.
Previous research has repeatedly found a positive association between immigrants' identification with the receiving society and their share of interethnic friends. That is, immigrants with a low level of national identification have relatively little contact with natives, and vice versa. Earlier cross-sectional studies, however, were not able to draw firm causal conclusions about the direction of causality. Theoretically, four different scenarios exist: The causal arrow might run from identification to friends (A), but also from friends to identification (B) or in both directions (C). Finally, the relationship might be spurious, caused by unobserved joint determinants (D). Using three-wave panel data for adolescents of Turkish origin in Germany, I examine these four scenarios. First-difference models with lagged independent variables that account for both time-invariant unobserved heterogeneity and potential reverse causality provide no evidence of reciprocal effects between national identification and interethnic friendships. This finding contradicts common interpretations of cross-sectional studies.
Similarity breeds connection. This principle - the homophily principle - structures network ties of every type, including marriage, friendship, work, advice, support, information transfer, exchange, comembership, and other types of relationship. The result is that people's personal networks are homogeneous with regard to many sociodemographic, behavioral, and intrapersonal characteristics. Homophily limits people's social worlds in a way that has powerful implications for the information they receive, the attitudes they form, and the interactions they experience. Homophily in race and ethnicity creates the strongest divides in our personal environments, with age, religion, education, occupation, and gender following in roughly that order. Geographic propinquity, families, organizations, and isomorphic positions in social systems all create contexts in which homophilous relations form. Ties between nonsimilar individuals also dissolve at a higher rate, which sets the stage for the formation of niches (localized positions) within social space. We argue for more research on: (a) the basic ecological processes that link organizations, associations, cultural communities, social movements, and many other social forms; (b) the impact of multiplex ties on the patterns of homophily; and (c) the dynamics of network change over time through which networks and other social entities co-evolve.