Persons with migration background (PMB) face the question of whether they can become full members of the receiving society, and at the same time maintain their ethnic group identity and culture. Alongside experiences of contact with the national group, this research examined the role of three identity-related cognitions for PMB's acculturation attitudes: (1) perceived permeability and (2) perceived compatibility of national and ethnic identities, and (3) perceived overlap of ethnic and religious identities. Data from two groups-Muslim Palestinian and Christian Hungarian PMB in Germany-provided initial support for the model. Multigroup path analysis showed that positive contact related positively with cultural adoption, both directly and indirectly via permeability, whereas negative contact related negatively only in sample 2. Compatibility moderated the association between the acculturation attitudes. Perceived overlap showed differential effects for Christian and Muslim PMB. The results highlight that different immigration groups face different contexts of integration. Implications for the study of religious identity and identity multiplicity are discussed.Can I be a full and accepted member of the society in the country I live in and at the same time maintain my ethnic group identity and culture? Or do I have to choose between my ethnic and national group and the respective cultures? Most persons with a migration background (PMB) 1 face questions like these, and the answers are not necessarily the same for all of them. As
Badea, Jetten, Iyer, and Er‐Rafiy proposed a model that specifies immigrants’ experienced rejection by majority and minority groups and social identification with these groups as predictors of their acculturation attitudes. The present research tested an extended version of this model by assessing (i) both positive and negative contact experiences with majority and minority groups, (ii) social identification with these groups and religious groups, and (iii) acculturation attitudes. We surveyed individuals with Greek (N = 186) and Turkish (N = 138) migration background living in Germany. The proposed model yielded a good fit with the empirical data and showed that positive and negative contact with majority and minority groups predicted minority members’ acculturation attitudes, mediated via identification with the majority, minority, and religious group. Our findings support the extended model and contribute to a broader understanding of contact–identification–acculturation links in the context of migration.
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