Considering the Tower of Babel: Correlates of Assimilation and Multiculturalism among Ethnic Minority and Majority Groups in the United States

Wolsko, Christopher; Park, Bernadette; Judd, Charles H.

doi:10.1007/s11211-006-0014-8

Cited by 227 publications

(308 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Assimilation undermines minority members' ability to live by their ethnic identity and is felt as threatening the ingroup's positive distinctiveness (Brug & Verkuyten, 2007;Wolsko et al, 2006). The main prediction was that an emphasis on assimilation makes ethnic self-esteem a more important contingency for global self-worth and life satisfaction.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Assimilation compromises one's ability to live by one's identity and threatens the value and distinctiveness of the group identity. There is not only anecdotal but also systematic evidence for the fact that ethnic minorities tend to see assimilation as identity undermining and threatening (e.g., Brug & Verkuyten, 2007;Verkuyten, 2005;Wolsko, Park, & Judd, 2006). Threats to group identity make people increasingly turn toward the minority ingroup and this can have psychological benefits that compensate for misrecognition (see Schmitt & Branscombe, 2002).…”

Section: Accepted Manuscriptmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Assimilation ideology and situational well-being among ethnic minority members

Verkuyten

2010

Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

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To cite this version:Maykel Verkuyten.Assimilation ideology and situational well-being among ethnic minority members.Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Elsevier, 2009, 46 (2) This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPTAssimilation and situational well-being 1 Assimilation ideology and situational well-being among ethnic minority members Maykel VerkuytenUtrecht University ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPTAssimilation and situational well-being 2 AbstractTwo experimental questionnaire studies were conducted to test whether assimilation ideology affects the relationship between ethnic self-esteem and situational well-being of TurkishDutch participants. Social identity theory argues that ethnic identity can buffer the effects of group identity threat on well-being, and self-esteem research suggests that a positively evaluated self-aspect can form an important source of well-being. Results show that in an assimilation context, ethnic self-esteem is positively related to feelings of global self-worth and general life-satisfaction. The findings suggest that ethnic self-esteem is an important factor for well-being in an assimilation context that undermines minority group members ability to live their ethnic identity and threatens their group's positive distinctiveness. Although the professed goal of assimilation is equality, assimilationist thinking provides intellectual and moral justification for the superiority and unchanging character of the dominant identity and culture (Fredrickson, 1999). Majority groups tend to favor assimilation of ethnic minorities which requires that minority group members conform to dominant values and abandon their minority group identity (e.g., Van Oudenhoven, Prins, & Buunk, 1998;Verkuyten, 2005). In the Netherlands there is a lively public debate on the so-called failure of multiculturalism and the need for assimilation. Leading politicians and opinion makers have explicitly rejected the idea of multiculturalism which would mean the abolishment of Dutch identity, pleading instead for assimilation (see Vasta, 2007;Verkuyten & Zaremba, 2005). ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPTThe quote above indicates that for ethnic minority members, the emphasis on assimilation undermines their ethnic identity and forms an identity threat. Assimilation compromises one's ability to live by one's identity and threatens the value and distinctiveness of the group identity. There is not only anecdotal but also systematic evidence for the fact that ethnic minorities tend to see assimilation as identity undermining and threatening (e.g., Brug & Verkuyten, 2007;Verkuyten, 2005;Wolsko, Park, & Judd, 2...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Accepted Manuscriptmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assimilation ideology and situational well-being among ethnic minority members

Verkuyten

2010

Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

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“…Ingroup identification with majority groups, in turn, highlights the threatening aspects of multiculturalism. This pattern of findings has become known as the "multiculturalism" hypothesis (Verkuyten, 2005b), and has also received experimental support in studies where multicultural vs. colorblind ideologies have been Migration and multiculturalism 20 manipulated (Wolsko, Park, & Judd, 2006; for a general review of cognitive effects of multiculturalism, see Crisp & Turner, 2011).…”

Section: Migration and Multiculturalism 18mentioning

confidence: 91%

Migration and Multiculturalism

Green¹,

Staerklé²

2013

Oxford Handbooks Online

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"Multiculturalism has utterly failed", German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared inOctober 2010, "immigrants need to do more to integrate in German society". A few months later, in February 2011, British Prime Minister David Cameron also condemned his country's long-standing policy of multiculturalism as a failure, claiming that many young British Muslims were drawn to violent ideology because they found no strong collective identity in Britain. These two quotes from leading European politicians exemplify how migration and multiculturalism have become key issues in contemporary societies. Virtually all countries in the world need to deal with the steady flow of people crossing international borders that have made societies in our globalized world more and more diverse. Despite its contested nature as a normative model for organizing diversity in receiving societies, multiculturalism has become an inescapable reality to which countries need to adapt.This chapter is concerned with two major questions concerning migration and multiculturalism. First, it looks at the social and psychological processes at work in the migrant experience. Second, it deals with how members of receiving societies react to the increased and diversified immigrant presence in their societies. 1 Our review draws mainly upon research and theory in political and social psychology. Reflecting the diversity of classic and recent empirical work on migration and multiculturalism, we present research covering a Migration and multiculturalism 2 wide range of methodological approaches, including survey, experimental and qualitative studies. The chapter emphasizes how historical and political contexts affect the nature of intergroup relations between migrant groups and receiving societies. It furthermore highlights the role of widely shared social representations in processes of migration and multiculturalism, expressed in ideological belief systems, political discourse and everyday cultural repertoires. We argue that a political psychology perspective to migration and multiculturalism will gain from taking a interdisciplinary approach in which different levels of analysis-including individual, group and societal factors-are combined and articulated (Castles & Miller, 2009;Chryssochoou, 2004;Deaux, 2006;Verkuyten, 2005a).The chapter is organized in four parts. The first part outlines some historical benchmarks of modern migration and briefly presents two key notions of a psychological approach to migration-assimilation and multiculturalism-in their historical context. In a second part, we summarize empirical research that focuses on the psychological dynamics involved in the migrant experience, in particular the interactionist and complex nature of migrant identities, acculturation and adaptation in receiving societies, and intergroup approaches to acculturation and multiculturalism. The third part analyses the role of threat regarding immigrants and immigration in the reactions, attitudes and beliefs of majority populations in receiving societies. The...

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“…Colorblindness and multiculturalism have long been studied among children and adults in racially/ethnically diverse countries such as Canada, the Netherlands, and the United States (e.g., see Esses & Gardner, 1996;Verkuyten, 2009;Zirkel, 2008) among children and adults (e.g., Banks, 2004;Correll, Park, & Smith, 2008;Levy et al, 2005;Plaut, Thomas, & Goren, 2009;Richeson & Nussbaum, 2004;Ryan, Hunt, Weible, Peterson, & Casas, 2007;Stephan, Renfro, & Stephan, 2001;Wolsko, Park, & Judd, 2006;Zirkel, 2008). The research on polyculturalism is relatively recent, and, to the best of the authors' knowledge, has been limited to studies of adults in the United States, Rosenthal, Levy, & Moss, 2012).…”

Section: Beliefs About Diversity: Colorblindness Multiculturalism Amentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Yet, the similarities version is also tied to assimilation ideology in the melting pot metaphor that all groups differences should melt away, for example, when people immigrate to a country such as the United States (e.g., see Allport, 1954). Such a belief is tied to negative intergroup attitudes (e.g., Ryan et al, 2010;Wolsko et al, 2006, see Rosenthal & Levy, 2010, and may have negative practical effects on less advantaged groups, who are expected to behave more like the dominant group.…”

Section: Colorblindnessmentioning

confidence: 99%