Contingent National Belonging: The Perceived Fit and Acceptance of Culturally Different Peers Predicts Minority Adolescents' Own Belonging

Abstract

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.

Changes in Turkish- and Resettler-origin Adolescents’ Acculturation Profiles of Identification: A Three-year Longitudinal Study from Germany

“…In more homogeneous contexts, dominated by a large majority of non-immigrant students, ethnic minority adolescents may face higher pressures for assimilation. The examined schools, by contrast, were ethnically heterogeneous and thus youth may have felt less pressured to assimilate—in line with the balance of power principle (Juvonen et al 2006 ) and previous research on the role of school ethnic composition for minority youth’ sense of national belonging (Gharaei et al 2018 ).…”

Perceived racial and cultural discrimination and sense of belonging in Canadian society

“…National disidentification is also not, according to the authors, correlated with ethnic identification: it is a response to experiences of discrimination in its own right (Jasinskaja-Lahti et al, 2009). In line with this work, research since has found that Muslim youth who felt that their religious identities did not fit, or were culturally unacceptable, reported decreased national identification (Gharaei et al, 2018). Moreover, positive intergroup contact has been shown to increase national identification among Muslims across Europe (Fleischmann & Phalet, 2017).…”

Changes in Turkish- and resettler-origin adolescents’ acculturation profiles of identification: A three-year longitudinal study from Germany

“…In more homogeneous contexts, dominated by a large majority of non-immigrant students, ethnic minority adolescents may face higher pressures for assimilation. The examined schools, by contrast, were ethnically heterogeneous and thus youth may have felt less pressured to assimilatein line with the balance of power principle (Juvonen, Nishina, & Graham, 2006) and previous research on the role of school ethnic composition for minority youth' sense of national belonging (Gharaei, Phalet, & Fleischmann, 2018).…”