Feeling Half-Half? Exploring Relational Variation of Turkish-Heritage Young Adults’ Cultural Identity Compatibility and Conflict in Austria

Abstract

Growing up in multicultural environments, Turkish-heritage individuals in Europe face specific challenges in combining their multiple cultural identities to form a coherent sense of self. Drawing from social identity complexity, this study explores four modes of combining cultural identities and their variation in relational contexts. Problem-centered interviews with Turkish-heritage young adults in Austria revealed the preference for complex, supranational labels, such as multicultural. Furthermore, most participants described varying modes of combining cultural identities over time and across relational contexts. Social exclusion experiences throughout adolescence related to perceived conflict of cultural identities, whereas multicultural peer groups supported perceived compatibility of cultural identities. Findings emphasize the need for complex, multidimensional approaches to study ethnic minorities' combination of cultural identities.

Peer cultural socialisation: a resource for minority students’ cultural identity, life satisfaction, and school values

“…Learning about different cultures may be of special importance to youth of the second or third migrant generation, who are likely to identify with and combine more than one culture (Huynh, Nguyen, and Benet-Martínez 2011;Vietze et al 2018). Parent heritage socialisation, the parental transmission of the heritage culture and group membership, relates to various aspects of cultural minority youth' identity, such as identity centrality, meaning the importance of the cultural group as part of the self-image (Juang et al 2016), but also a higher cultural identity exploration and commitment (Juang and Syed 2010;Umaña-Taylor, Bhanot, and Shin 2006), two key processes that describe seeking heritage culture-related information and choosing important life values for achieving a stable, secure identity (Marcia 1980).…”

“…In line with previous studies on cultural minority youth in Germany (e.g. Dimitrova et al 2015, Vietze et al 2018 we employ the term 'heritage identity' to refer to youth' feelings of belonging to the culture of their ethnic group and ancestors. 2.…”

Juggling Between Parental and School Expectations: The Development of Domain‐Specific Acculturation Orientations in Early Adolescence

“…For a more accurate description of changes, more time intervals would be needed. Second, almost half of the students in our study were of Turkish descent, representing the largest ethnic minority group in Germany with particular acculturation experiences (Vietze, Juang, Schachner, & Werneck, 2018). We are aware of the restricted generalizability of results, and acculturation-related experiences are likely to differ by ethnic minority group or heritage country (Diehl, Lubbers, M€ uhlau, & Platt, 2016;Vedder et al, 2007).…”

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

“…Though national identity definitions depend crucially on social acceptance by majority nationals, minority nationals can also add weight to alternate identity definitions (Modood, 2007 ). A qualitative study shows, for instance, that Turkish origin young adults in Austria actively co-construct shared understandings of the national identity; and they negotiate heritage and majority cultural contents of their Austrian identity in social relations with other Austrians (Vietze et al, 2018 ). We therefore expect that minority adolescents will perceive better national fit of culturally different peers, when they perceive that these peers will be socially accepted by other nationals (Hypothesis 2).…”