Refugee Belonging: How Values and Value Consensus Between Refugees and German Citizens Are Associated with Feeling Welcome and Spending Time Together

Abstract

This article expands on the discussion of social and cultural factors for refugees’ feelings of belonging in the receiving society and assesses democratic, civic, and moral values as predictors of belonging. On the one hand, existing research considers shared values between refugees and the receiving society as hallmarks of integration. From this perspective, shared values (or value consensus) are considered predictors of refugees’ feelings of belonging and the formation of social bonds with host-country citizens. On the other hand, values are seen as part of refugees’ cultural capital. From this perspective, liberal and civic value contents, in particular, may promote feelings of belonging, irrespective of whether these values are widely shared with citizens of the host society. This article investigates these contrasting hypotheses, using data from a representative panel of refugees in Germany. Results show that refugees holding liberal democratic values are more likely to experience feelings of welcome in the receiving society. When operationalizing belonging also in terms of refugees spending time with host-country citizens, shared democratic and secular values become more important. Finally, this article suggests that the effect of value consensus on refugees’ feelings of welcome is mediated by how much time refugees spend with host-country citizens members. Taken together, our findings emphasize that in the context of international migration, values are important hallmarks of social integration, although this should not be reduced to popular calls for shared values between immigrants and host-country citizens.

“If you smile, they smile”: Explaining highly educated migrants' feelings of being welcome in the Euregio Meuse‐Rhine

“…The analysis shows how limited intergroup contact between migrants and natives negatively affects the perceived societal incorporation capacity and hence feelings of being welcome. This is in line with previous studies (Fuchs & von Scheve, 2023;Plöger & Becker, 2015).…”

“…Perceived societal incorporation capacity has the largest impact on migrants' feelings of being welcome while personal incorporation capacity has the lowest impact. Social aspects were also identified to play an important role in refugees' feelings of being welcome in Germany (Fuchs & von Scheve, 2023).…”

“…Cichocka (2021) finds that maintaining diverse social relationships with other migrants and with natives greatly affects migrants' sense of belonging and integration in the host country. Similarly, spending time with Germans has been identified as one of the main determinants of refugees' feelings of being welcome in Germany (Fuchs & von Scheve, 2023). Interestingly, higher education is negatively associated with migrants' feelings about the native population in the host country (de Vroome et al, 2014; Verkuyten, 2016) and economic success in the host country hampers a sense of belonging to the host country (Geurts et al, 2020).…”

“…Second, they are more at ease with following the cultural norms of the host society and find it easier to meet the conditions of their new environment (Harari et al, 2018; Huang et al, 2005). Refugees' feelings of being welcome upon arrival in Germany were also found to depend on their values (Fuchs & von Scheve, 2023). Based on interviews with high‐skilled migrants in Australia, Rajendran et al (2017) stress the importance of migrants' own attitudes and proactive behaviours to “make it work” (p. 446) in the host country, which can include actively looking for information and support as well as opportunities to socialise.…”

“…In addition, de Lange (2018) analysed to what extent Dutch, German and French policies for third-country immigrant entrepreneurs are welcoming. To our knowledge, there are fewer studies focusing on migrants themselves (see Fuchs & von Scheve, 2023, for a study on refugees' feelings of being welcome in Germany and Lauring and Selmer (2015) for an analysis of the effect of feeling welcome on the adjustment of self-initiated expat spouses in Denmark). Little is known, however, about the factors contributing to highly educated migrants' feelings of being welcome in the host country.…”