Majority group belonging without minority group distancing? Minority experiences of intergroup contact and inequality

Abstract

As most immigrant‐origin minority youth grow up in ethnically diverse social worlds, they develop a sense of belonging to both the national majority and the ethnic minority group. Our study adds to a growing body of research on minority experiences of intergroup contact by (1) including both minority and majority group belonging as outcomes and (2) examining the interplay of majority contact with unequal treatment. We surveyed 1,200 Turkish and Moroccan‐Belgian minority youth in 315 classrooms across 65 schools, using multiple measures of intergroup contact, unequal treatment in school, and minority and majority group belonging. Multi‐level models showed that minority youth who experienced more intergroup contact, and less unequal treatment, reported more belonging to the majority group. In addition, contact predicted less belonging to the minority group only in the presence of unequal treatment: For minority youth who perceived less unequal treatment, either individually or collectively, intergroup contact was unrelated to minority group belonging. We conclude that majority group contact and belonging need not come at the cost of minority group distancing in the absence of inequality.

Distancing from a stigmatized social identity: State of the art and future research agenda on self‐group distancing

“…outgroup. Manifestations of self-group distancing as a move away from the low-status ingroup are, for example, disidentification as an ingroup member (Becker & Tausch, 2014;Kende et al, 2020), hiding one's ingroup identity (Newheiser & Barreto, 2014;Veldman et al, 2020), emphasizing how one is different from the ingroup and the stereotypes associated with it (Cohen & Garcia, 2005;Faniko et al, 2017;Kirby et al, 2020, this issue;Munder, Becker, & Christ, 2020;Pronin, Steele, & Ross, 2004), or having less concern for and interactions or friendships with other stigmatized group members (Bergsieker, Wilmot, Cyr, & Grey, 2020;Cifti, Barreto, Doyle, van Breen, & Darden, 2020, this issue;Cohen & Garcia, 2005;Faniko et al, 2017;Veldman et al, 2020).…”

“…Manifestations of self-group distancing as a movement towards the high-status outgroup are, for example, minority members presenting themselves as more similar to the high-status outgroup, like when people of colour "Whiten" information on their resumes (Kang et al, 2016), when older people report a "younger" subjective age (Giasson & Chopik, 2020, this issue), or when women emphasize their stereotypically masculine qualities Faniko et al, 2020). Additionally, self-group distancing as a move towards the outgroup can also manifest through increased interaction with the outgroup, favouring the outgroup over the ingroup (Essien et al, 2020, this issue), or increased outgroup identification (Guimond, Dif, & Aupy, 2002;Kende et al, 2020).…”

“…Attitudinal measures of self-group distancing speak to the perceptions and feelings of the individual towards the ingroup or the outgroup. Examples are outgroup favouritism and more positive attitudes towards the outgroup, or lowered ingroup affect and more negative attitudes towards the ingroup (Derks et al, 2015;Essien et al, 2020, this issue;Guimond et al, 2002;Kende et al, 2020).…”

Groups in contact: Meta‐representations, interobjectivity, and cultural incompatibilities

“…A study shows that Muslim immigrant adolescents in Belgium may develop more positive attitudes toward the majority without neglecting their own culture by personal contact with representatives of the outgroup (Kende, Baysu, Van Laar, & Phalet, 2020). This crucially depends on how to understand the word ‘contact’.…”

Classroom Predictors of National Belonging: The Role of Interethnic Contact and Teachers’ and Classmates’ Diversity Norms

“…Children with an ethnic minority or immigrant background can experience a weak sense of belonging to (e.g., , or even feel alienated from (Leeman & Saharso, 2013), the countries they live in. This may be a logical or even adaptive response to experiences of discrimination and marginalization (Kende et al, 2020) but it may also hamper their psychological well-being (Wu et al, 2018) and social adjustment (Berry et al, 2006). National belonging does not automatically imply assimilation to majority culture as immigrant children can feel connected to the "host" country yet still have a strong ethnic identity (e.g., Berry & Hou, 2016).…”