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The political downside of dual identity: Group identifications and religious political mobilization of M uslim minorities
Author(s) -
Martinovic Borja,
Verkuyten Maykel
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
british journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.855
H-Index - 98
eISSN - 2044-8309
pISSN - 0144-6665
DOI - 10.1111/bjso.12065
Subject(s) - political mobilization , politics , mobilization , ethnic group , religious identity , dual (grammatical number) , social psychology , identity (music) , psychology , collective identity , social identity theory , national identity , political science , gender studies , sociology , social group , religiosity , law , art , physics , literature , acoustics
Research on the political mobilization of ethnic minorities has shown that dual ethno‐national identification facilitates involvement in political action on behalf of the ethnic group. This study extends this research by proposing that a dual identity can impede political mobilization on behalf of another relevant in‐group – the religious community – especially if this in‐group is not accepted by the wider society. Using a sample of 641 M uslims of T urkish origin living in G ermany and the N etherlands, dual ethno‐national identity ( T urkish‐ G erman/ T urkish‐ D utch) was examined in relation to religious M uslim identification and religious political mobilization. Dual identity was expected to be indirectly related to lower mobilization via decreased religious group identification. Further, this mediating process was predicted to be stronger for T urkish M uslims who perceived relatively high religious group discrimination. In both countries we found support for the mediating hypothesis, however, the moderating role of discrimination was confirmed only for the N etherlands. T urkish‐ D utch identification was associated with lower support for religious political mobilization because of lower M uslim identification only for T urkish‐ D utch participants who perceived high levels of discrimination. These findings indicate that a strong dual (ethno‐national) identity can undermine minority members’ support for political rights and actions on behalf of a third relevant in‐group, and therefore qualify the social psychological benefits of the dual identity model.