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Majority group belonging without minority group distancing? Minority experiences of intergroup contact and inequality
Author(s) -
Kende Judit,
Baysu Gülseli,
Van Laar Colette,
Phalet Karen
Publication year - 2021
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.12382
Subject(s) - minority group , ethnic group , social distance , psychology , contact theory , inequality , social psychology , immigration , turkish , distancing , prejudice (legal term) , ingroups and outgroups , social contact , sociology , covid-19 , political science , medicine , mathematical analysis , linguistics , philosophy , mathematics , disease , structural engineering , pathology , anthropology , law , infectious disease (medical specialty) , engineering
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.