Abstract
Prevailing definitions of national identities in Europe equate belonging to the nation with “fitting in” culturally and leave immigrant minorities who are culturally different from the majority group struggling to belong. The present study focuses on an under-researched minority perspective on the intersubjective cultural contents of the national identity. We propose that minorities' national belonging is contingent on their perception that minority peers who deviate from the majority culture are accepted as real nationals. Our study aims to establish (a) minority perceptions of the national fit and acceptance of culturally different peers, and to test (b) the consequences of perceived fit and acceptance for minority adolescents' own national belonging, and (c) its affordances by the local peer context. Drawing on a large random sample of 1,489 Moroccan and Turkish minority youth (aged 12–18) and their peers across 312 classes in 63 Belgian schools, we varied cultural difference from the majority in three vignettes describing imaginary acculturating peers. Minority participants rated to what extent they saw each peer as a real national (perceived fit) and whether other nationals would accept this peer (perceived acceptance). As a measure of their own national belonging, they indicated their national self-identification. Additionally, the multi-level design included classroom contextual measures of majority peer presence and peer acculturation norms (peer norm of heritage culture maintenance). As expected, minority youth who perceived better national fit of culturally different peers, self-identified more strongly as nationals than those who perceived worse fit. This association was not explained by their own acculturation attitudes. In line with the contextual affordance of national fit, only in classes with majority peers, minority youth perceived higher national fit and acceptance of culturally different peers when peer norms supported the maintenance of a distinct heritage culture. We conclude that the national belonging of minority youth is contingent on the peer context through the perceived fit and acceptance of culturally different peers.
Highlights
In our first model, we found significant indirect effects of the perceived acceptance of culturally different peers on national self-identification via perceived national fit: The Moroccan or Turkish minority youth who perceived other Belgian nationals to be more accepting of the separated or integrated peer, correspondingly perceived these peers as fitting the national identity better and these fit perceptions in turn positively predicted their national self-identification [separated: βindirect = 0.035, p = 0.022, 95% confidence intervals (CI) [0.005; 0.066] and integrated: βindirect = 0.025, p = 0.027, 95% CI [0.003; 0.048], respectively]
All-minority peer contexts are disconnected from the national majority group who powerfully define the national identity in the wider society; and, our results suggest that minority peers cannot define the national identity in the absence of social verification by majority peers
The present study reveals an alternate cognitive pathway for minority youth to achieve national belonging, when they perceive culturally different peers as fitting the national identity and being accepted by other nationals
Summary
Fatma is 14 years old and born in Belgium from Turkish immigrant parents. Her best friends are Turkish and she wants to marry a Turkish boy later. She loves Turkish food and likes to go on holidays to Turkey. While Fatma’s Turkish heritage culture makes her different from her majority Belgian peers, they attend the same Belgian school together and they are all future adult Belgian citizens. Our research focuses on the degree to which minority adolescents perceive acculturating peers like Fatma to be true Belgians. We propose that minority adolescents’ own national belonging will be contingent on their perception that culturally different peers like Fatma (mis)fit with the national identity
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