On Becoming “Too Belgian”: A Comparative Study of Ethnic Conformity Pressure through the City–as–Context Approach

Abstract

While considerable research has shown that coethnic communities exercise pressure on their members to conform to certain normative patterns, there is little research that explains variability within coethnic groups regarding ethnic conformity pressure. Drawing on fieldwork and semistructured interviews with children and grandchildren of Turkish immigrants living in Ghent and five mining towns in Belgium, we explain differences in ethnic conformity pressure through a comparative examination of how macrostructural characteristics of cities shape community–level ethnic conformity pressure. We demonstrate that a city's migration history and social geography are related to the degree of social closure and normative consensus within an ethnic community, and that its ethnic heterogeneity and interethnic relations impact how much people depend on their coethnic community for social support. These in turn shape the internal sanctioning capacity of the community and its power to enforce normative patterns, especially of gender roles. The study shows that locality matters in the integration, assimilation, and acculturation of migrants, even disadvantaged ones who share the same national background.