Two sides of social integration: Effects of exposure and friendships on second- and third-generation immigrant as well as majority youth’s intergroup attitudes

Abstract

To gain insights into social integration of second- and third-generation immigrant youth in Dutch secondary schools, we examined the two sides: immigrant youth’s attitudes toward the societal majority and the societal majority youth’s attitudes toward immigrants, while taking into account immigrant youth’s diverse cultural backgrounds. The sample included Dutch-born Turkish (n = 187), Moroccan (n = 188), and Surinamese (n = 164) adolescents as well as societal majority youth (n = 2,141) across 169 classrooms in 92 Dutch secondary schools. School-based exposure to, and friendships with relevant out-group classmates were examined separately as predictors of out-group attitudes. Also, the mediational function of out-group friendships, i.e., immigrant respectively societal majority, on the association between exposure and attitudes was tested. The results varied between immigrant and societal majority youth, as well as across the cultural groups. Overall, out-group exposure was found to benefit all immigrant adolescents’ attitudes toward the societal majority. For societal majority adolescents, however, the association between exposure, friendships and attitudes differed based on the relevant out-group. This study highlights the nuances between immigrant groups and between immigrant and societal majority groups’ attitudes toward one another.