Interethnic Friendships Research Articles

Friendly, not friends: migrant settlement and diverse social ties in Australian regional cities

ABSTRACT Visa policies and pathways are increasingly driving international migration to Australia’s regional and rural centres. Often embedded within a multicultural imaginary, notions of friendliness and neighbourliness are instilled in the ‘small town’ narratives of these regional cities. However, little is known about whether this friendliness translates to the formation of deeper, meaningful connections that create the conditions for a sense of belonging to emerge. Drawing on empirical data from two regional cities across Queensland, this research investigates the challenges and barriers to forming friendships between migrant communities and ‘local’ Australian residents. We explore how co-ethnic relationships, while significant, do not always benefit and bolster migrants’ sense of belonging in the regions. Instead, we argue that inter-ethnic friendships with other migrant communities offer pathways to belonging in regional contexts. In doing so, we challenge prevalent assumptions regarding the inherent value of co-ethnic ties and the tensions so often raised within inter-ethnic relations.

‘I became an Uzbek’: Jewish-Uzbek encounters in World War Two evacuation

ABSTRACT Examinations of WWII-era Jewish evacuation to Central Asia traditionally focus either on the elite or the common people, subsequently concluding that the locale either fostered interethnic harmony (usually among the intelligentsia) or bred antisemitism (usually among the common people). In this article, however, I argue that both social strata witnessed and participated in these phenomena, using the lens of Uzbek-Jewish relations to evaluate the reality of interethnic encounters in evacuation. Indeed, Ashkenazi Jewish evacuees’ oral history testimonies demonstrate their multifaceted interactions with Uzbeks, in addition to their acquisition of substantial knowledge about their new neighbours, sometimes used to mitigate instances of popular antisemitism. Similarly, periodicals and archival sources’ coverage of the evacuated Ashkenazi Jewish intelligentsia shows not only high-level cultural cooperation and similar knowledge acquisition, but also its use of jointly produced cultural products to combat antisemitic stereotypes. As both antisemitism and interethnic cooperation featured in the first en masse encounter of these two largely unfamiliar ethnic groups, I suggest using it to test the on-the-ground success of the Soviet state’s ideology of the ‘friendship of the peoples’, which specifically prescribed interethnic friendship and the exchange of information about national culture.

How inter-ethnic relations are reproduced through everyday social practices: A perspective from the Javanese nasi pecel vendors in Mataraman cities

There is growing scholarship on how ethnic groups with historical tensions recover and manage to build harmonious relationships. However, detailed accounts of the lived experiences of such relations are limited. We seek to address this gap by exploring everyday inter-ethnic relations between Javanese and Chinese Indonesians in Indonesia as exemplified in the practice of selling nasi pecel, the traditional food of Mataraman cities in East Java. Our eight-week fieldwork involved 30 nasi pecel sellers in the four cities of Madiun, Nganjuk, Kediri, and Jombang through go-alongs and subsequent photo-elicitation interviews. Our engagements with the sellers have enabled us to generate a large body of empirical materials comprising 35 interviews and over 200 photographs. In the roles of bricoleurs, we then worked abductively to make sense of the empirical materials generated to build case studies of six sellers which resonated with the stories of the other 24 nasi pecel sellers in the study. We focused on the centrality of the seemingly mundane everyday practices of selling nasi pecel in (re)producing inter-ethnic interactions between the Javanese nasi pecel sellers and the Chinese Indonesian landowners. The everyday interactions for purposes such as accessing electricity and water and serving the customers which have been enacted every day for decades build spaces for inter-ethnic friendship and solidarity. We discuss how such inter-ethnic relations are vital in Indonesian society by emplacing such phenomenon within the broader socio-historical context of Chinese Indonesian and Javanese inter-ethnic relations, which are often framed as adversarial.

Social diversity and social cohesion in Britain.

We use data from a large-scale and nationally representative survey to examine whether there is in Britain a trade-off between social diversity and social cohesion. Using six separate measures of social cohesion (generalised trust, volunteering, giving to charity, inter-ethnic friendship, and two neighbourhood cohesion scales) and four measures of social diversity (ethnic fractionalisation, religious fractionalisation, percentage Muslim, and percentage foreign-born), we show that, net of individual covariates, there is a negative association between social diversity and most measures of social cohesion. But these associations largely disappear when neighbourhood deprivation is taken into account. These results are robust to alternative definitions of neighbourhood. We also investigate the possibility that the diversity--cohesion trade-off is found in more segregated neighbourhoods. But we find very little evidence to support that claim. Overall, it is material deprivation, not diversity, that undermines social cohesion.

Mental wellbeing and ethnic brokerage in friendship networks of adolescents in German secondary schools

ABSTRACT Inter-ethnic brokerage between friends, i.e. having friends with different ethnic backgrounds who are not friends with each other, is essential to social integration processes in multi-ethnic societies. This study examines the relation between inter-ethnic brokerage in adolescent friendship networks and individual mental wellbeing in the school context. Using data on friendship networks from a large-scale study of more than 2,700 seventh-graders in German secondary schools, I analyse the interplay between triadic brokerage structures and ethnicity, combining network analytical methods with linear regression techniques. The results show that brokerage in general is associated with lower mental wellbeing. This negative association is stronger for brokerage between friends with different ethnic backgrounds than for brokerage between friends with the same ethnic background. Furthermore, the negative association is not stronger for inter-ethnic brokerage, where the broker has the same ethnic background as one friend, than for inter-ethnic brokerage, where all actors belong to distinct ethnic groups. The results indicate no differences between ethnic majority and minority students. Though inter-ethnic brokerage is vital to bridge ethnic divides, this study highlights the psychological challenges inter-ethnic brokers may face. It emphasises the relevance of investigating brokerage in inter-ethnic friendships and going beyond dyadic perspectives on inter-ethnic contact.

The Power of Everyday Networks in Nation-Building: The Case of Inter-Ethnic Friendships in Singapore

Abstract While scholars commonly see nation-building as a modernist project or a cultural assertion, we suggest that a “third way” is equally important. Analysing data from a representative survey of 2,001 Singaporean residents collected in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, we demonstrate that everyday social networks have been key to creating and maintaining Singaporean nationalism. We make the point that despite ambitious plans at transforming society, modernist projects must rely upon organic, routinised, and quotidian mechanisms such as friendship-making within and between ethnic groups for national cohesion to materialise.

Marriage migrant women’s friendship formation in South Korea

ABSTRACT Despite the substantial research on marriage migrant women in Korea documenting the challenges they experience as they adapt to Korean society, little is known about their relationships outside of families. To fill the gap, this study examines how marriage migrant women make friends, especially focusing on the concepts of intra-ethnic and inter-ethnic friendship. Our findings suggest that marriage migrant women are likely to form close relationships with people from the same country of origin as a buffer against adaptation stress, which indicates strong intra-ethnic friendship. Regarding inter-ethnic friendship, women tend to prefer friends who are from Korea to those from other East Asian countries, which indicates their desire of learning Korean language and ethnic culture. Overall, this study contributes to the understanding of how women form a variety of friendships and how marriage migrant women’s co-ethnic friends as well as Korean friends assist in their transition to Korea.

Sparks from the friction of terrain: Transport animals, borderlands, and the territorial imagination in China

Representations of the friction of terrain play a significant role in the production of the territorial imagination in contemporary China. As infrastructure and its attendant promises are rolled out to once-remote corners of the nation, the state has sought to memorialize the heroic experience of the friction of terrain during the Chinese Revolution and subsequent projects of territorial incorporation in Inner Asia, before the proliferation of durable infrastructure. At the same time, even as the Chinese state deploys increasingly high-tech, disembodied means to police its borders, representations of charismatic transport animals used to patrol select sections of these borders have circulated in various media. This article argues that the mobility of animal bodies is deployed to produce a distinctive form of territorial imagination in China, one which foregrounds the friction of terrain at certain sites, and conjures up state fantasies of interspecies relations as/and interethnic friendship. While much recent scholarly literature focusses on the collocation of infrastructure and state power, this article calls for attention to the ways in which states can also mobilize representations of selected sites of roadlessness, and concomitant animal-based mobilities.

Вовлеченность россиян в использование информационно-коммуникационных технологий и межкультурные установки: роль моно- и межэтнических дружеских онлайн-контактов

The involvement of Russians in information and communication technologies using (IICTU) affects not only business relations and the search for information, but also friendly contacts in the online space. In this regard, it is important to understand the role of IICTU and on-line intra- and inter-ethnic friendships in the intercultural attitudes of residents of the multicultural Russian society. We conducted a socio-psychological survey in 2019–2020, the sample included 337 residents of eight regions of Russia. Using structural equation modeling and mediation analysis, we found that IICTU of Russians predicted the intensity of online intra- and inter-ethnic friendships. On-line inter-ethnic friendly contacts had a direct positive effect on the attitudes supporting multicultural ideology and social equality and a negative direct effect on the intolerance of Russians. The more intensively Russians communicate with inter-ethnic friends in the virtual space, the more significant their readiness to accept cultural diversity, social equality and tolerance. This result allows us to speak of a universal role of intercultural on-line friendships for positive intercultural attitudes. Additionally, such contacts mediated the relationship of IICTU with intercultural attitudes. Friendly intra-ethnic contacts in the network were positively associated with attitudes supporting both multicultural ideology and intolerance. We can say that the creation of networks that include representatives of only one ethnic group and intensive communication of its members can potentially contribute to the intolerance of Russians. In general, the results of the study showed the importance of developing virtual space for intercultural communication.

From Superdiversity to Consolidation: Implications of Structural Intersectionality for Interethnic Friendships

From Superdiversity to Consolidation: Implications of Structural Intersectionality for Interethnic Friendships

Опыт формирования межнациональных отношений в студенческой среде

In the article, the authors present a positive experience of working with students, aimed at creating a culture of interethnic relations among young people. The materials and methods of the study were examples of the organization of students' activities aimed at fostering values traditional for the Russian multinational culture, interethnic friendship. The student sphere, in which various attitudes of students develop in the context of interethnic and interethnic interaction. The results of the study and their discussion: activities are identified, the focus of which is shifted to the support and preservation of the Russian language. Organization of literary evenings dedicated to the life and work of Russian poets and writers. In the article, the authors gave an example of the organization of a volunteer detachment. Students actively participate in charitable events in the city of Kostroma (manufacturing of souvenirs, providing hairdressing services to vulnerable segments of the population, concert activities). Based on the study, the following conclusions can be drawn: the educational organization implements projects and activities aimed at forming a respectful attitude of young people towards the older generation, towards representatives of other nationalities and religions, the formation of an active life position, assistance, successful socialization.

Closeness in Interethnic Friendship (Arabic, Javanese, Tionghoa): A Qualitative Study on Adolescents Living in Surakarta, Central Java, Indonesia

This study aims to describe the formation process of the closeness in interethnic friendship among adolescents living in Surakarta, Central Java, Indonesia. A qualitative study using grounded theory method is employed. Study participants comprised five adolescent girls, aged 16–17 years, with the following interethnic friendships: Javanese–Arabic–Tionghoa, Javanese–Arabic, and Javanese–Tionghoa. Data on the formation process of closeness in interethnic friendship were collected using semi-structured interview referring to the Closeness Interethnic Friendship Guideline for Adolescents. Data were analyzed using initial coding, focused coding, axial coding, and theoretical coding. Results reveal seven composites of closeness in interethnic friendship: disclosure, comfort, compatibility, reappraisal of the characters and other ethnic groups, support, similarity, and togetherness. Closeness led to the continuity of friendship, along with positive emotions, such as excited, comfortable, fun, happy, joyful, content, safe, and proud. This process occurred when the situation supported togetherness as well as, personal quality, experience, and appraisal toward the different ethnic groups, and the shared values understood by all the ethnic groups.

Affective governance as multimodal discursive practice in Singapore’ COVID-19 vaccination video

Drawing on scholarship on affective-discursive practice and employing a critical multimodal analytic approach, this paper examines how an official vaccination campaign video from Singapore affectively engages with audiences through the construction of various social relationships and identities. Analysis of the multimodal images identifies four salient themes in the video: (1) a harmonious neighborhood comprising inter-ethnic friendships, (2) a paternalistic father-child relationship, (3) a male-dominant family model, and (4) a nostalgic past-present relationship. The analysis shows that affect is discursively mobilized in the orchestration of embodied modes, auditory, and visual modes via strategic filming and editing techniques. Based on the analysis, the authors argue that the video not only functions to subtly persuade the public to get vaccinated but should also be seen as part of a broader move toward an ‘affective politics’ which aims to mobilize the public, reinforce social cohesion and manage the global pandemic crisis in contemporary Singapore.

Effects of an intercultural music course on adolescents’ intergroup attitudes in southwest China

ABSTRACT The value of intercultural music learning on intergroup attitudes has been demonstrated in the literature, such as enhancing intercultural sensitivity and building interethnic friendships. However, the process by which intercultural music learning influences intergroup attitudes has not yet been illuminated. This study investigated the impact of an intercultural music course on intergroup attitudes among middle school students (N = 277) from Yi, Han, Mongolian and Tibetan ethnic groups in a multi-ethnic school in Sichuan province, southwest China. The research tools included questionnaire surveys, reflective journals, semi-structured interviews and observational field notes. The findings revealed that the intercultural music course significantly improved the students’ intergroup attitudes compared with the regular and non-music courses. The findings further identified six process dimensions that helped capture the gradual changes in students’ attitudes towards other groups as well as the cumulative nature of the effects of intercultural music learning. This study sheds light on approaches to using music to learn about, communicate with and appreciate other cultures.

Ethnic Segregation and Inter-Ethnic Relationships in Hungarian Schools

We investigate the extent of the segregation of Roma students in the Hungarian primary school system and discuss its consequences for actual inter-ethnic relationships within schools. Drawing on results from our previous research, we show that more exposure to members of the other ethnic group (less segregation) leads to more inter-ethnic friendships but also to more inter-ethnic hostility. Importantly, we show that Roma students with above-average academic achievement experience a lot more inter-ethnic friendship relationships than hostility without losing friends from their own ethnic group, and thus the positive effects of more exposure to non-Roma peers far outweighs its negative effects. We conclude that policies that aim at improving the academic performance of Roma students can bring additional benefits by improving their relationships in school.

Dimensions of Migrant Integration in Western Europe.

The integration of immigrant minorities is a major concern for diverse societies–with major implications for the well-being of those affected, social cohesion and group relations, and economic and social progress. In this paper, we give a comprehensive description of long-term migrant integration in Western Europe to investigate theories of migrant assimilation and integration. We take a multidimensional approach, looking at 10 indicators measuring social, structural, political, civic and cultural integration. We take an innovative approach to measuring minority background by using two complementary measures: generational status, distinguishing first and second-generation migrants from the third and higher up ‘natives,’ and self-reported ancestry, separating those with autochthonous-only ancestry from those with various kinds of allochthonous ancestry. Using interaction effects between these measures, we can test whether generational change is faster or slower for some ethnic groups than for others, i.e. whether different groups integrate at differing speeds. Using the pooled samples of all Western European countries included in the European Social Survey rounds 7 and 8, we run multivariate regression analyses to estimate the effects of migrant background on the 10 indicators of integration. Compared to migrants with autochthonous ancestry, respondents of Middle Eastern, North African & Central Asian as well as Sub-Saharan African ancestry are less integrated on all dimensions of integration except the political and civic ones. The South & South-East Asian group is also substantially less assimilated socially and culturally, but not so much structurally. They are closely followed by the South East and East European groups, following the same pattern except that the latter are less integrated politically as well. We only find substantial interaction effects between ethnic group and migrant generation for two integration indicators, namely citizenship and homophobia, for which speed of integration thus appears to differ across ethnic groups. For all other indicators, integration speed does not appear to differ across ethnic groups, supporting straight line assimilation theory, with social integration in terms of interethnic friendship potentially rather following a ‘bumpy-line’ pattern.

In the Ear of the Listener: The Role of Foreign Accent in Interethnic Friendships and Partnerships

This article examines the association between accented speech and the formation of friendships and partnerships among immigrants and native-born majority residents in Germany. Drawing on the sixth wave of the German extension of the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Survey in Four European Countries, we analyze a neglected aspect of language — pronunciation — and find that speaking with a foreign accent is a more important correlate of the incidence of interethnic partnerships than of interethnic friendships. We argue that beyond its primary function of understandability, accented speech possesses socially communicative power. Accent transmits signals of an individual’s foreignness and cultural differences and, thus, becomes an additional marker of social distance. Such signals serve as a greater obstacle to more consequential intimate interethnic relations such as partnerships. Our findings extend the scholarly debate on the role of symbolic boundaries in social interactions between ethnic groups by yet another important boundary maker — accent.

Participation in civil society organizations and ethnic minorities' interethnic friendships in Britain.

In Britain, civil society organizations (CSOs) have garnered much praise for promoting interethnic friendships (IEF) and strengthening community cohesion. Yet, there is very little empirical evidence to suggest that participation in CSOs promotes ethnic minorities' IEF. Using nationally representative longitudinal (2011-2019) and cross-sectional (2010) data, this article explores the association between participation in CSOs and IEF formation among five British ethnic minority groups and analyses how this relationship is affected by the ethnic composition of CSOs. Overall, fixed effects models show that participation in CSOs only significantly promotes IEF for Indians. For other minority groups it has either no effect or, in the case of Pakistanis, significantly decreases IEF. Further analyses show that compared with ethnic minorities that do not participate in any CSOs, those who participate in mostly interethnic CSOs tend to have significantly more IEF, whereas those who participate in mostly co-ethnic CSOs tend to have significantly less IEF. Taken together, these findings suggest that the association between civic participation and ethnic minorities' IEF is much more nuanced than previously thought and policy interventions seeking to improve ethnic integration should, therefore, take the ethnic background of participants and the ethnic composition of CSOs into account.

Decline, Revival, Change? Religious Adaptations among Muslim and Non-Muslim Immigrant Origin Youth in Norway

This article explores religious adaptation among immigrant-origin youth in Norway, using the first wave of the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study in Norway (CILS-NOR). To capture different dimensions of religious change, we distinguish between 1) level of religiosity, measured by religious salience and religious practices, and 2) social forms of religious belief, measured as the level of rule orientation and theological exclusivism. We compare immigrant-origin youth in Norway with young people in their parents’ origin countries, using the World Value Survey. We then compare immigrant-origin youth who were born in Norway to those who were born abroad and according to their parents’ length of residence in Norway. As expected, immigrant-origin youth from outside Western Europe—and those originating in Muslim countries in particular—were more religious than native and western-origin youth and more rule oriented and exclusivist in their religious beliefs. However, our results suggest that a process of both religious decline and religious individualization is underway among immigrant origin youth in Norway, although this process appears to unfold slower for Muslims than for non-Muslims. The level and social forms of religiosity among immigrant-origin youth are partially linked to their integration in other fields, particularly inter-ethnic friendships. We argue that comparative studies on how national contexts of reception shape religious adaptations, as well as studies aiming to disentangle the complex relationship between religious adaptation and integration in other fields, are needed.

The Link between Social and Structural Integration: Co- and Interethnic Friendship Selection and Social Influence within Adolescent Social Networks

Assimilation theories argue that social ties with majority-group members enhance the structural integration of ethnic minority members, whereas under certain conditions, coethnic social ties can also benefit minority members' socioeconomic outcomes. We examine these propositions through a social network perspective, focusing on friendship networks and educational expectations in adolescence, during which peer socialization is crucial. Longitudinal data from 1,992 adolescents in 91 classrooms allow us to investigate co- and interethnic social selection and social influence processes as well as their aggregated outcomes. In terms of friendship selection, we find that Turkishorigin minority adolescents in Germany have distinct preferences for friends with high educational expectations, among both co- and interethnic peers. In contrast, social influence on Turkish-minority adolescents' educational expectations is not uniform: only majority-group friends exert a significant (positive) influence. Our results emphasize that bridging social capital gained from social ties with majority-group members enhances ethnic minority adolescents' educational integration.