Immigration from the immigrants‘ perspective: Differential attitudes, problems, and challenges

Verantwortlich

Herr Christian Unkelbach christian.unkelbach[uk]uni-koeln.de

Weiter verantwortlich

Zeitraum

01.10.2018-01.01.2020

Förderung

Beschreibung

Immigration implies that a new group (i.e., immigrants) meets and has to integrate with an existing group (i.e., recipients). Social psychological research has a wealth of models for such intergroup contact, from classic approaches such as Social Identity Theory (e.g., Tajfel and Turner, 1979) to modern cognitive ecological approaches (e.g., Alves, Koch, and Unkelbach, in press). Typically, these models focus on the majority group’s (i.e., recipients) attitudes and behaviors towards the minority (i.e., immigrants); for example, the intended mentor’s research shows that Germans (i.e., majority) see Muslims (i.e., minority) as both threatening (Unkelbach et al., 2008, 2009) and incompetent (Unkelbach et al., 2010). Such negative attitudes follow, for example, from Stephan and Stephan’s (1996) integrated threat theory of prejudice. This theory assumes different types of threats that lead to prejudice; for example, realistic threat, symbolic threat, or intergroup anxiety. The present research will investigate another source for problems in intergroup contact, namely a simple mismatch of attitudes and perceived attitudes, problems and perceived problems, challenges and perceived challenges. This approach is based on acculturation models (see Schwartz et al., 2010) that frame conflicts between residents and immigrants as a challenge of combining existing practices (e.g., regarding languages and food), values (e.g., individualistic vs. collectivistic), and identifications (e.g., regarding country loyalties).

Description

Immigration implies that a new group (i.e., immigrants) meets and has to integrate with an existing group (i.e., recipients). Social psychological research has a wealth of models for such intergroup contact, from classic approaches such as Social Identity Theory (e.g., Tajfel and Turner, 1979) to modern cognitive ecological approaches (e.g., Alves, Koch, and Unkelbach, in press). Typically, these models focus on the majority group’s (i.e., recipients) attitudes and behaviors towards the minority (i.e., immigrants); for example, the intended mentor’s research shows that Germans (i.e., majority) see Muslims (i.e., minority) as both threatening (Unkelbach et al., 2008, 2009) and incompetent (Unkelbach et al., 2010). Such negative attitudes follow, for example, from Stephan and Stephan’s (1996) integrated threat theory of prejudice. This theory assumes different types of threats that lead to prejudice; for example, realistic threat, symbolic threat, or intergroup anxiety. The present research will investigate another source for problems in intergroup contact, namely a simple mismatch of attitudes and perceived attitudes, problems and perceived problems, challenges and perceived challenges. This approach is based on acculturation models (see Schwartz et al., 2010) that frame conflicts between residents and immigrants as a challenge of combining existing practices (e.g., regarding languages and food), values (e.g., individualistic vs. collectivistic), and identifications (e.g., regarding country loyalties).