Tell me who your friends are? Disentangling the interplay of young immigrants' host country identification and their friendships with natives

The stronger young immigrants identify with the host country, the more native friends they have–and vice versa. While this association between emotional and social integration has been well established by cross-sectional studies, little is known about how and why it emerges. Do immigrants select their friends based on their national identification? Or does having native friends influence immigrants’ identification with the host country? This cumulative dissertation offers four longitudinal studies in order to answer these overarching questions and respective follow-up questions. In the first study, four broad theoretical scenarios are introduced and longitudinally examined using three-wave panel data for adolescents of Turkish origin in Germany. Lagged first-difference models that account both for stable unobserved heterogeneity and reverse causality reveal that changes in immigrants’ national identification and the share of native friends did not affect one another. This finding cautions researchers to interpret the cross-sectional association between immigrants’ national identification and their friendships with natives in a causal manner. The second study tries to get closer to the micro-level processes underlying the ambiguous association between friends and identification. For this purpose, two respective selection and influence mechanisms are distinguished and empirically tested with two waves of Dutch social network data. Stochastic actor-oriented models (SAOM) for the co-evolution of networks and behavior show that strong national identification did not make immigrants more likely to befriend native peers. Native students, however, preferred to befriend immigrants with stronger rather than weaker national identification. There was no evidence of any kind of social influence. The third study suggests that earlier research may have failed to identify social influence mechanisms because these might be conditional on the nature of ethnic boundaries. Related hypotheses are developed and tested for Turkish and ethnic German adolescents, for whom ethnic boundaries are particularly bright and blurred, respectively. Using lagged first-difference models on two three-wave German panel data sets, the results confirm that Turkish students’ national identification was not affected by their native friends. There is some indication, however, that friends did affect the development of ethnic Germans national identification. The fourth and final study revisits the unexpected findings of the second study. For one thing, the analysis is replicated with newly collected three-wave German network panel data that have various advantages over earlier datasets. For another, a theoretical argument is developed and tested about the role of opportunity structure in the form of relative group size. Using SAOM, it is found that in ethnically highly diverse schools, immigrants with stronger host country identification were more likely to befriend native peers; but there were no respective selection effects for natives. Again, friends did not influence immigrants’ national identification. In sum, the key conclusion of this dissertation is that the association between immigrants’ friendships with natives and their national identification is mainly a selection story. Depending on relative group size, immigrants’ national identification seems to affect friendship choices of both immigrants and natives. However, except under very specific favorable social conditions, there is little evidence that friends in turn influence immigrants’ national identification

Increasing ethnic diversity moderates longitudinal effects of individual differences on friendship homophily

Data came from a longitudinal study, which included three time points, spanning a twelve-month period. Results of multi-level latent growth curve models showed that among ethnic minority English children (teacher-rated) peer problems and ethnic identity were associated with more friendship homophily whereas a bicultural identity was not related to more friendship homophily. Among ethnic majority English children the effects of peer problems and English identity were moderated by school ethnic composition, such that these factors were not associated with more friendship homophily in more ethnically diverse schools. The efindings are discussed based on theories of intergroup contact and intergroup threat

Are people really strange when you’re a stranger? A longitudinal study of the effect of intergroup contact on host-country identification

Due to the ever-increasing trend in globalization and the importance of gaining international experience, the number of students seeking academic and cultural experiences abroad continues to grow every year. The present study longitudinally examines contact with host-nationals, changes in cultural identity, and sojourners’ identification with their host country. To that end, four waves of data (n = 157–198) were collected among German students who spent a semester abroad in Indonesia. Over time, these students had more contact with host-nationals and experienced changes in their cultural identity. Lagged structural equation models reveal that contact with host-nationals was positively related to identification with the host country and that this relationship was mediated by changes in individuals’ cultural identity. Host-country identification was, in turn, related to students’ overall satisfaction with their stay abroad. This study underscores the importance of engaging in contact with locals when staying in a foreign country and contributes to literature by investigating the role of cultural-identity change as an underlying mechanism in the relationship between intergroup contact and host-country identification

Ethnic diversity and trust in the school context: When do adolescents trust their peers and people in general?

SUMMARY OF THE DISSERTATION ETHNIC DIVERSITY AND TRUST IN THE SCHOOL CONTEXT: WHEN DO ADOLESCENTS TRUST THEIR PEERS AND PEOPLE IN GENERAL? BY ANDREA WINGEN Trust is an essential part of social life and important for successful human interaction. Especially social trust, that is trust in strangers, is crucial and has been linked to numerous positive consequences for individuals and society as a whole. This thesis focuses on trust in little-known and unknown peers and people in general, in particular during early adolescence – an age group which has received very little attention in research so far. Thereby, I focus on possible influencing factors specific to the school context. Schools as places where young people spend the majority of their time in close proximity to many other peers likely shape adolescents’ understanding of the world they live in and their place within it and thereby influence their trust in other people. The first and second studies presented in this thesis (Chapters 2 and 3) suggest that the group composition within the school grade and class relates to adolescents’ social trust within and beyond the school context. The share of the ethnic majority (i.e., students without migration background) in the school grade positively relates to students' trust in unknown peers within the school grade and people in general (Chapter 2). The alignment of ethnic origin and gender in the school class (i.e., if many fellow students of the same ethnic origin also belong to the same gender, while many students of another ethnic origin belong to a different gender) is negatively associated with both types of social trust for ethnic majority students (Chapter 3). This thesis further analyses the relationship between individuals’ social standing within the school grade and trust in little-known (Chapter 4) as well as unknown peers and people in general. In contrast to the group composition within the school class or grade, the social standing within the school grade is associated differently with trust in people in general compared to trust in little-known or unknown peers within the school grade. Overall, this thesis illustrates the importance of the school context in shaping adolescents’ trust in peers and people in general

CARIN' about migrants through news? Linking migrant deservingness to traditional and digital media consumption

In recent years, public discourse and political actors have increasingly used a deservingness rhetoric to refer to the arrival and permanent settlement of migrant groups. However, scholars have drawn on the concept of deservingness without developing a clear theoretical framework for it. Following our recent work on the migrant deservingness framework, in the present study we use the CARIN criteria (Control, Attitude, Reciprocity, Identity, Need) to establish the extent to which host nationals in eight nations impose conditions towards accepting permanent settlement among migrants. Specifically, we examine the links of these deservingness perceptions with news media consumption in seven European countries and Colombia using online survey panel data (N = 12,142). Our findings indicate that consuming news via commercial television and in popular newspapers, in particular, is linked to greater conditionality regarding migrant settlement. Consuming public television or quality news sources is only weakly linked to (reduced) conditionality. We discuss these findings using the migrant deservingness framework

The networked character of migration and transnationalism

Acknowledgement of the prominent role of social networks in migration studies marked a significant departure from earlier studies, suggesting that social networks determine migration decisions, trajectories, and outcomes.While social network analytical tools have not always been used in empirical investigations of migratory phenomena, studies on migration that use relational approaches also show an inherent network thinking. In this paper, we review the state of the art of the literature on migration and social networks, highlighting the advances made by empirical research using network thinking, particularly in different stages of migration and for operationalizing transnational phenomena related to migration. Based on this review, we detect the role of networks in different stages of migration, and we reflect on the remaining challenges for future research regarding the role of social networks within migration scholarship

The networked character of migration and transnationalism

Acknowledgement of the prominent role of social networks in migration studies marked a significant departure from earlier studies, suggesting that social networks determine migration decisions, trajectories, and outcomes. While social network analytical tools have not always been used in empirical investigations of migratory phenomena, studies on migration that use relational approaches also show an inherent network thinking. In this paper, we review the state of the art of the literature on migration and social networks, highlighting the advances made by empirical research using network thinking, particularly in different stages of migration and for operationalizing transnational phenomena related to migration. Based on this review, we detect the role of networks in different stages of migration, andwe reflect on the remaining challenges for future research regarding the role of social networks within migration scholarship

Mechanisms of resentment: causes of social intolerance and anti-democratic attitudes in Europe

The thesis attempts to identify social mechanisms that connect different forms of resentment intolerance towards social minorities, anti-democratic views, electoral radical right-wing support to (changes in) the social and demographic structure of society, economic conditions, policies, and party politics set against the specific historic backgrounds of European countries. Radical Right-Wing Support among Urban Voters investigates how immigration into cities where most immigrants into European countries tend settle increases electoral radical right-wing support, in the context of poverty, residential segregation and the history of immigration into neighborhoods. The analysis makes use of unique contextual data on neighborhoods in 34 German cities between the years 20142017 enriched with election data. The Residential Context as Source of Deprivation investigates the political ruralurban divide in current democracies: In regions exposed to precarious demographic developments heavy emigration, aging populations, few children, skewed adult sex ratios shops, services, events, and transportation infrastructure thin out, social support systems suffer, and so on, leaving residents feeling disadvantaged. In worldwide comparison, East Germany is more strongly affected by these demographic developments than any other region. The study uses an yearly East-German survey covering the years 20002014 enriched with regional contextual data to show long-term effects of demographic developments on anti-immigrant and nationalist attitudes as well as on democratic discontent. Dynamics of Immigrant Resentment in Europe focuses on differences between countries by undertaking the first comprehensive test of all social explanations of immigrant resentment predominant in the research literature across 30 European countries between the years 20022016, relying on the European Social Survey and comprehensive contextual data