Cultural consequences of interethnic contact

Theoretical background and objectives

With few exceptions, research on the consequences of immigrants' relations with host society members has focused on the structural outcomes of such interethnic contacts, e.g. immigrants' placement in the job market. To expand upon this limited theoretical and empirical scope, this research examines the cultural consequences of immigrants' interethnic contacts with host society members. It will investigate (a) to what extent, (b) under which conditions and (c) how interethnic contacts with host society members shape the cultural beliefs (e.g. gender role attitudes, religious orientations) and values of immigrants, which all represent important facets of immigrants' acculturation in host societies.

Research design, methodology and outlook

In exploring these questions across different local and temporal settings, this study will utilise (1) multiwave panel data from the GSOEP, (2) individual- and contextual data from the Dutch SPVA 2002 and (3) seek to employ cross-national data from the SCIICS survey (see project 5.3 below) .