Search Results (29)

Although acculturation research recognizes that a community’s context of reception shapes acculturation, relatively limited research has explored how social and contextual variables shape the divergence of ‘real’ acculturation from ‘ideal’ (or individually desired) acculturation across life domains. Building on the Relative Acculturation Extended Model, this study examines how one’s local context and interactions within it shape acculturation in peripheral (public), intermediate (social), and central (private) life domains. In this cross-sectional study, 408 first-generation immigrant adults born in Latin America (M = 37.91, SD = 12.93) who had lived in the United States for 1–55 years (M = 16.56; SD = 9.50) completed self-report measures across four communities with distinct contexts of reception. Results revealed that perception of the receiving community’s acculturation preferences, prejudice, community contact, and symbolic threat all shaped immigrants’ ‘real’ acculturation beyond ‘ideal’, both directly and indirectly via their sense of community and intergroup anxiety. These socioecological factors had a stronger impact on peripheral domain acculturation overall, though pathways generally remained consistent across life domains. Results have numerous implications for policy, practice, and the future of acculturation research as they suggest that social context more readily shapes public expressions of acculturation than more private expressions. Full article

This study examines the increasing Muslim presence in Western Europe, driven by migration, fertility rates, and religious conversion according to recent demographic research. Triggering events such as the 9/11 attacks in 2001 and the 7/7 London bombings in 2005, marked as milestones, worsened by the global media and propaganda, have significantly fueled Islamophobia across the region. Countries in Western Europe, like Spain, the Netherlands, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, are selected focus areas to reflect social change and overlapping responses to the shifts. This study investigates the connection between rising anti-immigrant sentiment toward Muslims and the media’s role in shaping Islamophobia by negatively depicting Islam as a religion of war or terror. By analyzing the European Islamophobia Reports from 2015 to 2023, this study examines how Muslims are portrayed both as immigrants and through their symbolic societal presence. The study critically analyzes anti-Islam propaganda and the life experiences of Muslim communities by implementing qualitative methods through a literature review. The findings of this study reveal a paradox between Europe’s advocacy for diversity and the realities shaped by political and global dynamics, which hinder efforts toward inclusion. These insights could inform media policies to promote more balanced representations of Muslims and guide societal initiatives aimed at reducing prejudice and fostering greater inclusivity in Western Europe. Full article

Narcissism has been linked to negative attitudes toward certain outgroups. The present studies examined the associations that narcissistic traits—extraverted narcissism, antagonistic narcissism, and neurotic narcissism—had with anti-immigrant attitudes. More specifically, we were interested in the possibility that these associations may be mediated by social worldviews and ideological attitudes. Across three studies, the results indicated that extraverted and antagonistic narcissism had positive indirect associations with anti-immigrant attitudes through the competitive social worldview via the ideological attitudes of Right-Wing Authoritarianism and Social Dominance Orientation. In contrast, neurotic narcissism was negatively associated with anti-immigrant attitudes, though this relationship was not consistently mediated by social worldviews or ideological attitudes. These findings suggest that individuals with high levels of extraverted and antagonistic narcissism may endorse a competitive worldview, which aligns with negative attitudes toward immigrants who may be perceived as threats to their social status. This underscores the role of narcissism, social worldviews, and ideological attitudes in potentially shaping anti-immigrant sentiment. Full article

The number of refugees across the world is increasing rapidly, as is the prevalence of Islamophobia. This flow of people and changing perceptions of them usually result in negative attitudes and hostility toward Muslims and refugees since they are perceived as the “outgroup”. This globally prevalent trend is usually attributable especially to refugees being perceived as a social, economic, or security threat. The goal of this paper is to understand Americans’ perception of outgroups and how they are related to anti-refugee and anti-Muslim sentiment by using a data-driven approach. We used latent class analysis (LCA) to determine whether there were any latent classes concerning outgroup attitudes in the US. Our results showed that people fall into four different categories regarding how they perceive Muslims, refugees, and minorities. At the same time, there were five different latent classes regarding how they perceive immigrants. This paper aims to explore this complex issue and help to reduce prejudice and intergroup conflict, ameliorate negative attitudes, and provide these groups with a stable social support system. Full article

Background: There is a lack of empirical data on the school-age population’s attitudes toward refugees. Despite this, the attention being paid to the integration of refugee students in schools worldwide is increasing. Objectives: First, the present study aims to explore the attitudes of eighth-grade students in Slovenia regarding refugees and to investigate whether there are differences in their attitudes based on the geographical areas from where refugees originate. Second, the study also explores the connections between attitudes and some characteristics of students. Methods: The present study is quantitative; sample: 3466 respondents (representative sample; year 2022). Descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression are used. Results: Most of the students would be willing to help refugees coming from any country. The students are least willing to help refugees from Syria and Afghanistan or Africa. A high proportion of students express fears about what refugees bring, though these fears are varied. Logistic regression shows that civic knowledge and positive attitudes towards immigrants are significantly and negatively related to students’ opinion that refugee children should study in separate schools, while student socio-economic status (SES) and own immigration status are not. Conclusions: The results call for different approaches to be maintained/introduced in schools for tolerance and reducing prejudices for (certain) groups of immigrants/refugees. Full article

The Nepalese in the United States of America (USA) are an emerging diasporic community. In spite of the phenomenal growth of the Nepalese diaspora in the USA in the last more than two decades, little is known about this new diasporic community, especially regarding how the Nepalese adapt to American life. This study documents the rapid growth in Nepalese immigration to the USA in the twenty-first century, based on data from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Using the data from an online survey, it analyzes the experiences of the Nepalese in cultural adaptation, structural adaptation, marital adaptation, identificational adaptation, and receptional adaptation. The results show that although the Nepalese have become partly assimilated to American culture, they still to a large extent retain their ethnic culture, ethnic association, ethnic identity, and ethnic marital partners, and they have had mixed experiences of prejudice and discrimination. The findings have significant scholarly and practical implications. Full article

Immigration processes and the possible marginalization of ethnic minorities in the receiving countries are essential issues in contemporary societies. Prejudice and discrimination can be critical obstacles to immigrants’ integration into the host country and can severely affect their well-being and mental health. This theoretical and conceptual overview aims to highlight the critical social–psychological processes underlying attitudes toward immigrants. First, it tackles the social psychological roots of social prejudice by focusing on the role of individual (ideological, motivational, and cultural) factors and categorization processes. Second, it examines how contextual factors such as intergroup perceptions and structural relations can lead to high levels of prejudice and discrimination towards immigrants. This review highlights how prejudice against immigrants can be driven by various factors at the individual and contextual level, suggesting that programs aimed at facilitating harmonious relations in contemporary multi-ethnic societies should consider such different determinants. Accordingly, the conclusion discusses possible interventions that can promote better relations between the majority and immigrant groups and counteract the negative impact of discrimination. Full article

As immigration is one of the dominant issues in contemporary public discourse, it is important to explain the mechanism of prejudice against immigrants from a cultural psychology perspective. Several studies in the literature have confirmed a significant relationship between perceptions of the estimated size of the immigrant population and negative attitudes towards them. This study aims to investigate whether this relationship is moderated by symbolic universes, i.e., affect-laden generalized worldviews. The study involves a representative sample of 3020 Italians who participated in a computer-assisted web survey and completed a questionnaire containing items measuring their estimates of the size of the migrant population in Italy, political orientation, cultural worldviews (symbolic universes), and the perceived threat posed by migrants. The results confirm that the relationship between the estimated size of the migrant population and the perceived threat is moderated by symbolic universes, being stronger for participants who hold both pessimistic and idealizing symbolic universes. The results are interpreted within the framework of semiotic cultural psychology theory. Full article

In Canada, the demands of female immigrant adolescents in terms of sexual health are largely unmet and have grown significantly in recent years. According to studies, racialized immigrant adolescents are less likely than non-immigrant adolescents to be knowledgeable about sexual and reproductive health and to use resources for sex education and related services. This difference seems to be related to socio-cultural and religious practices in Pakistani immigrant adolescents. This paper intends to explain the viewpoints of female adolescents of first- or second-generation Pakistani descent who reside in Canada with regard to their development of sexuality and psychological well-being. Moreover, this paper also describes how female adolescents perceive the necessity to support their sexuality as they go through the adolescent stage. Individual interviews and timelines were created using qualitative interpretative descriptive design. We included 21 female adolescents of first- or second-generation Pakistani ethnicity using a purposive sample. Data analysis was performed using a thematic analysis. The findings indicate that immigrant adolescent girls received conflicting messages about sexuality from their parents which impacted their psychological well-being. Additionally, survey participants noted that prejudice, exclusion from sex education classes, and a lack of sexual health information contributed to social isolation, health care avoidance, and poor mental health outcomes like melancholy and anxiety among adolescent girls. The absence of sexuality-related communication with parents and the scarcity of medical professionals who can relate to and address the needs and realities of immigrants may have an impact on the participants’ experiences. Female immigrant girls also spoke up on the need for open, honest, and stigma-free conversations as well as for the need to end the taboo around the subject of sexuality. This study used principles from both intersectionality and postmodern feminist theories to increase our understanding of the interplay between the experiences of developing sexuality and overall well-being in female immigrant adolescents of Pakistani descent. It is crucial to involve, listen to, and incorporate female adolescents’ voices when planning and implementing interventions to support healthy sexuality among immigrant adolescents. Full article

Background. The COVID Stress Scales (CSS) assess COVID-related stress experienced in the past week related to danger and contamination fears, socioeconomic consequences, xenophobia, compulsive checking, and reassurance seeking, and traumatic stress symptoms. Our objective was to provide a translation into Italian, replication, and psychometric validation of the CSS in the general population. Moreover, we aimed to test the convergent and discriminant validity of the Italian CSS (CSS-I) with respect to anxiety, stress, and depressive symptoms in the general Italian population. Method. Adult participants (n = 935) over the age of 18 years were recruited from the general population in Italy. Psychological status was assessed using multiple validated measures, including the CSS, Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scales-21 (DASS-21), and the Prejudice Against Immigrants Scale (PAIS). Results. Our confirmatory factor analysis supported a 6-factor model, including danger fears (DAN), socioeconomic consequences (SEC), xenophobia (XEN), compulsive checking and reassurance seeking (CHE), contamination fears (CON), and traumatic stress symptoms (TSS). Strong reliability of the CSS-I (Cronbach’s α = 0.863–0.936) and convergent validity with the DASS-21 and PAI were established with positive correlations between total and scale scores across measures. Conclusions. The CSS-I is a valid and reliable instrument to measure COVID-19-related distress in the Italian population. Full article

Prejudice against immigrants is a relevant research topic within social psychology. Researchers identified several individual variables affecting anti-immigrant prejudice, such as morality and personality. However, until now, prejudice has never been studied in relation to kindness, which might be a significant protective factor against prejudice. Based on Kohlberg’s theory of moral judgement, four stage dimensions of kindness were identified, from egocentric to authentic kindness (i.e., a means for social progress and improvement). This study aims to explore the relationship between the four kindness dimensions and blatant and subtle prejudice against immigrants in adolescence, by also considering the moderating role of adolescents’ sex. It involved 215 Italian participants (77% girls), who were asked to fill in a self-report questionnaire. Results showed that boys scored higher on egocentric kindness than girls, but no sex differences emerged for prejudice. Egocentric and extrinsically motivated kindness appeared to be risk factors for prejudice, whereas the most authentic form of kindness was a protective factor. In addition, adolescents’ sex moderated the relationship between egocentric kindness and blatant prejudice, whereby this association was stronger for boys. The implications of these findings, the study’s limitations, and suggestions for future research are discussed. Full article

Nurses have faced during the COVID-19 pandemic a tough professional situation in which they have had to work in a resource-limited context and with a high probability of COVID-19 transmission. In today’s multicultural societies, care for immigrant patients is also included. In our study, we have delved into the perception of hospital nurses towards migrant people in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. We used a qualitative methodology with a phenomenological approach. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 nurses. Seven categories emerged and were distributed in the three blocks of the interviews: (a) perception before the pandemic: prejudices make a mark and communication problems; (b) perception after the pandemic: prejudices weaken and communication worsens; and (c) how to improve care: improve communication, more nurses, and no need for training. The approach in the interpersonal relationship between nurses and patients during the pandemic has improved health care. Proposals arise to overcome the language barrier such as the incorporation of intercultural translators-mediators and professionals of foreign origin. There is a lack of awareness of the need for training in cultural competence on the part of the nurses in the study. Full article

Multicultural education plays a significant role in eliminating prejudices and developing concepts such as tolerance, understanding, respect for differences, and empathy. The northern part of Cyprus exhibits the characteristics of a society that has received increasing numbers of immigrants in recent years, and where the experiences of living together with individuals from different cultures begin to differ rapidly. As a result of increasing immigration to the northern part of Cyprus in recent years and the changing lives based on digitalization, students from different cultures have started to receive education in schools. The aim of this research is to evaluate the multicultural education policies to contribute to the creation and implementation of multicultural education policies according to the results of the evaluation of the role of digital educators in transforming cultures. In addition, the qualitative research model was adopted, and the Case Study pattern was used. The interview technique was used for data collection. The research universe consisted of 31 participants, including teacher training faculty members, administrators, and teachers working in public schools in the 2020–2021 academic year in the northern part of Cyprus. Educators participating in the research expressed more positive views on multiculturalism, multicultural education, and multicultural education. Full article

This study investigates and reflects upon the interpretations of (narco) folk saints on the Texas–Mexico border by analyzing their recent representations in local Texan and national U.S. print media. These articles portray the melding of religion and crime to promote anti-immigration ideas and politics in Texas. To understand the connection between culture and crime on the Texas–Mexico border, this essay first delves into each aspect individually, providing their origins and historical context. An analysis of U.S. and Mexican statistics illustrates that many of the societal issues spurring the creation and devotion of folk saints remain prevalent in borderland culture today, including governmental shortcomings, dissatisfaction with the Church, social conditions, and media prejudice. The ubiquity of these themes in borderland daily life continuously incites more (narco) folk saint devotees, and Texas print media further distort the relationship among religion, culture, and crime until they eventually become inseparably intertwined in popular public opinion. Full article

The past few years have witnessed the development of prejudiced attitudes in some places in Europe. Biases alike are often considered a consequence of increased migratory movements to the continent and have also been connected to a more general crisis of the European Union political project. However, societies have diversely responded to migration even in countries presenting similar economic performances and immigrant inflows. Akin different reactions have raised some important questions: is prejudice connected to a broader European crisis and what does the latter consist of? This article responds to these research questions through a multilevel analysis of 24 European countries, and shows that the percentages of migrant population alone are not associated to anti-migrant sentiments. Such a situation has instead been the case only in those countries that have concurrently experienced cuts to the two key public sectors of education and health care, which constituted the pillars of the European Welfare State and one of the cores of the European Union’s political project. Full article