Download full text
(external source)
Citation Suggestion
Please use the following Persistent Identifier (PID) to cite this document:
https://doi.org/10.17645/si.v7i4.2312
Exports for your reference manager
Political Interest among European Youth with and without an Immigrant Background
[journal article]
Abstract Our article investigates political engagement among youth with and without an immigration background. Tapping to current debates on intergenerational assimilation processes in Europe, we look at differences in levels of political interest between immigrants, children of immigrants and natives. In pa... view more
Our article investigates political engagement among youth with and without an immigration background. Tapping to current debates on intergenerational assimilation processes in Europe, we look at differences in levels of political interest between immigrants, children of immigrants and natives. In particular, we argue that such differences are a function of respondents’ identification with the receiving society. We predict that among respondents with an immigrant background higher levels of national identification will be positively correlated with political interest. Among natives, political interest will not depend on levels of national identification. These expectations reflect the ideas of the social identity perspective according to which group identification increases adherence to group norms and adherence to norms is stronger among individuals who suffer from identity uncertainty. We test our model in four European countries: England, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden, using data from the CILS4EU project. Our findings indicate that interest in the politics of the survey country differs between respondents with and without an immigrant background. Respondents with an immigrant background who also have a strong national identification are more likely to report a political interest than natives. Respondents with an immigrant background who have a low national identification, are less likely to report a political interest than natives. The findings also reveal that political discussions at home and associationism positively predict political interest whereas girls show significantly lower odds to be politically interested.... view less
Keywords
EU; youth; political interest; political participation; political activity; identification; identity; migration background; assimilation; collective identity; Great Britain; Federal Republic of Germany; Netherlands; Sweden
Classification
Political Process, Elections, Political Sociology, Political Culture
Migration, Sociology of Migration
Free Keywords
CILS4EU project; national identification
Document language
English
Publication Year
2019
Page/Pages
p. 257-278
Journal
Social Inclusion, 7 (2019) 4
Issue topic
Immigration from the Migrants' Perspective
ISSN
2183-2803
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed