Beyond Contact: How Intergroup Relations with Natives Shape Immigrant Political Integration

Project Overview

This dissertation examines why some immigrants become politically integrated into host societies while others do not. Moving beyond approaches that focus primarily on immigrants’ individual characteristics, the project develops a relational perspective that centers immigrants’ everyday interactions with native-born populations.

The core argument is that political integration is not simply a function of contact with natives, but depends on how immigrants experience and interpret those interactions within broader societal contexts. I theorize that appreciation-based interpersonal contact, meaning interactions in which immigrants feel recognized, respected, and valued, can foster political belonging, trust, and efficacy by reshaping how immigrants see themselves in relation to the host society. These effects operate through mechanisms of decategorization and recategorization, which transform social boundaries and enable immigrants to identify with a shared civic community. At the same time, the dissertation argues that these processes are conditional on context. In settings characterized by anti-immigrant sentiment, exclusionary discourse, or perceived hostility, even frequent contact may fail to translate into political integration. By distinguishing between interpersonal interaction and contextual hostility, the project shows how micro-level experiences and macro-level environments jointly shape immigrants’ political incorporation.

Bringing together comparative political behavior and political psychology, the dissertation offers a minority-centered extension of contact theory that explains when and how intergroup relations promote political integration. The dissertation employs a mixed-methods design, combining survey data, qualitative interviews, and an original experiment.

Research Questions

How do intergroup relations with native-born populations shape immigrants’ political integration in host societies?

To answer this question, the dissertation examines:

• When does contact with natives foster immigrants’ political integration?
• How does the quality of interpersonal interaction shape immigrants’ sense of belonging, trust, and political efficacy?
• Under what conditions does contact fail to translate into political integration?
• How do hostile or exclusionary contexts condition the political consequences of intergroup contact?

When Contact Matters

This chapter studies how the quality of interpersonal interaction influences immigrant political integration. Rather than focusing only on the presence of contact, it considers whether positive, meaningful, and trust-building interactions shape belonging and political incorporation differently.

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Qualitative Fieldwork in Belgium and Germany

The qualitative component of the dissertation explores how first-generation immigrants describe their social relationships, political experiences, and sense of place in the host society. These interviews provide context for the survey and experimental findings and help identify the mechanisms through which intergroup relations matter.

Included but Not Integrated?

This dissertation paper examines whether contact with natives contributes to immigrants’ political integration. It asks whether immigrants can be socially included in everyday life while still remaining politically distant from the host society.

Recent Presentations

• Political Identities in Europe, University of Amsterdam 2025
• American Political Science Association (APSA) 2025
• APSA Dissertation Workshop (European Politics, Citizenship & Migration) 2025
• MZES Mittelbau Kollquium 2025
• Midwest Political Science Association (MPSA) 2025
• McGill Political Behavior Workshop 2024
• Initiative de Recherche sur l’Immigration (IRI) Seminar 2024

Fellowship Support for Research and Fieldwork

• Marion Morse Wood Fellowship ($12,000)
• Ferber & Sudman Dissertation Awards for Survey Research ($2,500)
• Immigration Research Initiative Visiting Fellowship (CAD 8,000)
• Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES) Visiting Fellowship (€4,000)
• Graduate College Dissertation Travel Grant ($5,000)