Research
My research examines how immigrants and minorities come to belong politically in democratic societies. I argue that political belonging is not a fixed status people possess or lack, but something continually negotiated through everyday interactions with others, the boundaries groups draw around themselves, and the political language that defines who counts as a legitimate member. Across Europe and other Western democracies, I investigate how these processes shape immigrants’ political integration and how democratic communities define membership within them.
Peer-Reviewed Articles
Engaged but Targeted? How Immigrants Vote Against Anti-Immigrant Agendas in Europe.
What Can Dual Citizens Teach Us about Political Engagement?
Divergent Paths of Integration in the Post-Multicultural Era: Interculturalism in Spain and Civic Integration in France.
Book Chapters
Linguistic Polarization in Minority Representation: Analyzing Parliamentary Speeches in Germany and the UK (1980-2021).
Working Papers
- Not All Contact Is Equal: Interaction with Natives and Immigrant Political Integration in Hostile Contexts
Abstract
Why do some immigrants politically integrate in host societies while others do not? Can positive interactions with natives promote the political integration of immigrants? This paper extends contact theory beyond its conventional focus on attitude change toward the outgroup by examining how interpersonal contact transforms immigrants' political integration through shifts in self-perception and identity. Using the German SOEP data (2021-2022) and focusing on first-generation non-EU immigrants in Germany (N = 5,240), I hypothesize that positive interpersonal contact in daily life, measured by feelings of appreciation and friends with natives, can serve as a counterforce to exclusionary societal contexts, fostering political integration, measured by a sense of belonging, political trust, and efficacy among immigrants. The results show that positive interpersonal contact can indeed promote political integration of immigrants, while negative interpersonal contact, measured by feelings of depreciation, does not necessarily reduce it. In addition, while hostile contexts reduce immigrants' sense of belonging and efficacy, they do not consistently moderate the effect of positive contact.
- Cross-Ethnic Engagement and Political Integration of First-Generation Immigrants in Quebec
Abstract
How do immigrants come to feel they belong in their new country? This paper examines how everyday social interactions, both with people from their own ethnic community and with people from different backgrounds, are associated with immigrant belonging. Using original survey data from 1,795 first-generation immigrants across 29 localities in Quebec, we show that the same kinds of interaction are associated with different forms of belonging depending on political context. We compare two contexts that the same immigrant population lives under: Canada’s multicultural framework, which treats keeping one’s ethnic identity as compatible with being Canadian, and Quebec’s interculturalist framework, which expects immigrants to converge around a shared French-language public culture. Under Canada’s framework, both kinds of interaction are associated with belonging in different ways: cross-ethnic friendship is associated with feeling accepted, and co-ethnic friendship is associated with feeling attached. Under Quebec’s framework, only cross-ethnic interaction is associated with belonging; co-ethnic interactions are politically invisible. We also find that the costs of discrimination are largest in Quebec, where the demand to integrate is highest. The political context in which cross-ethnic recognition appears most consequential is also where exclusion is most costly.
- Is Six Degrees of Separation Five Too Many? The Limits of Indirect Contact
Abstract
Intergroup interaction can reduce prejudice, but practical constraints limit direct contact, leading researchers to study indirect contact, such as knowing someone who knows an outgroup member. While social psychology meta-analyses suggest that indirect contact influences attitudes, political science research on military conscription questions its impact on political attitudes and behavior. This raises normative concerns about segregation and the need to understand why brief outgroup contact can be meaningful while long-term coexistence may have little effect.
- Inter-Minority Attitudes Among Refugees in Germany
Abstract
Research on attitudes toward immigrants and refugees has focused overwhelmingly on the perceptions of native majorities, leaving how minority groups evaluate one another comparatively underexplored. Using original survey data on young male Syrian and Afghan refugees in Germany (PARFORM), we examine feeling-thermometer ratings of six target groups: the German majority, the respondents’ own group in Germany and in their home country, the respective other refugee group, Turks, and Ukrainian refugees. We argue that structural differences in the two groups’ integration (faster asylum procedures, more secure protection status, and greater labor-market access among Syrians) can explain intergroup boundaries among refugees. Consistent with the reflective distinctiveness hypothesis, Syrians display stronger ingroup favoritism than Afghans and rate Afghans more negatively than vice versa, as Afghans pose a reputational threat to the more advantageously positioned group. This asymmetry does not appear for Ukrainians, who differ from both groups in religious and demographic profile. Notably, Syrians and Afghans also do not differ in their warmth toward the German majority: structural advantages are an important factor that can explain how refugees see themselves and each other, but not how they see the host society. These findings underscore that ethnic and migration hierarchies are constructed not only from above, but also from below.
Work in Progress
- Well-Integrated Immigrants Without a Sense of Belonging? Revisiting Integration Paradox and Successful Integration in Western Europe
Abstract
This study examines the relationship between immigrants' economic integration and their sense of belonging in European host societies. Using the 2018 European Social Survey, I employ a three-step analytical approach to demonstrate the absence of a significant effect of economic integration on immigrants' sense of belonging.
Not the Same Kind of Immigrant! Boundary-Making Among Co-National Immigrants
When Do Losers Defy Electoral Outcomes?
Who Counts as Patriotic?