Mitchell Centre Seminar Series - Tobias Stark (Utrecht University) - Effects of Identity Signals on the Perception of 2nd Generation Immigrants’ Integration in Social Networks
| Dates: | 26 November 2025 |
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| Times: | 16:00 - 17:30 |
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| What is it: | Seminar |
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| Organiser: | School of Social Sciences |
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| Speaker: | Tobias Stark |
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The majority of 2nd generation immigrants in Western Europe identify both with the ethnic group of their parents and with the national majority group. Yet their belonging to the national group is often not recognized. Descendants of immigrants are, for instance, labeled “Turks” or “Moroccans” instead of (also) “Dutch” or “German”. This lack of recognition hampers their potential to improve intergroup relations and negatively affects their mental health. In this talk, I present a series of experimental studies examining how and when ethnic majority members use identity signals to (not) ascribe co-national belonging to descendants of immigrants. These signals include visual cues such as religious or national symbols, as well as social cues that indicate the structural embedding of 2nd generation immigrants in their local networks. I then show that these identity signals also shape perceptions of how well 2nd generation immigrants are integrated into school-class social networks. To study this, I introduce new open-source software for collecting perceptions of social networks (cognitive social structures). I further present a first application of novel multilayer exponential random graph models to analyze how ethnic belonging and identity signals influence students’ perceptions of the social structure in their classroom—conceptualized as networks of networks.
Speaker
Tobias Stark
Role: Associate Professor
Organisation: Utrecht University
Travel and Contact Information
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2.016
Arthur Lewis Building
Manchester
