Being considered a co-national: Social categorization and perceived acculturation of immigrant peers

With increasing immigration, it is increasingly important to under-stand whether and when children consider immigrant peers as co -nationals. Using an experimental design, we examined among native-born preadolescents (8-13 years of age) in the Netherlands whether and when they perceive immigrant peers as co-nationals. First, and in agreement with the social categorization account, we expected that the use of dual identity (vs single ethnic identity) labels for immigrant peers leads to stronger co-nationality percep-tions and a related stronger desire for close social contact. Second, and in line with the acculturation account, we expected that an early age of arrival in the country (vs a later age of arrival) leads to stronger perceived co-nationality and related contact desire. The findings support the acculturation account, especially among native-born children with higher national identification. There was no evidence for the social categorization account.CO 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/).