Family life and ethnic attitudes : the role of the family for attitudes towards intermarriage and acculturation among minority and majority groups

Abstract

Over the last decades, the population of most Western European societies, including the Netherlands, has become culturally much more diverse. This resulted in strong cultural and social boundaries between ethnic groups. It is of societal importance to enhance our understanding of the factors which influence these boundaries. The research presented in this book therefore examines the boundaries between ethnic Dutch and the four largest ethnic minority groups in the Netherlands: Turkish-Dutch, Moroccan-Dutch, Surinamese-Dutch and Antillean-Dutch. The focus is on the opposition towards interethnic marriage of ethnic Dutch and ethnic minority groups, and on the acculturation attitudes of the latter. The aim of the present research is to increase our understanding of the ways in which the family context relates to these ethnic attitudes. This dissertation consists of five empirical chapters focusing on the role of different aspects of the family for ethnic attitudes. Analyses are based on data from the Netherlands Kinship Panel Study (NKPS). The results show that family life in adulthood is a neglected but relevant factor in understanding and explaining ethnic attitudes. This is found for ethnic minority and majority groups, through different pathways of influence, with respect to different ethnic attitudes, towards different ethnic out-groups, and for relationships with the nuclear family and with the family of origin. In addition, this dissertation demonstrates the important role of the family of origin for ethnic attitudes of adults, through the transmission of attitudes between family members, and, indirectly, via the transmission of social and cultural positions. Finally, the results show that family relationships in adolescence and adult life matter for immigrants’ attitudes towards socio-cultural maintenance and the attitude towards socio-cultural adaptation, though more strongly for the former.