Negative Sentiment Toward Recent Migrants in a Post-Colonial City: A Case Study in Hong Kong

By examining negative sentiment toward recent migrants among local residents in Hong Kong, this study fills a research gap in understanding group relations between migrants and local residents in post-colonial societies. We suggest that negative sentiments toward recent migrants among local residents in Hong Kong are the result of the society's post-colonial development, which has fostered a local identity and defined a group boundary between residents born in Hong Kong and migrants from the mainland. Linking post-colonial literature with literature on group boundaries, group threats, and scapegoating, we developed four hypotheses to explain the negative sentiments of local residents toward Chinese migrants. Using findings from data collected in 2014, we show that having close friends from mainland China, having higher income, and level of job satisfaction are all related to the level of negative sentiment toward mainland migrants in Hong Kong. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Racial and Ethnic Diversity in Education and Individual Student Development: Understanding the Full Picture in the Era of School Choice

A primary through-line of the research literature on the correlates of structural diversity in education has focused on intergroup outcomes, including prejudice reduction and improving attitudes toward racial and ethnic out-groups. Over the past two decades, advances in theory have illustrated how individuals may cognitively adapt to ongoing interactions with diverse others, informing new investigations into the potentially beneficial effects of educational diversity for individual development outside the intergroup context and beyond the impacts of more equitable resource distribution. The current article summarizes the state of research on links between children and youth’s experiences in racially and ethnically diverse schools and classrooms and their individual development in academic, social-emotional, and executive function domains. Overall, the emerging research on these individual effects is promising. Implications within the context of increasing support for school choice are discussed.

Toward whom does intergroup contact reduce prejudice? Exploring national majorities' prejudice toward ethnic and migrant minorities

Although the effectiveness of intergroup contact as a mechanism for reducing prejudice is well-established, limited research has simultaneously examined this effect among groups that are in different contact relationships. Using data based on a between-group cross-sectional design from 335 Turkish undergraduate students, this study compared the direct and the indirect association of intergroup contact with prejudice toward Kurds and Syrians in Turkey through intergroup threat. The results showed that intergroup contact predicted less prejudice toward Kurds but not toward Syrians, and intergroup threat mediated the role of intergroup contact in prejudice toward Kurds but not toward Syrians. The findings were discussed based on theories of intergroup contact and intergroup threat, with a reflection on the limitations, extensions, and implications of the study.

A Network Analysis of the Association Between Intergroup Contact and Intergroup Relations

PURPOSE

Intergroup contact is an effective strategy to improve intergroup relationships. Although intergroup relationships have been studied extensively, the individual roles of quantity and quality of contact in relationships with cognition, emotion, and intention of behavior toward other ethnic minority groups are not fully understood. This study explores the situation via network analysis among Zhuang and Yao ethnic minorities in Southwest China.

METHODS

We investigated the quantity and quality of intergroup contact and cognition, emotion, and intention of behavior among a sample of 543 Zhuang and 490 Yao ethnic group members. Data were analyzed using the R-package. Network structures were analyzed via the Qgraph package, and the accuracy and stability of the network were measured via the Bootnet package; communities were detected via the Igraph package; bridge analyses were conducted via the Networktools package; and the network difference was compared via the Network Comparison Test package.

RESULTS

The results indicated perceived intimacy is the central node. Quantity of contact constructed a community with "perceived connection," "sense of community," "knowledge about out-group," and "perceived similarity." Meanwhile, quality of contact constructed a community with "intergroup attitude" and a "feeling thermometer." The remainder of the nodes constructed two additional communities. The network global connectivity and structure between the two ethnic groups were highly similar.

CONCLUSION

The study examined the quantity and quality of intergroup contact via network analysis for two ethnic minority groups. It was shown that the two groups' global network structures of intergroup contact and their effects are highly similar. Specifically, quantity and quality of contact produce different effects on intergroup relations. Quantity of contact has proximal effects, including instant cognitive and emotional response without depth cognition, while quality of contact has proximal effects that may change deep-seated cognition and subsequently improve intergroup relations.