ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with the ‘identity’ aspect of ethnic identity. Chapter 3 will focus on ‘ethnicity’. The following, still relevant quotation from Gleason (1983, p. 910) expresses the reasons for this chapter very well:
Today we could hardly do without the word identity in talking about immigration and ethnicity. Those who write on these matters use it casually; they assume the reader will know what they mean. And readers seem to feel that they do-at least there has been no clamor for clarification of the term. But if pinned down, most of us would find it difficult to explain just what we do mean by identity. Its very obviousness seems to defy elucidation: identity is what a thing is! How is one supposed to go beyond that in explaining it? But adding a modifier complicates matters, for how are we to understand identity in such expressions as ‘ethnic identity’, ‘Jewish identity’ or ‘American identity’? This is a question to which the existing writings on ethnicity do not provide a satisfactory answer. (original italics)
In this chapter, I will discuss the concept of social identity and present my approach, which is based on the work of Wentholt (1991).1 I will do so by, first, discussing the conceptual confusion and the necessity to clarify the concept. Then I will present three components of ‘social identity’ that can be used to situate different lines of social psychological research. Subsequently, I will discuss the importance of context, social processes of identity formation, the difference between social identity and sense of identity, and the distinction between identity and identification.
