ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the question by discussing some of our research on national identification among first and second generation immigrants in the Netherlands and Germany. It considers the mediating role of ethnic and religious group identification in the relation between perceived acceptance and host national identification. According to social identity theory and the related rejection-identification model, discrimination is a negative experience that strengthens ethnic identification of minorities. The chapter examines the importance of perceived minority acceptance for immigrants' national identification and reviews the research on the 'integration paradox' which shows that higher rather than lower educated immigrants can have a less positive orientation towards the host society. The chapter investigates perceived value incompatibility and in-group norms as two factors that can make minority group identification and national identification more contradictory. It analyzes the research on the intersection between ethnic and religious identity among Muslim immigrants and the ways in which this can hamper a sense of host national belonging.
