"Segmented assimilation theory extended: ‘Revivification’ of ethnic identity among second generation Moroccan and Turkish Dutch social climbers”

Political Sociology Seminar Series with Marieke Slootman (AISSR-Dynamics of Citizenship and Culture)

Lecture

In this paper Marieke Slootman identifies a trajectory of immigrant incorporation among ethnic minority social climbers that is characterized by a ‘revivification’ of ethnic identity in early adulthood.

In-depth interviews with university educated second generation Moroccan and Turkish Dutch show that ethnic identification is not a self-evident given that they have relied on in their process of upward mobility, as segmented assimilation contends. Nor does ethnic identification prove irrelevant for social climbers, as is the assumption of classical assimilation theories.
Rather, ethnic identity is something that social climbers reassert for various reasons, in reshaped forms fitting their middle-class status.

Published by  AISSR