(Sub)national and supranational identity among majority and minority youth in superdiverse urban schools

ABSTRACT

This article studies the extent to which ethnic minority and ethnic majority students in highly diverse urban schools identify with Flemish and European identity. In doing so this paper aims to discuss to what extent these sub-national and supranational identities can function as shared identities within the multiple identity belongings of teenagers and what the impact is of teacher support and perceived discrimination in schools on these phenomena. The analysis is based upon a survey among Belgian native and Moroccan origin students in the 5th and 6th year of secondary education in Antwerp, one of Europe’s most diverse cities. The results show that Moroccan students identify more strongly with a European identity than with a Flemish identity, while Flemish native students identify more strongly with Flemish than with European identity. This results in a large ‘identity gap’ with respect to Flemish identity but a much smaller gap with respect to European identity. In addition, our results show a positive effect of teacher support on Flemish and European identity for Belgian students, while it only has a positive effect on European identity for Moroccan students. The broader implications of the findings are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Collective identity
• education
• ethnic diversity
• students
• teachers

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 ASO, BSO and TSO.

2 We would like to know how you describe yourself. Do you feel Belgian, a citizen of Antwerp, Christian, Moroccan, etc.? Indicate, with a mark, how strong you identify with the following groups.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Universiteit Antwerpen [grant number DOCPRO 33174].