Beyond the Integration Paradox: How Education Shapes Divergent Identity Responses to Discrimination Among Muslim Immigrants

How immigrants respond to discrimination is a well-studied topic in political psychology. However, less attention has been paid to whether the impact of discrimination on in-group identification varies within minority groups and why. In Western Europe, Muslims experience significant discrimination and hostility based on their religious identity despite increasing educational integration and upward social mobility. Building on social identity theory and measuring both the strength and relative importance of religious identity, this paper reexamines the discrimination-ingroup identification link and investigates heterogeneity based on educational level. Drawing on an original survey of 1456 Turkish immigrants in Germany and combining a survey experiment and an observational study, this paper finds substantive heterogeneity: Higher-educated immigrants strengthen their attachment to their religious group when they perceive discrimination, whereas lower-educated immigrants tend to distance themselves from their in-group. Additionally, while observational analyses support prior research showing that the average association between discrimination and in-group identification is positive, the priming experiment does not provide evidence for a positive average causal effect. This study makes important empirical and theoretical contributions to research on in-group religious identification and the integration paradox.移民如何应对歧视，是政治心理学领域中被充分研究的经典议题。然而，现有研究较少关注歧视对群体内认同（in-group identification）的影响在少数群体内部是否存在异质性，以及其背后的成因。在西欧地区，尽管穆斯林群体的教育融合程度与社会向上流动水平不断提升，但他们仍会因宗教身份遭受严重的歧视与敌意。本研究基于社会认同理论（Social Identity Theory），同时测度宗教身份的强度与相对重要性，重新审视歧视与群体内认同之间的关联，并基于教育水平探究该关联的异质性。本研究针对德国境内1456名土耳其移民开展原创性调查，并结合调查实验与观察性研究方法，发现了显著的异质性特征：当感知到歧视时，受教育程度较高的移民会强化自身对宗教群体的归属感，而低教育水平移民则倾向于疏远自身所属的内群体。此外，尽管观察性分析验证了此前研究的结论——歧视与群体内认同之间的平均关联为正向，但启动实验（priming experiment）并未发现显著的正向平均因果效应。本研究为群体内宗教认同相关研究以及融合悖论（integration paradox）领域的研究，提供了重要的经验与理论层面的贡献。