“It's on Time That They Assimilate” – Differential acculturation expectations towards first and second generation immigrants

Research has shown that societal majority members have specific conceptions (i.e., acculturation
expectations) about how immigrants should acculturate. These expectations are
often less welcoming towards devalued than valued immigrant groups. In a 2 × 2 experiment
with a sample of 187 German majority members we show that acculturation
expectations also differ in terms of which generation members of the targeted immigrant
groups belong to. Our results revealed lower endorsement of integrationism towards the
second generation of both valued and devalued immigrants. However, the results indicated
that acculturation expectations were particularly unwelcoming towards the second generation
of devalued immigrant groups. For valued immigrants, segregationism was lower
towards the second generation than towards the first generation. For devalued immigrants
in contrast, assimilationismwas higher towards the second generation compared to thefirst
generation. Majority members’ tendency to be less willing to endorse cultural maintenance
for second generations stands in stark contrast to immigrants’ preference of cultural maintenance
and may therefore lead to particularly conflictual societal outcomes. Implications
of the findings for future studies are discussed.