discrimination
Definition
Discrimination refers to the differential and adverse treatment of individuals on the basis of racial, ethnic, or immigrant minority group membership, operating as a contextual condition that shapes psychological and social outcomes. In acculturation research, perceived discrimination functions as a moderating force. Among immigrant minority youth in Belgian secondary schools, it transformed the otherwise adaptive process of emotional acculturation into a liability, producing declines in school motivation, behavioral engagement, and norm-compliant behavior over time. A parallel mechanism appears at the structural level, where immigrants who are well-educated and socially integrated may still experience psychological disengagement when discrimination produces perceived relative deprivation. At the political level, discrimination operates as a shared social position that can activate cross-racial solidarity. Survey experiments with Black, Latino, and Asian American adults showed that making shared discrimination salient increased solidarity across groups, which in turn indirectly increased voting intentions for a candidate perceived to represent people of color interests.
Sources: Jasini et al. (2025), Sam & Kunst (2026), Rogbeer & Pérez (2026)
Related Terms
- emotional acculturation (1 shared article)
- immigrant minority (1 shared article)
- adjustment (1 shared article)
- school (1 shared article)
- inter-minority coalition (1 shared article)
- racial solidarity (1 shared article)
- intended behavior (1 shared article)
- voting (1 shared article)
- acculturation (1 shared article)
- integration (1 shared article)
- Indigenous (1 shared article)
- developmental (1 shared article)
Applications
Discrimination and Solidarity
Shared discrimination, when made salient, heightens perceived similarity among racially minoritized groups and promotes cross-racial solidarity as a superordinate identity. In three parallel survey experiments with nationally representative samples of Black, Latino, and Asian American adults, shared discrimination appeals significantly increased solidarity across all three groups, though the effect on voting intentions operated indirectly through solidarity rather than through any direct pathway.
Sources: Rogbeer & Pérez (2026)
Discrimination and School Adjustment
Perceived discrimination at school moderates the relationship between emotional acculturation and sociocultural adjustment among immigrant minority youth. In a two-year longitudinal study with 1588 minority students in Belgium, high perceived discrimination amplified the negative effects of emotional fit on school motivation and behavioral engagement, while students reporting low discrimination showed no such declines.
Sources: Jasini et al. (2025)
Discrimination and Acculturation
Discrimination functions as a contextual condition that can reverse the expected benefits of acculturation, producing context-dependent liabilities. Emotionally acculturated students who perceive discrimination may compare themselves more readily to majority peers, making experiences of differential treatment particularly damaging and leading to psychological disengagement from school. At a broader level, structurally integrated immigrants remain vulnerable to psychological disengagement when discrimination generates perceived relative deprivation, challenging models that treat cultural orientation alone as the driver of adaptation outcomes.
Sources: Jasini et al. (2025), Sam & Kunst (2026)
