Cross-border mobility and European identity: The effectiveness of intergroup contact during the ERASMUS year abroad
Author:
- 4 June 2010
- journal article
- other
- Published by SAGE Publications in European Union Politics
- Vol. 11 (2) , 241-265
Abstract
Cross-border people mobility has long been seen as a promising method to promote European integration. In this article, I test the premise that the ERASMUS student experience abroad and direct interpersonal contact promote a European identity. The results draw from a two-wave longitudinal survey on two samples of ERASMUS students who studied in continental Europe and England, respectively. Although studying abroad led to increased socializing with other Europeans, contact with host country students remained limited. The paired sample t-tests reveal that ERASMUS does not strengthen students’ European identity; on the contrary, it can have an adverse effect on it. Nevertheless, the regression analyses show that increased socializing with Europeans has a positive, though modest, impact on European identity.Keywords
This publication has 32 references indexed in Scilit:
- A Union of Diversity2008
- Ingroup Affiliations and Prejudice2005
- On the Nature of Prejudice2005
- Come together: longitudinal comparisons of Pettigrew's reformulated intergroup contact model and the common ingroup identity model in Anglo‐French and Mexican‐American contextsEuropean Journal of Social Psychology, 2004
- International student migration and the European ‘Year Abroad’: effects on European identity and subsequent migration behaviourInternational Journal of Population Geography, 2003
- European Nationalism and European Union2002
- Influence of student exchange on national stereotypes, attitudes and perceived group variabilityEuropean Journal of Social Psychology, 1996
- Nations and Nationalism since 17801992
- Familiarity May Breed Contempt: The Impact of Student Exchange on National Stereotypes and Attitudes1988
- The social psychology of cross-cultural relations1982