Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development
Editor and Book Reviews Editor: John Edwards (St Francis Xavier University, Canada)
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Volume: 21 Number: 1 Page: 1–13
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Acculturation Attitudes of the Dutch and the Germans towards the European Union: The Importance of National and European Identification
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Arnd Florack and Ursula Piontkowski
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The relationship between social identifications and attitudes towards collective acculturation is studied within the context of the European Union. Berry’s (1980) acculturation model is linked to
the social identity theory and applied to the instance of European nations (here, the Netherlands and Germany) acculturating into the ‘superordinate-group’ Europe. Results show that the nation’s
participation in the European Union is supported to a higher degree by respondents with high than with low European identification. The maintenance of national culture is more strongly preferred by respondents
with high than with low national identification. A cross-national comparison indicates that this impact of social identification can be shown only for the Germans. This finding is discussed as resulting
from a different construction of national identity in Germany and the Netherlands.
© Multilingual Matters 2000
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