Intergroup Contact between Germans and Turkish Immigrants Living in Germany

This book examines a series of tandem language classes which apply the principles of Intergroup Contact Theory (Allport, 1954; Pettigrew, 1998). Native Germans and Turkish immigrants taught each other their respective mother tongue. Statistical analyses reveal reduction of prejudice for course participants relative to a group of non-participants.

In Germany, the relationship between Turkish immigrants and Germans without migration background is often characterized by negative views. Intergroup Contact Theory describes how social contact can improve relations between groups in conflict. This book examines a series of five tandem language classes that have never before been studied in an intergroup contact context. Applying the theory's principles, native Germans and Turkish immigrants taught each other German and Turkish supervised by a bilingual language teacher. Statistical analyses reveal a prejudice-reducing effect for course participants relative to a non-participating control group. This and other findings promote tandem language classes as a means to improve relations between host population and immigrants from the start.

Autorentext

Anna Noack is a social psychologist with a PhD from the Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences. She developed and organized conflict-reducing and empathy-promoting encounters for youth from diverse cultural and ethnical backgrounds. Intergroup relations and methods of conflict resolution are her main areas of interest.

Inhalt

Efficacy of a German-Turkish tandem course in improving intergroup relations - Process of prejudice reduction in a tandem course setting - Minority-majority differences in outcomes of the intergroup contact process