Majority expectations regarding immigrant acculturation in Belgium: A person-centered, domain-specific approach

The current research employed a person-centered and domain-specific approach to examine Belgian majority group members’ expectations regarding immigrant acculturation in private and public domains, utilizing a large-scale national probability sample. Applying latent profile analysis, we identified three expectation profiles: The largest profile consisted of people who made a clear distinction between the public and private domain, expecting assimilation to Belgian culture in public but favoring immigrants maintaining their heritage culture in private (public-private division profile, 58.7%). People in the remaining two profiles held similar expectations across domains, either expecting assimilation (‘assimilation’ profile, 13.2%) or favoring integration of Belgian culture and immigrant’s heritage culture (‘integration’ profile, 28.1%). Subsequent multinomial logistic regression revealed that the profiles differed in perceived symbolic threat, with those in the integration profile feeling the least, and those in the assimilation profile most threatened. Moreover, those in the integration profile were more likely to have intergroup friends than those in the assimilation profile, and they supported religious expression in public more. Our findings illustrate the value of employing a simultaneous person-centered and domain-specific approach. In the absence of our person-centered approach, we might have captured only an overall preference for adoption in public and maintenance in private, which proves to not hold true for all participants. Conversely, had we only examined the public domain, we might have concluded that over 70% strongly expect assimilation. Taken together, we thus encourage researchers to adopt both a person-centered and domain-specific approach when examining acculturation attitudes and expectations.