Exploring Intergroup Contact Among Syrians in Japan: A Third Place to Reconsider Pre-Existing Prejudices
Abstract
Intergroup contact theory posits that encountering people from different social groups reduces prejudices under certain conditions. Hundreds of studies investigate the contact effect in varying social contexts, leading to new directions in theory application. We advance this development by exploring how prejudice unfolds in a third place of optimal contact conditions. Applying the perspective of multiple group memberships, we depict Syrian migrants in Japan as multiple social groups and search for everyday experiences of contact among Syrian subgroups. Through a qualitative analysis of five semi-structured interviews, the present study reveals three types of prejudice and highlights different patterns of intergroup contact. We argue that the dimension of prejudice interplays with contact conditions. Japan’s social climate is effective in reducing mutable prejudices on the dimensions of politics and structural disparities. However, religious prejudice decreases only when contact does not clash with the interactants’ value system, and the reduction of internalised prejudice is primarily contingent upon intragroup cooperation.
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References
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