From discrimination to dominance? How status threat is linked to male refugees’ gender beliefs

The inflow of young male refugees into Germany in 2015 prompted increased public support for far-right groups portraying them as threatening. Applying Social Identity Theory, we argue that discrimination threatens refugees’ self-esteem by signalling their low status. To address this, male refugees recategorize their ingroup into a smaller subgroup (e.g., from refugees to male refugees) to differentiate themselves from lower-status others (e.g., female refugees), bolstering their self-esteem. We hypothesize that the more discrimination that male refugees experience, the more they will support traditional gender norms. Support for our theory comes from a sample of 1,112 youth refugees living in Germany.