Preadolescents' understanding and reasoning about asylum seeker peers and friendships

The present study examined ethnically Dutch preadolescents' understanding and reasoning about asylum seeker peers and friendships. The description of an asylum seeker was compared with that of a Moroccan and a Dutch peer. The findings suggest that asylum seekers were described more negatively than peers from the other two groups. Additionally, we examined the willingness and reasons for wanting or not wanting to be friends with an asylum seeker and a Moroccan peer. It was found that asylum seekers were more often rejected than Moroccans. The negative description and rejection of asylum seekers were strongest among participants living close to a center for asylum seekers. The reasoning about friendship acceptance or rejection was examined in terms of individual reasons as well as peer group interactions. It is shown that fact construction or empirical 'grounding' plays an important role in early adolescents' reasoning about friendship exclusion.