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Multiculturalism is on the retreat in many Western countries. As an ideology, it is criticized for failing to engender national belonging and social cohesion and thereby to encourage groups of citizens to have parallel lives. In this article, we present the case of Mauritius that is often viewed as a successful plural society. We discuss the conditions that are conducive to a working multiculturalism in Mauritius as well as the challenges. We use empirical findings from our relatively large-scale survey research among adolescents from the three main ethnic groups (i.e., Hindus, Creoles, Muslims). The metaphorical representation of the nation as a rainbow or fruit salad means that cultural diversity forms part of the national self-image, but within a secular state where individual rights prevail. Our findings show that all participants reported strong and compatible national, ethnic, and religious group identifications and that dual identity was the most chosen identity option. Furthermore, intergroup relations tended to be positive but there was a strong preference for ethnic endogamy. Additionally, there were social psychological processes that work against harmonious intergroup relations. The article concludes by discussing what can be learned from Mauritian style multiculturalism. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper focuses on the superordinate (national)-subgroup (ethnic) association in relation to group identifications, relative ingroup indispensability, relative ingroup prototypicality and their effects on outgroup and ingroup evaluations. Survey data were collected from a large sample of Mauritian adolescents (N = 1,784) from three ethnic groups (Hindus, Muslims, Creoles). National and dual identifiers were more positive towards the outgroups than ethnic identifiers. Furthermore, relative ingroup prototypicality and relative ingroup indispensability were empirically distinguishable constructs. The Creoles, who are of lower status, had higher scores on both these measures. Also it turned out that relative ingroup indispensability and relative ingroup prototypicality were independently associated to respectively more negative outgroup evaluation and more positive ingroup evaluation. The findings give a differentiated view of the idea that a complex representation of the superordinate category fosters outgroup acceptance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: We investigated adolescents' understandings of national group membership in multicultural Mauritius. We hypothesized that tolerance toward different cultures would be an important criterion for being Mauritian. In addition, national identity was expected to be defined in terms of "being," "feeling," and "doing." The type of definition, and whether stopping being Mauritian is perceived as possible, was expected to depend on age and national identification. Possible differences by cultural group membership were explored.Method: The sample consisted of 2,190 adolescents of predominantly the three main cultural groups in Mauritius (Hindus, Muslims, and Creoles; Mage = 14.8 years, SDage = 1.7; 53% girls, 47% boys). Multiple correspondence and regression analyses were used to test the hypotheses.Results: The most important criterion mentioned for being Mauritian was respecting cultural diversity. Further, the criteria for national belonging could be clustered into being, feeling, and doing Mauritian. Older adolescents and higher national identifiers defined national belonging more in terms of feeling and less in terms of being than younger adolescents and lower national identifiers. In addition, they considered national identity to be less changeable. There were no clear differences between the three cultural groups.Conclusions: This study reveals the central importance of mutual respect and tolerance as the defining criterion for being Mauritian. Moreover, the feeling, being, and doing clusters of criteria provide a theoretically interesting distinction for understanding national belonging. It is recommended to test their possible correlates further and to use adult samples as well. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]