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Living together in culturally plural societies poses numerous challenges for members of ethnocultural groups and for the larger society. An important goal of these societies is to achieve positive intercultural relations among all their peoples. Successful management of these relations depends on many factors including a research-based understanding of the historical, political, economic, religious and psychological features of the groups that are in contact. The core question is ‘how we shall we all live together?’ In the project reported in this paper (Mutual Intercultural Relations in Plural Societies; MIRIPS), we seek to provide such research by reviewing three core psychological hypotheses of intercultural relations (multiculturalism, contact and integration) in 21 culturally plural societies. The main goal of the project is to evaluate these hypotheses across societies within the MIRIPS project in order to identify if there are some basic psychological principles that underlie intercultural relations panculturally. If there are, the eventual goal is to employ the findings to propose some policies and programmes that may improve the quality of intercultural relationship globally. An internal meta-analysis using the MIRIPS project data showed that the empirical findings from these societies generally support the validity of the three hypotheses. Implications for the development of policies and programmes to enhance the quality of intercultural relations are discussed.

This is the second interim annual report from a four-year longitudinal study of the social impact resulting from the Ministry of Defence’s expenditure on cadets. The key themes covered by this report relate to Social Mobility and cadets’ attendance, behaviour, and attitude at school. The report includes the views of schools, Ofsted and Cadet Force Adult Volunteers (CFAVs) on the benefits of cadets. In addition, this report comments on findings on the value and contribution of adult volunteers, cadets’ health and wellbeing including special educational needs and disability, and the role which cadets can play in improving community cohesion. The report is based on data gathered from 202 in-depth interviews and 3,753 responses to questionnaires

The financial value of every aspect of social impact delivered by the four MOD-sponsored Cadet Forces is not possible to quantify exactly (future reports will improve the reporting of financial benefit). However, the evidence gathered for this interim report clearly demonstrates that the value of the social impact that Cadet Forces deliver is vastly greater than the annual cost of the Cadet Forces to the Defence budget. These benefits go across Government departments and are clearly relevant to Defence, Education, Social Services, HMRC and the Cabinet Office. Cadet Forces deliver impact that is directly relevant to the Prime Minister’s vision of a “shared society” and clearly contribute to increasing social mobility and decreasing social disadvantage. Specifically, the research to date has identified that: Cadet Forces are effective at supporting children that receive Free School Meals (FSM) to achieve their potential. The potential saving to the UK that the Cadet Forces make by supporting, encouraging and developing current cadets that are FSM children, is greater than twice the amount which MOD spends annually on cadets. A study carried out in Greater Manchester strongly indicates that children that have been excluded from school and who join cadets are statistically significantly more likely to have improved attendance and behaviour on their return to education. The savings to the education budget of these social impacts are potentially huge. The Cadet Forces have a significant impact on making communities more inclusive. It is clear that cadet detachments enable people to overcome disadvantages in a way that schools do not. For most people, Sea, Army and Air Cadets are the visible face of the Armed Forces in the Community. The activities that cadets and Cadet Force Adult Volunteers (CFAVs) carry out as they deliver military values, results in increased recognition and awareness of our Armed Forces and improved respect for veterans. The formal training provided by all Cadet Forces is highly regarded. There is a very strong belief that CVQO courses have great value for CFAVs. They are deemed particularly useful for those adult volunteers with few or no qualifications. The qualifications and awards that adult volunteers have gained are estimated as providing the current adult volunteers with potential lifetime earnings increase of £15.58 million. Many adult volunteers gain significant personal and social benefits from being involved with cadets. The Sea Cadet Corps, the Combined Cadet Force, the Army Cadet Force; and the Air Training Corps. This is based upon an analysis of 338 CFAVs who gained accredited qualifications of NVQ Level 2 or higher. This does not include the other 186,000 qualifications gained since 1965. See Section 4.4 in the Methodology Paper for more information. Serving soldiers that were cadets have: higher self-efficacy; are four times more likely to be a SNCO or officer than non-cadets; and serve at least six years longer on average than non- cadets. Furthermore, 94% of serving soldiers that were cadets said it had ‘positively’ helped their Army career, and 25% of them stated that being a cadet had been “very useful” to their career. Moreover, serving soldiers that were cadets reported that the main personality traits that had been developed by their experiences in the Army Cadet Force (ACF) or Combined Cadet Force (CCF) were leadership and self-discipline.The development of communication, confidence and leadership skills that all four Cadet Forces deliver, are valued by cadets, parents, educational organisations, and employers. This skills development underpins all of the social impact that the Cadet Forces deliver.

The present cross-sectional study investigates the reciprocity of ethnic relations in Finland and the role this reciprocity plays in the development of an inclusive integration context characterised by positive intergroup attitudes, and support for multiculturalism and for the minority groups collective action. The theoretical framework builds on the social identity theory, the theory of acculturation and contact hypothesis. Identity- and contact-related predictors of the inclusive integration context are examined among Finns and among Russian and Estonian immigrants. First, this study sheds more light on intergroup attitudes in the context of immigration. High national identification of Finns and Russian immigrants elicited stronger psychological ownership of Finland. However, while strong ownership made the attitudes of Finns towards Russian immigrants more negative, among the Russian immigrants ownership was linked to more positive attitudes towards Finns. Positive contact with Finns elicited more positive attitudes towards this group, which in turn were linked to more favourable mutual attitudes among Estonian and Russian immigrants. The same association, but with a negative valence, was true for negative contact. Moreover, positive contact with Finns was linked to higher, and negative contact to lower, public collective self-esteem among low-status Russian immigrants but not among high-status Estonian immigrants; higher and lower public collective self-esteem was, in turn, respectively linked to more positive and more negative attitudes towards Estonian immigrants. Second, ethnic identification of Russian immigrants fostered support for multiculturalism only when ethnic superiority of the ingroup was not perceived. Third, among Finns the perception of Russian immigrants preserving more of their culture than Finns would prefer, elicited stronger anxiety and lowered trust, these factors both in turn being related to lower support for collective action of Russian immigrants. When Russian immigrants perceived that they were not allowed by Finns to preserve as much of their culture as they wished, outgroup trust declined and strengthened support for the ingroup s collective action. This study shows that the inclusive integration context does not develop in a social vacuum and provides strong evidence on the importance of the reciprocity of multidimensional intergroup relations in diverse societies. Tämä poikkileikkaustutkimus tarkastelee etnisten ryhmäsuhteiden vastavuoroisuutta Suomessa sekä tämän vastavuoroisuuden roolia inklusiivisen integraatiokontekstin kehittymisessä. Tätä inklusiivista integraatiokontekstia määrittävät myönteiset ryhmienväliset asenteet, monikulttuurisuusideologian kannattaminen sekä vähemmistöryhmien kollektiiviselle toiminnalle annettu tuki. Inklusiivisen integraatiokontekstin identiteettiin ja kontaktiin liittyviä ennustajia tarkasteltiin suomalaisen enemmistöryhmän sekä venäläisten ja virolaisten maahanmuuttajien keskuudessa. Suomalaisten sekä Suomessa asuvien venäläisten voimakas kansallinen identifioituminen Suomeen sai aikaan kokemuksen psykologisesta omistajuudesta, mikä puolestaan ennusti ryhmien keskinäisiä asenteita. Myönteinen kontakti suomalaisten kanssa sai aikaan myönteisempiä asenteita suomalaisia kohtaan, mutta oli tämän lisäksi yhteydessä myös myönteisempiin keskinäisiin asenteisiin venäläisten ja virolaisten maahanmuuttajien välillä; kielteisen kontaktin vaikutus oli puolestaan päinvastainen. Heikossa sosiaalisessa asemassa olevilla venäläisillä maahanmuuttajilla kontaktin ja ulkoryhmäasenteiden välinen yhteys välittyi lisäksi sisäryhmän kollektiivisen itsetunnon kautta. Venäläisten maahanmuuttajien etninen identifikaatio edisti monikulttuurisuusideologian kannattamista ainoastaan silloin, kun oman etnisen ryhmän ei koettu olevan yhteiskunnassa muita ryhmiä ylempänä. Suomalaisilla sekä Suomessa asuvilla venäläisillä maahanmuuttajilla koettu kulttuurinen diskordanssi sekä siitä seuraavat ryhmienväliset ahdistuksen kokemukset ja luottamus olivat yhteydessä venäläisten maahanmuuttajien kollektiiviselle toiminnalle annettuun tukeen. Tämä tutkimus osoittaa, että inklusiivinen integraatiokonteksti ei kehity sosiaalisessa tyhjiössä, sekä tarjoaa vahvaa näyttöä moniulotteisten ryhmäsuhteiden vastavuoroisuuden tärkeydestä monimuotoisissa yhteiskunnissa.