Across Western Europe, immigrant-origin minority youth often struggle to belong socially and to develop national self-identification. Yet, almost no research to-date has asked how these youth perceive the cultural contents of the national identity in their residence country—or rather, to what extent they perceive youth like them to (mis)fit the national identity. The present study addressed this research gap by centering schools as developmental contexts of evolving belonging and national self-identification and newly inquiring into minority youth’s perceptions of national (mis)fit as critical levers of their national identity development. Drawing on data from two annual waves of the Leuven-Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study (Leuven-CILS), a sample of 942 Moroccan- and Turkish-origin youth (M_age-T1 = 14.98, SD = 1.22; 52% female) in 62 Belgian schools was used. Cross-lagged analysis combined repeated measures of school belonging and national self-identification with vignette measures of the perceived national fit of (imagined) culturally different peers. While school belonging and national self-identification were unrelated over time, earlier perceived national fit uniquely enabled more national self-identification one year later, over and above evolving school belonging. These findings suggest that experiencing belonging in school does not suffice for minority youth to develop national self-identification. Schools may, however, promote national identity development through redefining national identities to include cultural diversity—thereby signaling to minority youth that they can fit the national identity.

在整个西欧，移民出身的少数族裔青年常常难以融入社会并发展民族自我认同。然而，迄今为止几乎没有研究询问这些年轻人如何看待其居住国的民族认同的文化内容，或者更确切地说，他们在多大程度上认为像他们这样的年轻人（不）适应民族认同。本研究通过将学校作为不断演变的归属感和民族自我认同的发展背景，并重新探究少数族裔青年对民族（不）适应的看法，作为其民族认同发展的关键杠杆，解决了这一研究空白。根据每年两次鲁汶-儿童移民纵向研究 (Leuven-CILS) 的数据，样本包括 942 名摩洛哥和土耳其裔青年（ M_年龄-T1 = 14.98，SD = 1.22；52% 女性）使用了 62 所比利时学校。交叉滞后分析将学校归属感和民族自我认同的重复测量与（想象的）文化不同同龄人的民族适应性的小插曲测量结合起来。虽然随着时间的推移，学校归属感和民族自我认同是无关的，但早期感知到的民族契合度在一年后独特地促成了更多的民族自我认同，超越了不断发展的学校归属感。这些发现表明，在学校体验归属感不足以让少数族裔青年发展民族自我认同。然而，学校可以通过重新定义民族认同以纳入文化多样性来促进民族认同的发展，从而向少数族裔青年表明他们可以适应民族认同。