Incorporating Racialization, Anti-Blackness, and Critical Whiteness Into European Psychology: Moving Beyond "Migrant" Integration

Abstract

Although psychological research in continental Europe increasingly focuses on diversity and migration, it rarely centers racism as a context for understanding lived experience.With racism and far-right politics on the rise, such work is imperative. In this conceptual paper, we advocate for greater research in three key areas tomoremeaningfully understand and resist systemic racism across the continent. First, we need more work centering racially minoritized individuals, exploring processes of identity formation in the context of racialized Othering. Second, we need greater research on anti-Blackness, whichmay function differently and have distinct consequences from xenophobia or other forms of discrimination. Third, a critical interrogation of whiteness is needed, examining how diverse individuals alternately reinforce or resist exclusionary norms across contexts. To guide authors interested in taking up such work, we offer reflections and recommendations on terminology, methodology, theory, and researcher reflexivity.