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Ethnic-racial identity (ERI) is an important aspect of youth development and has been well-studied for the last several decades. One issue less discussed is how the construct of ERI translates across different countries and cultures. The purpose of our paper is to describe the sociohistorical context of Germany and implications for the study of ethnic-racial identity in Europe. We discuss the German adaption of the Identity Project, an 8-week school-based ethnic-racial identity exploration intervention developed in the United States. We use this as a concrete example of how we thought through the focal construct of ERI to figure out how and whether it is a salient social identity category for youth in Germany where, in response to the history of racially motivated genocide, discussions of "race" are taboo. Digging into the ways ERI may not be directly transferable to different contexts can help us understand its nature as a socially constructed identity with real-life implications. Our hope with this paper is to further discussion, question our conceptualizations, and acknowledge how a detailed understanding of sociohistorical contexts is needed for the study of ERI.
Being perceived as a foreigner regardless of one's generational status, citizenship, or self-identification is called foreigner objectification. This is a form of identity denial and is linked to psychological distress. To test how foreigner objectification could be measured in Europe, we assessed whether the Foreigner Objectification Scale demonstrated reliability and validity with German adolescents. The sample included 806 9th graders from 17 high schools. The results showed that the scale demonstrates good reliability, scalar measurement invariance across gender and citizenship status, and partial scalar measurement invariance across family heritage, generational status, and cultural self-identification. Adolescents who scored higher on the scale also reported greater school behavioral disengagement, lower life satisfaction, and stronger ethnic identity. Our findings suggest that the scale is psychometrically sound and is linked in theoretically consistent ways to adjustment and ethnic identity. We conclude that this scale offers another way to capture subtle discrimination experiences that add to a more comprehensive understanding of discrimination and the related implications in Europe.