Social Identity and Relationships Between Mediterranean People

The Mediterranean, all along an area full of conflicts and contradictions, but also a place for exchanges and fruitful “contamination”, after the 1995 Barcelona Conference was conceptualized as a possible "place" of union. The aim is to contribute in promoting a multicultural Mediterranean society, based on transnational values, useful to the Social Identity redefinition in terms of Dual Identity (Gaertner and Dovidio 2000). It means a new common identity that could coexist with the native identity. The present study was carried out to explore the representational framework expressed by a sample of North African immigrants living in the South-Eastern Sicily and by a sample of economic and institutional stakeholders of the same territory about relationships between people of the Mediterranean basin, their Self, the Ingroup and the Mediterranean Outgroup. Rating Scales and Semantic Differentials were used. Data showed a general trend to preserve own identity and cultural features, and the agreement about the need to establish positive relationships between people living along the Mediterranean coasts. Specifically, although with some differences (immigrants seem more open-minded than economic and institutional stakeholders), data support the hypothesis of a possible Mediterranean superordinate social context in terms of Dual Identity.