Abstract

The object of this paper is focused on the ability of friendship relations between majority and minority adolescents to reduce stereotypical views towards the phenomenon of migration. Studying intergroup attitudes an adolescent population (N 1.198) inserted in two different contexts of immigration - Italy and France - put forward the hypothesis that the ability of friendship relations between majority and minority young people to reduce prejudice against the immigrant population emerges regardless of the questions and debates that immigration raises at the public level. The results obtained through multivariate analysis are in line with expectations: adolescents integrated in an ethnically heterogeneous friendship network show a less stereotypical vision of immigration. Moreover, the fact that the birth of most of these friendships is prior to current age suggests a reflection on the mechanisms of formation of prejudices against ethnic diversity.