Revisiting the Immigrant Risk Hypothesis: Bullying Victimisation and Sense of School Belonging of Recent Immigrants Across European Contexts

Revisiting the Immigrant Risk Hypothesis: Bullying Victimisation and Sense of School Belonging of Recent Immigrants Across European Contexts | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Revisiting the Immigrant Risk Hypothesis: Bullying Victimisation and Sense of School Belonging of Recent Immigrants Across European Contexts Ioulia Televantou, Marios Vryonides, Demetris Avraam This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6411230/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract This study examines bullying victimisation and sense of belonging among immigrant students across European countries, using data from PISA 2022 and ESS 10. Applying a social-ecological multilevel framework, we account for student, school, and national factors. Findings indicate that recent immigrants experience higher levels of bullying and lower school belonging than native peers, even after controlling for socio-economic status and language spoken at home. Societal attitudes toward immigrants significantly predict these outcomes—more positive attitudes are associated with more favourable experiences. In contrast, educational migration integration policies do not explain additional variance. These results are concerning amid rising refugee populations in Europe, given the profound personal and societal consequences of bullying and low belonging, including increased rates of juvenile delinquency. victimisation cross-cultural comparisons at-risk populations immigrants Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Tables 1 to 3 are available in the Supplementary Files section. Supplementary Files Tables.docx Supplementary.docx Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6411230","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":443918315,"identity":"819709db-b487-497c-919c-b464c4a89885","order_by":0,"name":"Ioulia 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