What makes you feel this way? Predicting the sense of foreignness and rejection among Arab-speaking higher education students in Israel

The goal of this study was to understand which campus-related perceptions and experiences are associated with the sense of foreignness and rejection in students with an ethnic minority background. The social belongingness theory, the self-categorisation theory, and the contact theory comprised the study's theoretical framework. Data were collected from 596 Arab-speaking higher education students in Israel in the early 2024. The data were analysed using a logistic regression model. The results showed that perceived promotion of the equality value by an academic institution was negatively associated with the sense of foreignness and rejection. Experience of discrimination from the institution's administrative, but not academic, staff was associated with a greater sense of foreignness and rejection. Neither the frequency of assistance received from Jewish students nor lecture hall sitting preference was associated with the studied phenomenon. The findings provided support for the social belongingness theory and the self-categorisation theory. They imply that it is up to academic institutions to mitigate the sense of foreignness and rejection among their ethnic minority students. This can be pursued by means of greater promotion of the equality value and mitigation of the discriminative behaviours from the staff's side.