Marginalized minorities such as ethnic minorities or low-income groups are still underrepresented in pro-environmental initiatives in the Global North. This underrepresentation is particularly concerning given that these groups are disproportionately affected by the consequences of climate change, globally, but also within the Global North. The present research examines psychological barriers that may discourage members of an ethnic minority – individuals with a Turkish migration background in Germany —from participating in mainstream
pro-environmental initiatives. We predicted that, compared to autochthonous individuals (i.e. those without a migration background), Turkish individuals perceive mainstream initiatives as less identity-safe, and view their ethnic ingroup as less concerned about the environment. Furthermore, we predicted that presenting an initiative as ethnically inclusive could mitigate these perceptions. In an experiment (N = 537), we manipulated the perceived inclusiveness of a fictitious pro-environmental initiative (low, high) and included participants’ ethnic backgrounds (autochthonous, Turkish) as a quasi-experimental factor. Results partially supported our predictions: Turkish participants indeed perceived their ethnic ingroup’s environmental concern as lower than autochthonous participants, but this perception was not affected by the inclusiveness manipulation. A potential explanation of this unexpected finding is that the inclusiveness manipulation addressed only the numeric representation of Turkish individuals in the initiative, but not how well the initiative meets the needs and interests of this target group. We discuss how our findings can inform inclusiveness strategies of pro-environmental initiatives.