The effect of perceived overqualification on job satisfaction and career satisfaction among immigrants: Does host national identity matter?

Overqualification is a form of person-job misfit that is common among those who reside in a foreign country. It is associated with poor work-related well-being and can inhibit full adjustment to the host society. The goal of our study is to examine the impact of perceived overqualification on job satisfaction and career satisfaction among immigrants. Furthermore, we investigated immigrants’ host national identity as a moderator of the impact of perceived overqualification on job satisfaction and career satisfaction. We analysed longitudinal online survey data from 124 Italian and Spanish immigrants who migrated to Germany between 2000 and 2014. Regression analyses show that perceived overqualification is negatively associated with job satisfaction six months later. Furthermore, host national identity moderates the association between perceived overqualification and job satisfaction: low overqualification is beneficial for job satisfaction whereas high overqualification is a threat for job satisfaction, especially for immigrants who identify strongly with the host society. We do not find corresponding direct and moderating effects on career satisfaction. We conclude that indicators of acculturation, such as host national identity, are worth considering in order to understand the impact of person-job misfit on work-related well-being among immigrants.     

Why fund heritage? The role of research in the Heritage Lottery Fund

The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) distributes money from the National Lottery to heritage. Since 1995 the HLF has given some £3 billion to 15,000 projects. As a small organization with a relatively large remit, applied research has been critical to the work of the HLF, helping it set priorities, make decisions and evaluate its programmes. Key research issues include: defining the needs of the heritage, the best means of evaluating projects and programmes, and capturing the economic and social benefits of heritage. Young people can be a difficult audience for heritage funders to reach, and it is shown how evaluation informed a dedicated new programme. The example of its support of parks shows how a need identified through research became a priority for the HLF, and has since been taken up by government. Finally, the HLF has developed a distinctive approach based on a very open concept of what heritage is and means to people. Research into public attitudes to heritage has been central to this.

The Lottery will be reviewed in the lead up to the licence review in 2009 and inevitably questions will be asked about the future of funding. In another context, the Secretary of State has asked how it is possible to capture the value of culture. In common with organizations who deal with sports, art and culture, the HLF needs to capture the benefits of funding in a way that makes sense to both politicians and the public. Doing this depends upon robust research.     

The effects of positive affectivity on expatriate creativity and perceived performance: What is the role of perceived cultural novelty?

This study set out to investigate the effects of positive affectivity (PA) on expatriate creativity and perceived performance in the host country workplace. Most importantly, the study examined the moderating role of perceived cultural novelty in the relationship between PA and creativity and its consequences for the indirect association between PA and perceived performance as mediated via creativity. Data from 297 expatriates in Denmark were collected and hypotheses were tested using regression-based analyses. Consistent with predictions, findings showed a positive relationship between PA and creativity. In addition, PA was positively associated with perceived performance. Results of mediation analysis indicated that creativity mediated the effects of PA on perceived performance. While a moderating effect of perceived cultural novelty in the relation between PA and creativity was found, this moderation was in the opposite direction of the postulated hypothesis, i.e. the positive association between PA and creativity was strongly attenuated at high levels of perceived cultural novelty. Subsequent moderated mediation analysis showed that the identified mediation ceased to exist at high levels of perceived cultural novelty.     

Majority–minority acculturation preferences concordance as an antecedent of attitudes towards immigrants: The mediating role of perceived symbolic threat and metastereotypes

Through an experimental design, we investigated the effects of majority–minority acculturation preferences concordance and immigrants’ generational status on Italians’ attitudes towards Albanian immigrants. The role of perceived threat and metastereotypes in mediating this relationship was examined. Participants (N = 178) were categorized into different levels of culture maintenance and intercultural contact concordance. Findings showed that discrepancies in the contact dimension affected majority members’ attitudes towards immigrants. Both perceived threat and metastereotypes were found to mediate the relationship between contact discrepancies and attitudes towards immigrants. Culture maintenance concordance interacted with immigrants’ generational status in influencing majority members’ attitudes. This research confirmed the importance of taking into account the dynamic and reciprocal relationship between majority and immigrant acculturation preferences, confirming that the most positive attitudes were produced when immigrants were perceived to adopt the same strategy as the majority, especially with respect to intergroup contact.     

Is emigration worth the trouble? Satisfaction with life,group identifications,perceived discrimination,and socio-economic status of immigrants and stayers

In the present study, we examined satisfaction with life (SWL), group identifications, perceived discrimination, and socio-economic status among immigrants and stayers. The study had two main objectives: 1) to test the morbidity and salutary hypotheses of immigration by comparing the psycho-social characteristics of immigrants and stayers; 2) to test a resource model of well-being among immigrants and stayers by investigating the effect of different resources and stressors on SWL. The study was conducted using a random representative sample of first-generation immigrants from the Former Soviet Union to Israel (n = 400) and a not-random large and geographically dispersed sample of Jews staying in Russia (n = 935). The comparison of immigrants and stayers revealed that immigration is a mixed blessing, salutary in some aspects and onerous in others. In general, immigrants were more satisfied with their life than stayers. In addition, identification with the country of residence was stronger among immigrants than stayers. However, immigrants reported a higher level of perceived discrimination, and their socio-economic status was lower than that of stayers. Socio-economic status, identification with the country of residence, and perceived discrimination were directly connected to SWL among immigrants and stayers. In addition, among stayers, identification with the ethnic minority group was connected to SWL, while among immigrants, identification with the country of origin was not connected to SWL. Socio-economic status and perceived discrimination also affected SWL indirectly, through their connections to identification with the country of residence among immigrants and stayers and through their connection to ethnic identification among stayers.     

Who adopts the culture of ethnic minority groups? A personality perspective on majority-group members’ acculturation

Acculturation is commonly conceptualized as a two-way process in which all groups involved in intercultural contact change. Yet, very little is known about the acculturation orientations of majority-group members and the factors that differentiate those who adopt aspects of minority groups’ culture from those who reject them. In the present research, we for the first time aimed to answer this question from a personality perspective. A total of 301 White majority-group members living in the U.S. first completed a personality assessment and then indicated the extent to which they maintained their own culture and adopted the culture of ethnic minority groups. Our analytic approach combined top-down variable-centered and bottom-up person-centered analyses. In terms of variable-centered analyses, participants who adopted the culture of minority groups scored lower on conscientiousness and higher on openness. Moreover, adoption of minority-group cultures was positively associated with the personality facets sociability and inquisitiveness, and negatively with modesty and prudence. In terms of person-centered analyses, four acculturation clusters emerged, resembling strategies commonly observed among minority groups: marginalization, separation, integration and a diffuse strategy in which participants scored around the midpoint on own culture maintenance as well as minority culture adoption. Interestingly, especially this diffuse cluster differed from the other clusters on personality traits and facets, with participants tending to be more open than integrated and separated individuals, and less conscientious than separated individuals. The present report suggests that personality traits may help explain how majority-group members acculturate and highlights avenues for future research.     

Protective or harmful? Exploring the ambivalent role of social identification as a moderator of intergroup stress in sojourners

Living outside one’s home country may be stressful, and having strong social ties should help deal with this stress. However, social ties may be protective or harmful depending on whether the social group they evoke belongs to the host- or the home country context. The current study examines how social identification with different groups may either buffer or aggravate the negative effects of two stressors (perceived discrimination and symbolic threat) on sojourner adaptation. Two hundred and twenty international students sojourning in nine different countries responded to an online questionnaire. As expected, adaptation was negatively predicted by both stressors. Moreover, high identification with the group of international students attenuated the negative effects of perceived discrimination on psychological adaptation, while home country identification aggravated the negative effects of symbolic threat on sociocultural adaptation.     

Can interethnic contact between majority (Han) and minority (Uyghur) people in China influence sense of Chinese national Community? The role of positive and negative direct,extended and vicarious intergroup contact

ObjectivesIn multiethnic countries, enhancing the sense of community and preventing ethnic segregation represents a major challenge. In this study we aimed to test the effects of different forms of intergroup contact in fostering sense of community among majority and minority ethnic groups in China, by focusing on the sense of the community at the national level.MethodsParticipants were Han (N = 355, ethnic majority group) and Uyghur (N = 546, ethnic minority group) people at a multiethnic university in the Xinjiang province in China.ResultsResults from path analysis revealed that positive direct contact for the minority, and positive extended and vicarious contact for both majority and minority group were indirectly associated with higher sense of Chinese national community via greater focus on positive characteristics of the outgroup. In addition, negative contact (extended contact for the majority; direct contact for the minority) were indirectly associated with lower sense of Chinese national community via reduced focus on positive outgroup characteristics. No evidence was found for negative focus (focus on negative outgroup characteristics) and intergroup threat as mediators. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings for improving intergroup relations in multiethnic and conflictual settings by using multiple forms of intergroup contact are discussed.