Cross-and same-race friendships of Vietnamese immigrant adolescents: A focus on acculturation and school diversity

The purpose of this study was to examine friendship developments of 153 Vietnamese immigrant adolescents who resided in an East Coast metropolitan area of the United States. We examined the influences of school diversity and acculturation on the quantity and quality of cross-and same-race friendships. Surprisingly, students who came from schools that are more diverse reported fewer cross-race friendships and lower levels of social support from their cross-race friends. American acculturation predicted greater levels of social support from cross-race friends. For same-race friendships, students who went to schools with higher percentage of Asian students reported more same-race friendships; however, percentage of Asian students was not a significant predictor of social support from same-race friends. Students who reported greater levels of Vietnamese acculturation reported greater levels of social support from their same-race friends. This study has implications for understanding the impact of school diversity and acculturation on friendship development of Vietnamese immigrants. Also, suggestions on how to better conceptualize and measure diversity are discussed.     

Modes of victim blaming in a case of stabbing: Victim and offender ethnicity and observer ethnicity and religious affiliation

This study examined the effects of ethnicity on victim-blaming in a case of stabbing by addressing victim and offender ethnicity as well as observer ethnicity and religion. Jewish (n = 285), Muslim Arab (n = 249), and Christian Arab (n = 51) students from Israeli universities and colleges read a single stabbing scenario, in which we manipulated victim (Arab/Jewish) and offender ethnicity (African/Arab/Jewish). The results showed that participants blamed a Jewish victim more than an Arab victim. Also, our findings indicated that Christian Arabs expressed significantly higher victim-blaming than Jews. However, victim-blaming among Christian Arabs did not significantly differ from victim-blaming among Muslim Arabs, and victim-blaming among Muslim Arabs did not significantly differ from victim-blaming among Jews. Furthermore, the interactions between observer and victim ethnicity and between observer and offender ethnicity were significant. The discussion addresses the findings in the context of prejudice against members of African and Arab communities, the black sheep effect, and defensive attribution. In addition, the discussion suggests that observer ethnic and religious background may be related to blame-attribution mode: fixed (not affected by victim and offender ethnicity) or modular (affected by victim and offender ethnicity). From the practical standpoint, our findings suggest a need for further education on prejudice against minorities and promoting ethnic diversity among practitioners assisting and treating victims.     

Moralization of Japanese cultural norms among student sojourners in Japan

This study investigated the relationship between different domains of cultural adaptation among international students in Japan and the moralization of culture-specific norms. Newcomers may adapt certain norms of the host culture and ascribe moral meanings to initially nonmoral activities or objects. Building on the existing model of sociocultural adaptation, we investigated how different types of sociocultural adaptation are associated with the moralization of Japanese cultural norms. For international students in Japan, there are three aspects of sociocultural adaptation: academic, daily living, and interpersonal. Our results showed that cultural adaptation in the interpersonal domain, but not in the academic and daily living domains, predicted harsher moral judgments of behaviors that violated Japanese cultural norms. These findings suggest that international students who are well adjusted in the interpersonal domain gain an understanding of what is sanctioned in the Japanese cultural context and come to see certain behaviors as morally appropriate. We discuss several implications for further investigating the moralization of certain behaviors within the context of acculturation.     

Yoko's Story and the battle of memory: fragmentation and suture of national memory and gender in the age of globalization

Abstract

Since its publication in 1986, Yoko Watkins’ So Far from the Bamboo Grove has been used as a textbook by some primary and middle schools in the US. The book is an autobiographical novel about the experiences of a Japanese girl named Yoko who returns to her home country with her mother and sister with an anti‐war and peace message. However, it became the center of attention and was referred to as the Yoko incident when, in January 2007, it became known to the Koreans that the book was being used as a textbook by American students and contained a story about Japanese women raped by Korean men at the end of Japanese colonial rule. It immediately incited outcries from the Korean media and online communities, complaining that any suggestion of the rape of Japanese women by Korean men at the end of Japanese colonial rule is a grave distortion of history and a reversal of the perpetrator and the victim. This paper analyzes how the memory structure of the Koreans regarding colonialism is based on a victim nationalism and how Korean feminism has intervened in the fragmentation and suture of national memory since the 1990s. Furthermore, the paper reveals how American multiculturalism turns a blind eye to, or even promotes, the clashing of collective identities in the age of globalization. The so called Yoko incident illustrates how the competition of East Asian countries for a historical position of ‘victim’ in a battle of memory in the US not only strengthens exclusive nationalism in the area but also connives in ‘Americanization of world justice’.     

Majority group perceptions of minority acculturation preferences: The role of perceived threat

Recently, there has been growing focus on the intergroup influences of acculturation preferences, and in particular majority members’ perceptions of how minority members want to acculturate. This paper contributes to this emergent literature by examining the extent to which majority members in the UK perceive that minority members’ preferences for heritage culture maintenance and majority culture adoption are conflicting, and whether this is moderated by perceived threat. One hundred and sixty-three participants who self-reported being white British completed an online survey. Participants were asked about their perceptions of minority acculturation preferences for two target groups living in the UK: Pakistani and German minority groups. Overall, perceived culture maintenance and perceived culture adoption were weakly negatively associated for both groups. Moreover, results confirmed the pre-registered hypotheses, but only for the Pakistani target group. At higher levels of perceived threat, perceived culture maintenance was related to less perceived culture adoption. However, when threat was low, there was no association between perceived heritage culture maintenance and perceived culture adoption. For the German target group, threat did not moderate the relationship between perceived culture maintenance and perceived culture adoption. Findings suggest that depending on levels of perceived threat and the minority group in question, majority members perceiving that minority members maintain their heritage culture has different consequences. Results are discussed in relation to implications for integration, intergroup relations in culturally plural societies, and the need to focus on specific minority groups when studying acculturation processes.     

The effects of Latino immigrants’ acculturation strategy and U.S. Americans' assimilation attitudes on perceptions of accommodation satisfaction and willingness to communicate

Guided by the acculturation framework (Berry, 1980, 2011) and communication accommodation theory (CAT; Giles, 1970, 2016), this study examines the effects of an immigrant target’s acculturation strategy on U.S. Americans’ accommodation satisfaction and willingness to communicate with the target and the potential interaction effect between the immigrant’s acculturation strategy and the participant’s assimilation attitudes. Supporting the hypotheses, results indicated participants with lower assimilation attitudes were most satisfied with the integrated target’s accommodation behaviors, followed by the assimilated and separated targets. In addition, participants with higher assimilation attitudes were equally satisfied by the integrated and assimilated targets’ accommodation, followed by the separated target. Across all levels of assimilation attitudes (i.e., low, moderate, and high), participants were more willing to communicate with the integrated or assimilated (no significant difference) target than with the separated target. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed regarding acculturation and inter-ethnolinguistic group relations.     

Acculturating the Traditional Chinese Medicine: A Culture-Centered Study of Chinese International Students’ Idealization of Medical Integration during Sojourns

ABSTRACT

To better understand the Chinese international students’ barrier to the U.S. health and medical system, this study investigates the students’ understandings of Traditional Chinese medicines during their sojourns in the United States. Holding that medicine is cultural/culture, the culture-centered in-depth interviews (n = 23) help understand the Chinese international students’ acculturation of the two medicines after their arrival in the new medical culture. The analyses focus on the rhetorical nature of medical acculturation: even though the students actually assimilate Traditional Chinese medicine, they claim to integrate the two. The results indicate how integration has been idealized and imposed as the only acceptable medical acculturation strategy for international students. The findings also suggest that medical integration has been used as a disguising cloak of medical assimilation and therefore, immigrants’ integration and acculturation should be carefully examined in health contexts.     

Towards a post-critical praxis: Intentional states and recommendations for change in acculturation psychology

I offer a way of conceptualizing and researching acculturation psychology and thereby hope to offer a tentative course to take us beyond the critiques addressed in this issue. First, I propose an alternative characterization of acculturation psychology by addressing what changes in acculturation. This proposal is anchored in [Bruner, J. (1990). Acts of Meaning. Cambridge: Harvard University Press] notion of intentional states (e.g. psychological experiences described by terms like ‘identity,’ ‘anger,’ ‘faithfulness,’ and so on) that illustrates how culture and psychology are deeply interdependent. In the dynamic cultural changes that occur in instances of acculturation, intentional states themselves change. Second, I address why such changes ‘matter’ to people by exploring the embodied experience pertaining to intentional states—thereby extending the notion beyond Bruner's use of it. This extension is made by drawing on the phenomenology of M. Bakhtin who proposes how culture shapes our own personally embodied experience of intentional states. Change in the sociocultural context thereby involves changes on a personal experiential plane and, as such, experientially ‘matters’ to people. Over the course of this proposal, I provide six recommendations for the praxis of acculturation psychology. Because the general praxis in acculturation psychology, as it currently stands, makes it difficult to implement these recommendations, I highlight an example of a research study that follows the recommendations contained herein.     

Acculturation orientations of competing host communities toward valued and devalued immigrants

This study explored how members of competing host communities may endorse different acculturation orientations towards valued and devalued immigrants settled in the bilingual city of Montreal. Francophone (N=422) and Anglophone (N=401) host community students from low-, medium- and high-ethnic diversity colleges completed the host community acculturation scale (HCAS) along with a questionnaire monitoring a range of social psychological correlates of acculturation orientations. Results showed that Anglophones were more integrationist and individualist and less assimilationist than Francophones. Both Francophones and Anglophones were more integrationist and individualist and less assimilationist, segregationist and exclusionist toward valued than devalued immigrants. Attending a multiethnic college had no influence on respondents’ acculturation orientations. The more welcoming acculturation orientations of Anglophones compared to Francophones was corroborated by results obtained with immigrants attending the French and the English colleges. Social psychological profiles of the respective acculturation orientations were similar across both host communities thus supporting the construct validity of the HCAS. Attitude toward co-national outgroup was a significant determinant of each acculturation orientations, suggesting that intergroup relations between rival host communities has an impact on acculturation orientations toward immigrants.     

An ecological approach to psychological adjustment: A field survey among refugees in Germany

The situation of refugees in Germany and other countries is a current and important matter. The present study adopts an ecological approach to investigate how refugees perceive the welcoming climate in Germany and the consequences of this perception. To further explore the refugees’ situation, we examined several predictors of their psychological adjustment and acculturation attitudes. In a field study in Eastern Germany with N= 94 refugees as participants, we assessed the perceived context of reception, and perceived acculturation attitudes as contextual variables, discrimination and contact as intergroup variables and, on the individual level, psychological adjustment as well as the personal acculturation attitudes as dependent variables. The results revealed that more perceived discrimination resulted in an increase in reported psychological problems. Refugees living in asylum centers reported more psychological problems and more perceived discrimination than those living in independent housing. The perceived context of reception positively predicted refugees’ desire for maintenance of intergroup relations with the host society. Positive intergroup contact lowered their desire for cultural maintenance. In sum, this study gives us rare and valuable insight into refugees’ perspectives in the context of recent immigration to Germany. In doing so, it emphasizes the importance of a welcoming climate. The study shows how meaningful the assessment of the perceived context of reception is. Practical implications for fields such as the accommodation of refugees are discussed.     

Testing a modified Interactive Acculturation Model in Japan: American–Japanese coworker relations

Japan is the world's fastest “graying society.” Numerous experts advocate expanding the non-Japanese workforce to prevent a debilitating labor shortage. To promote positive intercultural relations between Japanese and incoming non-Japanese workers, it is prudent to examine which factors have contributed to creating a smooth acculturation process so far for both groups vs. those which have not. This research aimed to do so by assessing how the acculturation strategy compatibility between Japanese and American coworkers affected their quality of intercultural relations (N = 194). Bourhis and colleagues’ Interactive Acculturation Model (“IAM”) was used to predict which acculturation strategy combinations were most likely to produce positive intercultural relationships. With the independent variable of acculturation strategy alignment (i.e., Consensual, Problematic, and Conflictual acculturation strategy combinations, or “IAM types”), five dependent measures of quality of intergroup relations were employed. Statistical analyses revealed that Conflictual IAM types often scored lower on the dependent measures than Consensual or Problematic IAM types—as predicted by the IAM. However, Consensual IAM types did not score significantly higher than Problematic ones on any of the dependent variables, which contradicted one of the IAM's fundamental premises. Problematic IAM types’ constructive use of stress, as well as their deeper acculturation to their cultural outgroup, likely resulted in them posting comparable scores to Consensual types. Consequently, Consensual and Problematic types were expanded to four subtypes to better explain these findings. Finally, recommendations were made for modifying acculturation expectations among Japanese and Americans to better integrate both groups into their work organizations.     

Facilitating or Impeding Acculturation: A Qualitative Study on Mobile Social Messaging in First-Generation Chinese Immigrants’ Everyday Lives

ABSTRACT

Previous research indicated that communication through media has been intertwined into immigrants’ everyday lives and become an essential part of their acculturating practices. However, no research has been conducted to examine how innovative, ethnic social media play a role in Chinese immigrants’ acculturation process in terms of social capital. In order to fill the research gap, a qualitative study was conducted to explore how Chinese immigrants use social messaging to accumulate social capitals to facilitate their acculturation process. Thirty face-to-face in-depth interviews were conducted among Chinese immigrants to collect data. Findings revealed that Chinese immigrants tend to consider acculturation as a complex and long process in which they navigate through and position themselves in the unfamiliar cultural system. The ethnic social medium – WeChat, and in particular, its social messaging plays an essential role in shaping Chinese immigrants’ acculturation experiences by assisting them in garnering both bonding and bridging social capitals.     

Acculturation: Living successfully in two cultures

The theme of this conference focusses attention on conflict and negotiation. In this paper, I take one example of these issues, and examine the cultural and psychological aspects of these phenomena that take place during the process of acculturation. During acculturation, groups of people and their individual members engage in intercultural contact, producing a potential for conflict, and the need for negotiation in order to achieve outcomes that are adaptive for both parties. Research on aculturation, including acculturation strategies, changes in behaviours, and acculturative stress are reviewed. There are large group and individual differences in how people (in both groups in contact) go about their acculturation (described in terms of the integration, assimilation, separation and marginalisation strategies), in how much stress they experience, and how well they adapt psychologically and socioculturally. Generally, those pursuing the integration strategy experience less stress, and achieve better adaptations than those pursuing marginalisation; the outcomes for those pursuing assimilation and separation experience intermediate levels of stress and adaptation. Implications for public policy and personal orientations towards acculturation are proposed. With respect to the conference theme, since integration requires substantial negotiation, but results in the least conflict, the concepts and findings reviewed here can provide some guidance for the betterment of intercultural relations.     

Relationship between perceived acculturation expectations and Muslim minority youth's acculturation and adaptation

Acculturation strategies have frequently been used to describe how members of ethnic minorities reconcile their heritage culture with the culture of their society of residence. Recently, studies have started to pay increased attention to the fact that the choice of acculturation strategy does not take place in a social vacuum. In the present study, we test whether the perception of assimilation expectations held by the societal majority (PSAE) as well as separation expectations held by ethnic peers (PESE) may be related to individuals’ own acculturation strategy. Furthermore, we investigate whether these perceived expectations are directly related to stress and indirectly to adaptation, mediated by acculturation strategies. All relationships were investigated using multi-group structural equation modeling with members from three Muslim minority groups: 301 German-Turks, 302 French-Maghrebis and 262 British-Pakistanis. Across the samples, PSAE was associated with higher degrees of stress. PESE was negatively related to integration, while it was positively related to separation. In addition, PESE was indirectly and negatively related with self-esteem and/or socio-cultural adaptation in all samples. The impact of societal assimilation expectation appears to be limited in this regard. In all, the present study suggests that perceived acculturation expectations may influence ethnic minorities’ acculturation strategy. The results also suggest that perceived expectations that contrast with individuals’ personal acculturation preference could result in higher levels of stress and lower levels of psychological and socio-cultural adaptation, mediated by acculturation strategies.     

Televised portrayals of Hispanics:: A comparison of ethnic perceptions

Recent research has begun to recognize the role that mass media plays in acculturation. Equally important, however, may be the media's ability to influence the host society's perception of ethnic group members. Misperceptions by either group may inhibit or halt the acculturation and assimilation processes. As a first step to determine the degree of shared perceptions, the present study compared Hispanic, black, and Anglo respondents' beliefs about the adequacy of minority character portrayals on television programs and commercials. Additional analyses explored the impact of demographic and media use variables on these perceptions.The results indicate that there are significant differences in perceptions between ethnic viewers and Anglos. Minority group members were more likely to believe that there are too few minorities on TV. No significant differences, however, were found in the perceived fairness of ethnic portrayals. Among Anglo respondents, heavy TV viewing was associated with a greater belief that television portrayed Hispanics fairly, while among Hispanic respondents the opposite was true. Total amount of television viewing among blacks was positively correlated with the belief that there are too few blacks on television. These results have important theoretical implications for the way the media may effect acculturation and assimilation. Implications for advertising and programming practitioners are also discussed.     

Assessing attitudes towards mutual acculturation in multicultural schools: Conceptualisation and validation of a four-dimensional mutual acculturation attitudes scale

Assessment of acculturation attitudes usually has focused on the importance of two dimensions: first, immigrants’ maintenance of cultural heritage and, second, immigrants’ adoption of the majority culture. Because acculturation is a reciprocal interaction, we extended a bidimensional scale to four dimensions to assess mutual acculturation. Given the importance of the social context for acculturation and schools as a crucial context for immigrant pupils’ acculturation, the scale extension was validated within the context of school. We hypothesised that acculturation attitudes are held not only towards immigrant pupils but also towards native pupils and towards schools’ responsibility to support intercultural contact. The study sample comprised 364 secondary school pupils in Swiss multicultural schools. Using exploratory structural equation modelling, we validated four distinct dimensions of acculturation attitudes: attitudes towards immigrant pupils’ (a) heritage culture maintenance and (b) adoption of the dominant culture and attitudes towards (c) native pupils acquiring cultural knowledge and (d) schools enabling intercultural contact. We conclude that the proposed four-dimensional scale is a valid tool for assessing attitudes towards mutual acculturation within the school context and that acculturation attitudes are held not only towards immigrant pupils but also towards native pupils and schools.     

Role of Cultural Intelligence in Acculturation: Explorations on a Physiognomic Minority Diaspora in India

The aim of this study was to analyse how cultural intelligence (CQ) influences the acculturation process and adaptive outcomes of a physiognomic minority indigenous cultural group in India. This study (N = 246) concerning the northeastern (NE) Indian diaspora in Indian cities outside the NE region. Path analysis showed that integration and assimilation predicted higher adaptation; while marginalization and separation lowered adaptation. Likewise, CQ positively predicted adaptation and also moderated the relationship between acculturation strategies and adaptation. Therefore, findings reflect the flexible facilitative role of CQ in promoting adaptation of minority groups in acculturation context.     

A resilience-based and meaning-oriented model of acculturation: A sample of mainland Chinese postgraduate students in Hong Kong

Traditional acculturation research has focused mainly on acculturative stress and its negative consequences on the mental health of migrants. However, there has recently been a substantial paradigm shift in acculturation research from a psychopathological perspective to a resilience framework, which focuses on positive adaptation outcomes and their contributing protective factors. The purpose of this study was to investigate how to improve the emotional well-being of migrants by developing and testing a resilience model of acculturation using mainland Chinese postgraduate students in Hong Kong as the sample. A total of 400 mainland Chinese students were recruited from six universities in Hong Kong through a cross-sectional survey. A resilience-based and meaning-oriented model of acculturation was developed for Chinese students by path analysis and structural equation modeling. Threat appraisal and sense-making coping partially mediated the relationship between acculturative hassles and negative affect. The effect of acculturative hassles on positive affect was mediated by two pathways: the first was mediated by threat appraisal, sense-making coping, and negative affect; the second was mediated by meaning-in-life. The findings suggest that acculturative hassles and threat appraisal are significant risk factors and that sense-making coping and meaning-in-life are important protective factors for psychological adjustment in cross-cultural adaptation.     

Villagers’ acculturation in China’s land expropriation-induced resettlement neighborhood: A Shanghai case

Land expropriation-induced resettlement (LEIR) is an emerging land phenomenon manifested in Chinese cities to accommodate urban transformation and outward expansion. The resettlement has forced affected rural dwellers to leave their villages and be resettled to high-density urban neighborhoods. By employing surveys with relocated villagers from two different types of LEIR neighborhoods in suburban Shanghai, this paper extends the acculturation discourse to examine villagers’ life transformation in resettlement neighborhoods. Our study addresses three research questions. First, what are the general acculturation patterns manifested among resettled villagers during their life transformation in LEIR neighborhoods? Second, how do individual acculturation outcomes vary by socio-demographic attributes of resettled villagers? Third, how do villagers’ acculturation outcomes influence their current residence preferences? The results indicate villagers’ stronger inclination toward rural village culture than urban neighborhood culture. For the socio-demographic attributes, we find that older villagers are more likely to maintain their original culture; villagers with higher education levels better adapt to urban neighborhood culture; multi-generation living benefits intercultural learning and exchange; and pre-resettlement conditions influence villagers’ acculturation. We further contend that an increase in the probability of a villager’s residence preference for LEIR neighborhoods aligns with an increase in that person’s adherence to urban neighborhood culture and/or a decrease in that individual’s continuity of rural village culture. Comparing the results collected from the two types of resettlement neighborhoods, we posit that socio-spatial mixture and diversity facilitates villagers’ urban integration. Finally, we suggest long-term institutional supports to be continuously provided to resettled villagers for building adaptive resilience.     

Acculturation trajectories differ by youth age at arrival and time in residency among Latino immigrant families in a US emerging immigrant context

The present study was designed to examine acculturation trajectories of first-generation, Latino immigrant youth and their parents in an emerging immigrant context. We also examined whether acculturation trajectories differed between families with youth who migrated at different stages of development and who have spent differential amounts of time in the United States (US). A community sample of 217 immigrant families in western Oregon was purposely sampled according to youths’ age at arrival and time in US residency (TR) and assessed three times over a 3-year period. Families were stratified into three TR groups: TR1 = 2–4 years spent in the US; TR2 = 6–8 years spent in the US; and TR3 = 10–12 years. Parents and youth in each TR group completed measures assessing their acculturation to US American and Latino culture. Results from multiple-group latent growth models showed that acculturation trajectories differed for both youth and parents depending on the TR group. Moreover, both youth and their parents within each TR group differed in their acculturation trajectories. Overall, although youth slowly gravitated toward biculturalism over time, their parents remained relatively separated such that they reported high endorsement of their heritage culture and low endorsement of US culture over time. Findings are discussed in terms of prior research and theory.