Coming home from a stay abroad: Associations between young people’s reentry problems and their cultural identity formation

Combining a variable- and person-centered approach, the present study explores associations between cross-cultural reentry problems and cultural identity formation (processes and statuses) in late adolescence and young adulthood. The study sample consisted of 510 participants between 16 and 29 years of age who had spent 6–60 months abroad, mainly for educational reasons. Referring to a neo-Eriksonian identity model, three processes of home-culture related identity formation were differentiated: commitment, in-depth exploration, and reconsideration of commitment. At the variable-centered level, reentry problems were negatively related to commitment with home culture and positively to exploration and, most strongly, to reconsideration. This pattern was corroborated at the person-centered level. Participants in the moratorium status (low commitment, high exploration, high reconsideration) reported most problems with reentry, whereas participants in the closure status (a pattern inverse to that of moratorium) reported fewest. Participants in the achievement and diffusion statuses ranked in the middle. In all analyses, person-related variables (gender, age, big five personality traits) and sojourn-related variables (length of sojourn, time since return) were controlled for. Implications of the findings for our understanding of (cross-) cultural mobility and identity are discussed and suggestions for future research are outlined.     

Cultural homelessness, multiminority status, ethnic identity development, and self esteem

This study presents a measure of “cultural homelessness” (Vivero & Jenkins, 1999), a construct developed to explain the experiences of some individuals having early-life immersion in more than one culture. Culturally homeless individuals report pervasive experiences of “being different”: mixed racial, ethnic, and/or cultural heritages within their families of origin and/or between their families and the surrounding sociocultural context, resulting in structural marginality; repeated subjection to contradictory cultural demands; and the acquisition of conflicting frames of reference for their behavior. Ambiguous physical presentation and the complexity of codeswitching across multiple cultural frames of reference at a young age may lead to confused or inappropriate social behavior, resulting in rejection and discrimination by both minority and majority groups, chronic feelings of “not belonging,” self-blame and shame, social and emotional isolation, cultural identity confusion, and the desire to find a “cultural home.” Empirical findings operationalizing this construct show associations of cultural homelessness criteria with gender; risk factors related to multiracial, multiethnic, and multicultural status; ethnic identity; and self esteem.     

‘Let us understand each other and work together in the child’s best interest’ – Exploring the narratives of newly arrived refugee parents in Sweden

Complex and multi-layered socio-economic and cultural challenges face refugee parents resettling in a new country. The aim of this study was to describe refugee mothers and fathers’ experiences of parenthood by lifting up their own voices, illuminating the challenges they face and laying the basis for designing interventions to provide well-informed and culturally tailored support programmes for families in need.The study combined narrative research with focus group discussions with 50 refugee mothers and fathers in Sweden. Data were analysed inductively using thematic analysis. The main theme identified: Navigating the changing landscape of parenthood, captured refugee parents’ experiences of navigating their parenthood through the new socio-political, cultural, and economic setting in Sweden.The study results demonstrated how acculturation challenges undermined the role of parents, threatened the family cohesion and led to alienation of children from their parents. Despite the plethora of challenges faced by families, parents struggling to navigate two differing cultural paradigms, envisioned a path of dialogue and reconciliation between newcomers and the host society as a way to foster true integration and understanding between immigrant and native communities.     

Interethnic relations at work: Examining ethnic minority and majority members’ experiences in The Netherlands

Using qualitative methods, this study explored ethnic minority and majority members’ perceptions of the interethnic relations in their work unit. A total of 219 ethnic minority and majority employees and managers were interviewed, divided over 15 Dutch organizations. It was found that interethnic relations were less harmonious when ethnic differences were perceived to affect people's sense of achievement (e.g., work goals), their sense of belonging (e.g., unity of the group), and their sense of equality (e.g., procedural justice). Such problems were reported more often when ethnic differences were associated with other types of diversity, such as information diversity and value diversity. Less harmonious interethnic relations were reported by ethnic majority group members and in low-skill settings where actual ethnic differences were large. The findings suggest that ethnic differences per se do not necessarily affect interethnic relations in a work setting, but do so only when they are meaningful to individuals or within a particular context.     

No place to call home: Cultural homelessness, self-esteem and cross-cultural identities

This study examined relations between a cross-cultural geographically mobile childhood and adulthood cultural homelessness, attachment to cross-cultural identities, and self esteem. Cross-cultural identities are loosely defined identities (e.g., third culture kids, military brats, missionary kids) that describe some individuals’ childhood cross-cultural experience. The 475 participants spent at least two years before age 18 in a country different from their parents’ home culture, then returned to the latter. They completed an online survey which included general demographic information regarding cross-cultural experiences in childhood, as well as the Cultural Homelessness Criteria, the Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale, and items that evaluated the strength of affirmation, belonging, and commitment to a self-labeled cross-cultural identity. Cultural homelessness was related to lower self esteem scores; higher affirmation, belonging and commitment to any cross-cultural identity was related to higher self esteem and lower cultural homelessness. Furthermore, such affirmation, belonging, and commitment buffered the cultural homelessness-self esteem association, whereas just having a cross-cultural identity did not.     

Difficult dialogs: Majority group members’ willingness to talk about inequality with different minority groups

The present study explored attitudes of a majority group, Turks, toward dialog with two minority groups, Kurds and Armenians, in Turkey. We examined whether Turks would be equally likely to avoid discussing inequality (power talk) in imaginary dialogs with Kurds and Armenians, two groups that while equally devalued differ in their likelihood of being considered ingroup members. Specifically, we tested the hypothesis that because Turks share a common religious identity with Kurds but not with Armenians, they would be more willing to engage in power talk with Kurds than with Armenians. In addition, we explored the role of intergroup contact, majority group identification (Turkish and Muslim), social dominance orientation (SDO), and the legitimizing ideologies of belief in cultural diversity and perceptions of ethnic discrimination as predictors of willingness for power talk with each group. Ethnic Turks were more willing to talk about commonalities with both minority groups, and less willing to talk about power inequalities with either group, even less so with Armenians than with Kurds. As expected, this difference was moderated by religious identification, such that Turks with stronger Muslim identification were more willing to have power talk with Kurds but not with Armenians. These findings point to the importance of common ingroup identity in majority members’ responses to different minority groups.     

“I disagreed with a lot of values”: Exploring Black immigrant agency in ethnic-racial socialization

Ethnic-racial socialization is a mechanism through which immigrant parents instill in their children a sense of pride in their culture while preparing them for negative experiences with racial and cultural out-groups. For Black immigrant parents, this can include promoting a wariness of Black Americans in their children. Through this lens, we investigated an understudied intercultural dynamic via interviews with 12 first- and second-generation African and Caribbean immigrants. Using deductive and inductive analyses, we first examined the socialization messages they received about Black Americans from their parents, finding that in addition to messages inculcating ethnic and cultural pride, the participants also heard warnings about affiliation with Black Americans. Those messages relied on personal experiences and harmful stereotypes. Second, emergent from the data were examples of the ways the participants rejected their parents’ warnings. Experiences outside of the home appeared to influence views that were alternative to their parents. This novel finding provides avenues for future research investigating Black immigrants’ paths to a sense of connection or distancing from Black Americans.     

Where I’m from? Third Culture Kids about their cultural identity shifts and belonging

This study explored the affect of Third Culture Kids (TCKs) towards their home and host culture(s) and how this affect may indicate possible cultural identity shifts as distinguished in Sussman’s (2000) cultural identity shift model. To this end, the method of poetic inquiry was used. The poems were concerned with TCKs’ affective experiences (Prendergast, 2009). We also investigated whether TCKs described their belonging in terms of personal relationships rather than in terms of geographical locations.Twenty TCKs, ranging in age from 26 to 70 years and from five ‘home cultures’, expressed their early cross-cultural experiences through the free verse poem of “Where I’m from”. A mixed method approach of qualitative and quantitative research was applied, by combining poetic inquiry using a free verse poem format and clustering these data by means of coding in Atlas.ti. TCKs’ poems were analyzed using belonging, affect, and practices-food-nature-events as key codes.Findings revealed that TCKs expressed stronger positive affect towards their host cultures than towards their ‘home’ cultures, indicating a subtractive cultural identity shift. We also found that TCKs defined their belonging more in terms of personal relationships than in terms of geographical locations. This study shows that TCKs’ sense of belonging seems more related to the question who than where I am from.