Acculturation preferences of a host community: The effects of immigrant acculturation strategies on evaluations and impression formation

This article examines how host populations perceive immigrants. Research in intercultural psychology has shown that the acculturation strategies (integration, assimilation, separation or marginalization) adopted by immigrant populations may be viewed very differently by the host population. In addition, social perception studies have demonstrated that host populations evaluate immigrants on two dimensions, warmth and competence. Our research brings together these two findings to investigate whether perceptions of immigrants on these two dimensions are affected by the acculturation strategy adopted. We present two studies that focus on the host population in France, a country that has adopted a policy of assimilation towards its immigrant populations. In general, the participants rejected separation on the part of immigrants. Evaluations of assimilation and integration were similar, although the student population showed a preference for integration. Adoption of the host culture and conservation of the original culture were both found to be pertinent for the warmth dimension, but only adoption was pertinent for the competence dimension. The effect of immigrant origins was found to be marginal.