Immigrants acculturation in occidental countries

Résumé du document

John Berry, a Canadian social psychologist, has developed a theoretical framework regarding the psychological concept of acculturation. Two main acculturation processes exist in Cross Cultural Psychology: integration and assimilation. Berry argues that integration is not the only mode of acculturation chosen by migrants. But according to Berry, assimilation has not succeeded in the world and if one society tries to apply it, it will cause a strong resistance and a social conflict.

The current migrants, contrary of those at the beginning of the 20th century, do not come with qualifications which improve the economy and the culture of the host country. The "cultural distance" engenders with different values and behaviors, and sometimes they are accompanied with "not-compatible cultures". In order not to find these migrants in Lumpenproletariat (which can create significant social risks), society has to assimilate those who are recognized as assimilable, and has to prevent the immigration of the others.

Is integration more favorable than the other acculturation processes? What is Berry's point of view about this subject? On which empirical data can we rely on?

I will present a summary of Berry's theory, including what has been said in "Cross-cultural psychology: Research and applications". I will analyze the advantages and disadvantages of acculturation processes, given the mental health of migrants and by presenting the case for the host countries.

Firstly, Berry introduces the concept of psychological acculturation, which defines the individual changes that happen when someone goes off to live in another country ("the adaptation"). In theory, the changes between the involved groups are mutual, but in practice, it often happens that a group (the "host group") has a stronger influence than the non-dominating group (the migrants group called the "acculturation group").

Extraits

[...] For them, even integration can generate problems. Schmitz have found that different profiles of stress appeared: the assimilation is related to psychosomatic indicators (infections, reactions allergic), and the segregation to cardiovascular problems, irritability, and, for the German immigrants, there was an abuse of alcohol and of other substances with a certain dependance. Sam and Berry carried out a research on 568 young immigrants from the Third World in Norway. By using indices of emotional problems, they have found a correlation with the marginalisation, a weak negative correlation with integration, and no correlation with separation and the assimilation. [...]

[...] In theory, the changes between the involved groups are mutual, but in practice, it often arrives that a group (the “host group”) has a stronger influence than the not-dominating group (the migrants group called the “acculturation group”). Adaptation takes the assimilation form if the migrant gives up his cultural identity. Integration is defined in the following way: there is a partial maintenance of the cultural integrity of the ethnic group and an increasingly participation of individuals within the new society. In this situation, people preserve their identities and also other cultural characteristics (food, languages, practices . ) while they take part in the economic, political and legal structures of their new country. [...]

[...] Immigration et acculturation In R. Bourhis and J.-P. Leyens. Camilleri, C. Stratégies identitaires : Les approches pratiquées et les implicatons pour la recherche In B. Krewer. Berry, J. W. Acculturation et adaptation psychologique In J. [...]

[...] Schmitz have found a correlation between some psychosomatic problems and the choice of segregation. For the recent immigrants (less than 7 months of stay in Germany), there was a correlation between the preference for integration or the assimilation and certain psychosomatic symptoms, in particular for those who have found that there were a strong difference between their own standards and those of the host society, and who have had a difficult adaptation. In a research related to 78 migrants from Germany and 65 from Latin America, Schmitz have found slightly different results. [...]

[...] According to Bourhis, these policies have an impact in determining the choices of acculturation strategies. By the intercultural contact, the members of the host society influence the acculturation strategies of migrants, who, reciprocally, can also influence the orientations of the majority group. The author takes again the assumption that it is the correspondence between the attitudes of the host society and those of the migrants who determines, in a certain way, interaction conflicts. All the other combinaisions are seen as problem or as a conflict. [...]