Research

Jandt8e_ppt10.pptx

Chapter 10:

Immigration and Acculturation

What will you learn?

What are the physical, psychological, and communication stresses of living in a new culture and how can they be addressed?

How does migration within one country occur and what are its implications?

How does immigration occur, and what are some issues related to immigration in Israel, Western Europe, Brazil, and the United States?

Which are the predictors and categories of acculturation and how do they explain an immigrant’s extent of adaptation to a new country?

Crossing Cultural Boundaries

Tourist: a person who visits a country for a short time for such goals as relaxation and self-enlightenment

Sojourner: a person who lives in a country for a limited period of time, from as little as 6 months to as long as 5 years, with a specific and goal-oriented purpose, such as education

Expatriate: noncitizen worker who lives in a country for an indeterminate length of time

Refugee: a person in any location who is unable or unwilling to return to the country of nationality because of persecution or well-founded fear of persecution

Asylee: a person who is living in a country who is unable or unwilling to return to the country of nationality because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution

Culture Shock

Kalvero Oberg (1960): culture shock = feelings of disorientation and anxiety that many people experience for a time while living in a foreign country

Unless you are prepared to function in the new culture, the situation can be highly stressful; 30%–60% of expatriates suffer serious culture shock, 20% have no difficulty

Symptoms of culture shock: pervasive; vary in intensity, duration, and severity among individuals;

Physical symptoms (overconcern about food, bedding; stress on health, safety; fear of physical contact; craving “home cooking”; use of alcohol, drugs; decline in work quality)

psychological symptoms (insomnia, fatigue, isolation, disorientation, frustration, criticism of new country, nervousness, self-doubt, depression, anger, emotional/intellectual withdrawal)

Culture Shock

Stages of culture shock (Adler, 1975; Pedersen, 1995):

“Honeymoon stage:” initial euphoria; everything is new, exciting

Disintegration of familiar cues; irritation with differences experienced in new culture, hostility towards new culture; withdrawal, isolation

Reintegration of new cues; increased ability to function in new culture, yet resentment toward new culture for “being different”

Gradual adjustment toward autonomy; seeing “good” and “bad” elements in both home and new cultures; feeling more in control and more comfortable

Reciprocal interdependence; biculturalism achieved by developing the ability to cope comfortably in both home and new cultures

Reverse culture shock: the home culture is compared adversely to the admired aspects of the new culture

Migration Within One Country

The world’s largest human migration occurs annually within the borders of China when people born in rural areas migrate from urban areas where they work to rural areas to visit family and back (estimate of 250 million in 2012)

Individuals with urban residence are entitled to employment, health care, housing, pension, and food subsidies; none of these are available to people with rural registration

Migrants: move from central and western provinces to eastern coast; young males, with higher-than-average education for place of emigration; work longer hours for lower pay than urban residents; are portrayed poorly in the media

China’s migrant workers display many of the symptoms of culture shock: sleep disturbance, anxiety, depression, inadequate coping, social dysfunction

Immigration

Without immigration, most developed countries would experience a drop in population, with resulting challenges to retirement and economic programs

With immigration, countries may perceive challenges to nation-state cultural identity and place increased pressure on immigrants to assimilate into nation-state’s culture

The number of people counted as living outside their country of birth has grown: 84 million in 1975, 104 million in 1985, and 191 million in 2005, 232 million in 2013

In 2013, half of all international migrants lived in 10 countries: the U.S., the Russian Federation, Germany, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, the U.K., France, Canada, Australia, Spain

Immigration: Western Europe

Immigration - one of the most controversial issues in Europe

Unlike in Australia, Canada, and the U.S., in Western Europe immigration is a recent phenomenon (e.g. in Spain before 1990, the foreign-born population was below 1%)

Beginning in the 1950s, European countries in economic expansion welcomed immigration for laborers; governments saw this immigration as temporary; yet many migrant laborers didn’t return home even after economic opportunities ceased to exist

Immigration: Western Europe

The fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union brought Eastern Europeans into Western European nations

Since the late 1980s, a way to immigrate into a European Union country has been for asylum (Bosnia, Kosovo, China, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Somalia)

The European Union permits nationals to move from one E.U. country to another; internal immigration within the E.U. countries has grown

Western Europe is challenged with increasing immigration, particularly from Muslim countries (29.6 million in 1990 to 44.1 million in 2010); European countries have adopted various policies to respond to growing Muslim immigration

Immigration: Brazil

Throughout its history Brazil has been a melting pot of races and cultures

Its immigration history includes migration from Europe and Japan as well as a small group from the U.S. Confederacy

From 1500 to 1822, 500,000 to 700,000 Portuguese settled in Brazil, 600,000 of whom arrived in the 18th century; Portugal prohibited immigration from other countries to Brazil to prevent other Europeans to claim territory

Brazil was the major destination for slaves from Africa; today Brazil has the largest African-heritage population outside of Africa and much of its culture is African

Immigration: Brazil

Immigration Waves in Brazil

First wave, 1880-1903: Europeans and others were welcomed as a means to replace slave labor in coffee cultivation; 1.9 million, mainly from Germany, Italy, Portugal, and Spain, also from Ukraine, Russia, Lithuania, Hungary, Armenia, China, and Korea

Second wave, 1904-1930: another 2.1 million Europeans from Italy, Poland, Russia, and Romania immigrated (most arriving after World War I); large numbers of Japanese also immigrated

Third wave, 1930-1964: primarily from Japan; Japanese immigrants worked primarily as agricultural workers; today Brazil has become home to the largest Japanese community outside Japan

Recent immigration: with growing economy, low unemployment, and a government encouraging filling jobs with immigrants, Brazil has again experienced increased immigration, including from Africa, Europe, China, South Korea, the U.S.

Immigration: The United States

The U.S. is host to more immigrants than any other nation

45 million (20%) of the world’s population of 232 million immigrants reside in the U.S.

Colonial Policies on Immigration

In colonial America, three principal responses to immigration developed:

Massachusetts wanted settlers who were “religiously pure.”

Virginia and Maryland recruited immigrants for cheap labor but did not allow full participation in government

Pennsylvania welcomed all European settlers on equal terms and as equal participants in the colony

Immigration: The United States

U.S. Policies on Immigration

1798: Congress passed the Act Concerning Aliens, which gave the president power to deport all immigrants deemed dangerous to national security

1868: 14th Amendment established that anyone born in the country was a citizen, so former slaves were citizens

1921: the U.S. Congress established country quotas based on the origins of the U.S. population

1965: country quotas were replaced with hemisphere quotas

1990: The Immigration Act raised annual immigration level from 540,000 to 700,000 for the period 1992–1994, thereafter dropping it to an annual minimum of 675,000

Immigration: The United States

Contributing Countries

Prior to 1800: the number of immigrants from Europe to the New World was 4 -5 million, and the number of slaves brought forcefully from Africa was 10-12 million people

1846-1932: 53 million people migrated to the Western Hemisphere, all but 2 million from Europe, more than three-quarters of that number from five areas: the British Isles, Italy, Austria-Hungary, Germany, and Spain; the U.S. received 60% of those

Each major wave of immigrants experienced discrimination; 1850s – Germans and Irish; 1880s-1890s – Eastern and Southern Europeans; various periods – Mexicans, Asians

Immigration: The United States

Studies of immigration have shown that the educational level of immigrants has increased; 1960: one third of all new immigrants had fewer than 8 years of education; 1990s: that dropped to one forth

Since the 1990s immigrants have not drawn on welfare any more than others (percentage of foreign-born on welfare presently 6.6%)

Overall, immigrants are a net economic gain for the country, but the six states with the highest concentration of immigrants experience pressures as taxes go mostly to the federal government

Predictors of Acculturation

No immigrant, as long as livelihood needs are to be met in a new country, can escape acculturation; individuals differ, however, in terms of the degree to which they become acculturated

The new culture creates stress which causes the individual to experience culture shock; the immigrant must overcome the challenges and develop new behaviors, but not all individuals adapt at the same rate

Young Yun Kim (1986, 1988, 2001, 2005): cross-cultural adaptation theory – the process an individual undergoes upon entering a new culture as a stress-adaptation-growth dynamic

Predictors of Acculturation

Host communication competence: capacity to communicate with host culture’s communication symbols, meaning systems

Participation in host social communication: time and skill devoted to participation in host culture’s mass media and in interpersonal communication with host culture members

Participation in ethnic social communication: time devoted to communicating with fellow co-immigrants and to mass media targeted for the immigrant (at the expense of time devoted to host social communication)

Host environment: relative strength of immigrant group to maintain its culture and relative strength of new host culture to conform

Predisposition: how similar home culture is to host culture

Effect of Media and Transportation Advances

The immigrants of the 1900s left homes permanently, with little hope of returning even for a visit, and thus lost much of the original culture in assimilation

Newspapers and periodicals printed entirely or in part in languages other than English often helped immigrants to both maintain contact with home culture and to adjust to new culture

In 1942, there were nearly 1,000 radio stations in the United States, 200 of which broadcast in some 26 languages

Recent advances in the media have slowed the process of acculturation, as the Internet and social media have made it easier to connect to like cultures, to home culture

Categories of Acculturation

Acculturation or cultural adaptation: an immigrant’s learning and adopting the norms and values of the new host culture

Marginalization: losing one’s cultural identity and not having any psychological contact with the larger society

Separation and segregation: maintaining one’s original culture and not participating in the new culture; segregation connotes a judgment of superiority and inferiority, prejudice and hatred between groups

Assimilation: giving up one’s original cultural identity and moving into the new culture

Integration: maintaining important parts of one’s original culture as well as becoming an integral part of the new culture

Let’s Discuss!

What comparisons and contrasts can be drawn among the immigration history and policies of Israel, Western Europe, Brazil, and the United States?

How could countries use predictors of an immigrant’s success in acculturation in immigration policies or in facilitating acculturation?

Should immigrants be encouraged or mandated to give up their home cultures and learn and participate in their new country’s culture? Why or why not?