Since the 1980s various concepts and theories in social psychology have been applied to the experience of migrants and the intergroup relations that may develop between migrants and the host community. In particular, much work has been done on the topic of acculturation, the process whereby one group adjusts to the culture of another.
People leaving the communities described in this website often travelled short distances and would have found themselves living among people with a similar culture to their own. However, in several cases they would have had to contend with major cultural differences. The people leaving Mynydd Epynt, for example, would have had to adjust to using English as the dominant language. Those departing from St Kilda in 1930 had to become accustomed to earning money through paid work and spending it to buy food and everyday items. World War II evacuees from central Silvertown went to live in a steel and coal community in a south Wales valley. Even when the culture may have been largely shared migrants would have been aware of subtle differences in customs, attitudes, interpersonal conventions, and ways of speaking.
J W Berry has divided the acculturation strategies used by migrants into four categories.
· Integration strategies are used when immigrants wish to interact with the host community while retaining the main elements of their own culture.
· Assimilation occurs when migrants wish to interact and are willing to give up their original culture.
· Separation will be found when migrants expect to maintain their own culture and do not wish to interact with the host community.
· Marginalisation arises when migrants do not want to interact and also do not wish to maintain their original culture.
Most research has shown a strong tendency for immigrant groups to favour integration. Moreover, the evidence indicates that on the whole integration is the most successful strategy, whether outcomes are measured in terms of the personal welfare of migrants or the quality of relations between migrant groups and the host community.
While integration may in general be the most effective strategy its success in a particular situation will depend upon the reactions of members of the host society. If host groups do not welcome attempts by immigrants to achieve integration then relations between the two groups may give rise to problems or conflict. R Y Bourhis and his colleagues have examined the attitudes and expectations of host groups as well as immigrants, and made predictions about what types of “fit” will lead to harmonious relations, and which are likely to create difficulties. They have predicted, for example, that in circumstances where immigrants wish to integrate but host groups expect them to assimilate then problems are likely, while outright conflict may occur when the host community expects immigrants to remain separate but the immigrants would like to integrate.
Bourhis RY et al., Towards an interactive acculturation model:a social psychological approach, International Journal of Psychology, 1997, 32, 369-389.
This article is available on the internet at this address.
More recent theorising has gone a step further by taking into account not just the preferences of the host society, but also their perceptions of the wishes of immigrants. In a study set in Germany Zagefka and Brown found that as usual most immigrants opted for a policy of integration and only 5% expressed a preference for separation, yet 28% of a sample of native Germans thought that immigrants would prefer separation, a belief likely to impair their relations with the immigrant group.
Zagefka H and Brown R, The relationship between acculturation strategies, relative fit, and intergroup relations: immigrant-majority relations in Germany, European Journal of Social Psychology, 2002, 32, 171-188.
The attitudes of the receiving community have also been the focus of research by M Verkuyten in the Netherlands. Verkuyten has been interested in factors affecting willingness to adopt a multi-cultural perception of immigrants, i.e. a tendency to tolerate or welcome the different cultures brought to the Netherlands by immigrants. It can be assumed that a multi-cultural view will generally lead to better intergroup relations.
Verkuyten has found that the attitudes of the receiving population may be affected by their perception of whether immigrants have chosen to move to the Netherlands or have been obliged to leave their place of origin because of hardship and persecution. Students in one group read an account of immigration that stressed the choices made by immigrants, those in another group read an account that described them as refugees from persecution. Afterwards the latter group of students put more significance on the concept of multi-culturalism. This finding suggests that members of a host community may be more tolerant of cultural differences when they see immigrants as having been forced to leave their country of origin than when they believe they have moved to gain economic or other personal benefits.
Verkuyten M, Immigration discourses and their impact on multiculturalism: a discursive and experimental study. British Journal of Social Psychology, 2005, 44, 223-241.
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