What do you know about acculturation?

By Belén González de la Parra from DEFOIN

The most widely used definition of acculturation is the one proposed for Redfield, Linton & Herskovits in 1936: ‘‘those phenomena which result when groups of individuals having different cultures come into continuous first-hand contact, with subsequent changes in the original culture patterns of either or both groups” (Redfield, Linton & Herskovits, 1936, in Sam & Berry, 2010, p. 473). Thus, these phenomena can be caused by short-term stays, multicultural spaces, migratory phenomena and/or any other situation involving contact between different cultures.

To categorise the different forms of acculturation that can occur in societies, John W. Berry (for example: Berry, 2003; Sam & Berry, 2010) presents a model of acculturation that classifies individual adaptation strategies into two dimensions: 1. Preservation or rejection of the individual’s native culture and 2. Adoption or rejection of the host culture. In this way, four acculturation strategies can be deduced (Sam & Berry, 2010; L.D.Worthy, T.Lavigne & F.Romero, 2020).

• Assimilation: occurs when individuals adopt the cultural norms of a dominant or host culture, over their original culture. This leads to meltingpot.
• Separation: occurs when individuals reject the dominant or host culture in favorof preserving their culture of origin. Separation is often facilitated byimmigration to ethnic enclaves. This leads to segregation.
• Integration: occurs when individuals are able to adopt the cultural norms of the dominant or host culture while maintaining their culture of origin. Integration leads to, and is often synonymous, with biculturalism. This leads to multiculturalism.
• Marginalization: occurs when individuals reject both their culture of origin and the dominant host culture. This leads to exclusion.

The culture shock perceived by the individual when entering a “new” group or society unleashes the need for a process of psychological and socio-cultural adaptation, as well as in most cases a mourning process.

Many studies have proclaimed that the most beneficial acculturation strategy is integration, which allows immigrants to adapt to a society while maintaining their own cultural heritage. In this way, the See Me, Hear Me project intends to assist migrants’s integration into European societies and to give them a voice within them. To this end, results such as the E-Course for migrants or the Online Magazine will be crucial to give a voice to all these stories.

References

• Berry, J. W. (2003). Conceptual approaches to acculturation. American Psychological Association.
• Sam, D. L., & Berry, J. W. (2010). Acculturation: When individuals and groups of different cultural backgrounds meet. Perspectives on psychological science, 5(4), 472- 481.
• L.D.Worthy, T.Lavigne & F.Romero. (2020). Berry’s Model of Acculturation. Culture and Psychology. Available at: https://open.maricopa.edu/culturepsychology/chapter/berrys-model-of-acculturation/. Licence: Culture and Psychology Copyright © 2020 by L D Worthy; T Lavigne; and F Romero is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.