Opportunities for Immigrants’ Acculturation and Identification Varieties

Bibliographic Data

ID6338564
AuthorsChristoph Daniel Schaefer (0000-0003-4349-586X, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, corresponding author), Bernd Simon (0000-0002-6521-9033, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel)
Year2017
Volume38
Issue6
Pages959-975
Publication date2017-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePolitical Psychology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0162-895X • E-ISSN: 1467-9221
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/pops.12381
OpenAlexW2557414844
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited20

This article elucidates how members of the two largest immigration groups living in Germany (i.e., immigrants with a Russian or Turkish background) deal with and integrate values and practices deriving from their ethnocultural minority group and the larger society. A special emphasis of this article is on how context conditions form opportunities for varieties of acculturation and identification. The pattern of results suggests a taxonomy of immigrants’ acculturation, consisting of Blended Integration, Alternating Integration, Separation, and Dis‐Integration. This taxonomy is based on immigrants’ integration of cultural aspects, while it proved to be analytically useful to conceptualize their national self‐allocation as an additional dimension. Immigrants’ development of these different varieties was found to be linked to their perceptions of compatibility and acceptance by the larger society. Relative to immigrants with a Turkish background, immigrants with a Russian background experience less deep incompatibilities between values and practices deriving from the cultural groups, thus having more latitude for acculturation and integration. In contrast, immigrants with a Turkish background experience more challenges to acculturation and integration as a result of being confronted more frequently with incompatibilities and experience less societal acceptance. Further conceptual and societal implications are discussed

Acculturation · Context (archaeology · Geography · Immigration · Political science · Social integration · Sociology · Turkish · Anthropology · Cultural Differences and Values · Gender Studies · International Student and Expatriate Challenges · Law · Psychology · Racial and Ethnic Identity Research · Social Psychology