The role of discordant acculturation attitudes in perceived threat: An analysis of host and immigrant attitudes in Germany

Abstract

The present research examines discordant acculturation attitudes of host society members and immigrants as an antecedent to intergroup threat. Based on integrated threat theory and the concordance model of acculturation, we posited that discordance on culture maintenance and on desire for contact would predict intergroup threat beyond the influence of other antecedents of threat, such as in-group identification, knowledge, and negative contact. A study with 202 German host society members and 151 Turkish and Italian immigrants was conducted. In line with our assumptions, path analyses revealed that culture discordance and contact discordance contribute independently to the prediction of realistic threat, symbolic threat, and intergroup anxiety for host society members and immigrants. Moreover, differences in threat between cultures were mediated by the discordance in acculturation attitudes.

Introduction

In the last decades, migration has become an increasingly important issue. Redfield, Linton, and Herskovits (1936) coined the term ‘acculturation’ to refer to “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” (p. 149). Immigrants as well as members of a host society will develop acculturation attitudes, which define how this process should take place. According to Berry (1980), Berry (2001), two dimensions have to be considered when analysing attitudes toward acculturation: the desire to maintain one's own cultural identity, and the desire to have contact with the other group. These two dimensions can be combined to form four possible acculturation attitudes (integration: desire for culture maintenance and desire for contact; assimilation: no desire for culture maintenance but desire for contact; separation: desire for culture maintenance but no desire for contact; marginalization: no desire for culture maintenance and no desire for contact).

One can imagine situations in which the acculturation attitudes of dominant and non-dominant group members fit together well, and others in which they are very different. The interplay between one's own attitudes and one's perception of the other groups’ attitudes seems to be a crucial determinant of intergroup relations (Piontkowski, Rohmann, & Florack, 2002). We assume that people feel more threatened if they perceive differences between their own acculturation attitudes and the other group's attitudes than if they perceive a consensus between attitudes. The main focus of the present study was to investigate the role of discordant acculturation attitudes in predicting perceived threat. This analysis was tied to antecedents of threat that have been identified within the scope of integrated threat theory (Stephan & Stephan, 2000).