Cultural value fit of immigrant and minority adolescents: The role of acculturation orientations
Highlights
► Tested the relationship of migrants’ acculturation orientations with value similarity to host culture. ► Former Soviet Union (FSU) and Turkish migrants in Germany, FSU migrants and Arab Israelis in Israel. ► Country samples from European Social Survey taken for value fit measure. ► Hypothesis confirmed, but strength of relationship differed between groups. ► Adds new perspective to acculturation research by intertwining it with cultural fit research.
Introduction
In times where migration numbers are skyrocketing and will continue to do so, the topic of acculturation and migration is high on the receiving countries’ political agenda. As a result, the understanding of integration and adaptation processes became an urging necessity for policy-makers and scholars in the receiving countries (Berry, Phinney, Kwak, & Sam, 2006).
The present study attempts to contribute to this research field. It investigates the level of cultural value adoption among immigrant and minority individuals. Moreover, it investigates the relations between cultural value adoption and identification with the receiving country as well as the heritage group. To answer these research questions, adolescents from four immigrant and ethnic minority groups in Germany and Israel were surveyed. The diversity of immigrant and minority groups sampled in this study, and this in two culturally distinct national environments provided us with the opportunity to not only follow the research question introduced above but also test the generalizability of findings across groups and countries. Furthermore, by intertwining two research frameworks – cultural fit research and acculturation research – this article intends to introduce a new perspective on the phenomenon of migration and societal adaptation.
The term cultural fit describes the degree of correspondence between an individual's personality traits, values, beliefs and behavior, and the values, beliefs and practices normatively shared by the members of a group the individual lives in (Chirkov et al., 2005, Lu, 2006, Searle and Ward, 1990, Ward and Chang, 1997, Yang et al., 2006). Other terms used to describe the same phenomenon are cultural consonance (e.g., Dressler, Balieiro, Ribeiro, & Santos, 2007), or cultural congruence (Stromberg & Boehnke, 2001).
The literature on cultural fit distinguishes between subjective and objective fit (e.g., Stromberg & Boehnke, 2001). In studies following the objective fit approach, cultural fit is assessed by the difference of an individual's score on a particular measure from the mean scores of the same measure obtained from samples representing a particular reference group, e.g., an organization the person works in or the country the person lives in (Ward and Chang, 1997, Ward et al., 2004, Yang et al., 2006). Conversely, in studies using a subjective fit approach, participants are asked to what degree they see a discrepancy in their own attitudes, beliefs or values and those they are confronted with in the particular reference group. Alternatively, individuals are presented measures of attitudes, beliefs, values, and practices which they are asked to respond to with regard to (a) themselves as individuals and (b) the particular reference group (e.g., Chirkov et al., 2005, Van Vianen et al., 2004).
Previous studies on cultural fit have mainly focused on the fit to organizations (e.g., Parkes, Bochner, & Schneider, 2001) as well as countries (e.g., Fischer, 2006). The present article addresses cultural fit with regard to the latter. The fit between an individual and other members of a country has caught the interest of a number of authors in the last years. For example, Ward and colleagues (Searle and Ward, 1990, Ward and Chang, 1997, Ward et al., 2004) showed that among sojourners, the relationship between personality aspects (such as extraversion) and adaptation to the receiving country is partly moderated by the degree to which these personality aspects match the norms, values, and practices shared by the people in this country. Furthermore, numerous studies have demonstrated that the degree of fit between the individual and the society in terms of values, beliefs, and personality characteristics enhances individuals’ well-being (Juang et al., 2006, Ratzlaff et al., 2000, Stromberg and Boehnke, 2001).
A substantial number of studies that have examined the fit between individuals and their cultural environment have focused on values as a potential fit indicator (e.g., Bernard et al., 2006, Elfenbein and O’Reilly, 2007, Fischer, 2006, Stromberg and Boehnke, 2001, Van Vianen et al., 2004). Values have been postulated to be a core feature of cultures (Hofstede, 2001, Schwartz, 2006) and thus are a popular measurement dimension to explore the person-culture fit (Elfenbein & O’Reilly, 2007). The current study follows this line of research by focusing on values, more precisely, cultural values shared by the residents of a particular country. The similarity of individuals to the cultural values of the country they live in – in the following termed the cultural value fit – is being examined. In addition, as will be described in the following section, cultural value fit will be looked at from the perspective of immigrants, taking acculturation research as the underlying theoretical basis. As we argue, this intertwining of cultural fit research and acculturation research has only insufficiently been empirically demonstrated so far.
The current study probes the cultural fit proposition in the context of migration. Every person living in a country is exposed to the cultural values that are shared by its residents. The same is true for immigrants. However, immigrants are not only exposed to the cultural values of the receiving country, they have also been (and most often still are) exposed to the cultural values of the country of origin. For example, a person who grew up in Germany but whose parents had immigrated to Germany from Turkey will be exposed to values rooted in the Turkish culture, through the family and through the Turkish immigrants’ community. Hence, it could be expected that an immigrant will display a weaker fit to the receiving country's cultural values, due to this additional exposure to the cultural values of the country of origin.
The abovementioned assumption can be further differentiated. We postulate that the degree of cultural fit of immigrants to the receiving country depends on both the degree of affiliation with the receiving country as well as the degree of affiliation with the country of origin. We refer to the model of acculturation by Berry and colleagues as a theoretical basis (Berry, 2005, Sam and Berry, 2006). Berry and others (see also LaFromboise, Coleman, & Gerton, 1993) have proposed that maintaining a positive affiliation with the culture of heritage and at the same time establishing a positive relation to the receiving country are not mutually exclusive but independent aspirations of a person (Berry and Kim, 1988, Schwartz et al., 2010). Berry and colleagues distinguished four acculturation orientations, depending on the degree of affiliation with the heritage group and the receiving country, respectively (see Berry, 2005): A separation orientation is determined by a pronounced affiliation with the cultural heritage group and an alienation from the receiving country, whereas an assimilation orientation is described as having cut oneself off from the heritage group and being strongly oriented towards the receiving country. When the individual is strongly affiliated with both the heritage group and the receiving country, he or she is considered to have an integration orientation. Conversely, having lost the attachment to either of the cultural groups is framed by the term marginalization.
Acculturation orientations can be described on two different domains (Mariño et al., 2000, Searle and Ward, 1990). One domain refers to behaviors, such as language use, television and media consumption, eating habits, the participation in cultural activities and the establishment of social networks. The second domain refers to psychological processes, such as changes in evaluations and attitudes towards the two cultural groups as well as changes in the sense of belonging to and identification with the two cultural groups (see also Phinney, Berry, Vedder, & Liebkind, 2006). In the current study, acculturation orientations are conceptualized in terms of the second domain – psychological processes – by focussing on identification with the heritage group and the receiving country (see, e.g., Phinney et al., 2001, Schwartz et al., 2006). We are especially interested in this aspect of acculturation, because our target population is that of adolescents. It is known from the literature that identity development is one of the central developmental tasks during adolescence (e.g., Erikson, 1959). The commitment making that occurs during adolescence includes the self-perception as members of social groups such as ethnic or national groups (Phinney, 1990, Phinney et al., 2006).
We expect that individuals adopt the cultural values of the receiving country to different degrees depending on their acculturation orientations. Thus, they differ in the degree of cultural value fit to the receiving country. For example, an individual that highly identifies with the cultural heritage group, and rather lowly identifies with the receiving country (i.e. separation) will adopt the receiving country's cultural values less – will show a lower cultural value fit – compared to someone who highly identifies with the receiving country and lowly identifies with the heritage group (i.e. assimilation). In the latter case the receiving country is much more important to the individual than in the former case, which makes the adoption of values more likely. Hence, our hypothesis is that individuals showing a separation orientation (high identification with the heritage group and low identification with the receiving country) will show the lowest cultural value fit to the receiving country, whereas individuals showing an assimilation orientation (low identification with heritage group and high identification with receiving country) will show the highest cultural value fit. Those who follow a marginalization or integration orientation are expected to take an intermediate position. They identify highly or lowly with either group, which means that either none of the groups or both are important for the individual's value preferences.
Only few empirical studies previously tested the hypothesis of correspondence between cultural value fit and acculturation orientations. There are a number of studies demonstrating that immigrants’ values approximate those of the receiving country's population. However, most of these studies pursued a uni-dimensional approach, measuring acculturation on a single scale as a continuum from being heritage culture oriented to being oriented towards the receiving culture (e.g., Domino & Acosta, 1987). Other studies showed higher endorsement of values typical for the receiving country among second-compared to first-generation immigrants (e.g., Feldman et al., 1992, Georgas et al., 1996). These studies are also uni-dimensional in nature because they imply a general tendency from the host culture to the culture of the receiving society across generations. A study following the bi-dimensional approach to acculturation is the one by Costigan and Su (2004), who separately examined the orientation towards the heritage (Chinese) group and towards the receiving country among Chinese immigrants to Canada. They found that a stronger Canadian orientation (in terms of behavior and identification) correlated with the endorsement of values characteristic for Canada. Though, the orientation towards the Chinese cultural group was not associated with – as we would expect – less endorsement of values typical for Canada. However, in this study not the value fit in the sense of an actual similarity of immigrants’ values to those shared by the receiving country's population was examined. Instead, the endorsement of values that the authors theoretically assumed to be typical for Canadian culture (the value ‘independence’) was assessed. Thus, the current study attempts to further develop the acculturation research by introducing the perspective of cultural value fit when examining acculturation orientations of immigrants in the framework of Berry's bi-dimensional model.
To examine individuals’ fit to the values of the country they live in, we refer to the model of cultural values as proposed by Schwartz, 1994, Schwartz, 1999, Schwartz, 2006. The author suggested seven cultural value types by which societies can be characterized. These value types provide answers to particular basic questions that a society is confronted with when regulating human activity. Particular such value types regard to the same basic question but provide answers that oppose each other.
The first set of value types – egalitarianism and hierarchy – provides opposing answers to the question how a stable social fabric within a society can be established. How can human interactions and interdependencies be coordinated in order to enable the individuals to be productive instead of destructive for the good of the society (Schwartz, 2011). Societies high on egalitarianism promote the equality of human beings, social justice and mutual responsibility. Human productivity should be encouraged through the commitment to cooperate and act for the welfare of all others. In contrast, societies valuing hierarchy more strongly see an unequal distribution of power and status within the society as a natural and desirable condition. Social relations are hierarchically structured with a certain number of people being superior while others are comparatively subordinate. Such hierarchical structures are viewed as necessary to ensure human productivity.
A second set of opposed cultural value types – intellectual autonomy, affective autonomy, and the opposing value type embededdness – deals with the question how the relations and boundaries between the person and the group should be shaped. It describes the degree to which people should be treated as individuals versus as group members (Schwartz, 2011). In autonomous societies, individuals are encouraged to think, feel, and act as unique individuals. They should follow their own ideas and thoughts (intellectual autonomy), and promote their own positive affective conditions (affective autonomy). Conversely, societies committed to embeddedness values emphasize the integration of individuals into a social entity with shared goals and ways of living. Meaning in life comes through social relationships and identification with groups, whose goals and interests precede individual goals and interests.
The third set of value types – harmony and mastery – provides opposing answers to the questions how human and natural resources should be treated. Societies valuing harmony emphasize the importance of unity with the social and natural environment. One should strive for a world at peace and the protection of the environment, because fitting into the world is more valued than directing it. Conversely, societies valuing mastery promote an active managing, changing and directing of the social and natural world in order to attain group or personal goals.
Again, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, cultural value fit has not yet been examined empirically utilizing Schwartz's approach as a theoretical framework. Cultural fit studies such as Ward, Leong, and Low (2004) have referred to the cultural dimension individualism-collectivism (Hofstede, 2001, Triandis, 1995), or to Schwartz's (1992) theory of ten individual values (e.g., Bernard et al., 2006, Stromberg and Boehnke, 2001), which is conceptually different from his cultural value theory (for a comparison of both approaches see Schwartz, 2011). A comprehensive examination of the cultural value fit proposition using Schwartz's cultural value theory is still lacking.
Section snippets
Participants
Adolescents from four immigrant and ethnic minority groups were surveyed: Immigrants from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) to Israel and Germany, Turkish immigrants to Germany and members of the Arab-Israeli minority in Israel. In Germany, an adolescent was considered an immigrant if she/he her-/himself or at least one of the parents was born in the FSU or in Turkey. In Israel, the criterion differed slightly. Individuals were considered as immigrants from the FSU when having immigrated themselves
Results
Table 2 documents the means and standard deviations for each variable used in the analyses. Arab Israelis and Turkish immigrants to Germany both showed the highest level of identification with the heritage group. The highest level of identification with the receiving country was shown by the group of FSU immigrants to Israel. Within all samples, identification with the heritage group differed significantly from identification with the receiving country. Yet, the scores on both identification
Interpretation and implications of the findings
The current study tested the hypothesis that immigrant individuals who show different patterns of identification with the receiving country as well as the heritage group (acculturation orientations) also differ with regard to their congruence with the cultural values of the receiving country (cultural value fit). We tested this hypothesis among adolescents from four immigrant and minority groups in two receiving countries: FSU immigrants to Germany and Israel, Arab Israelis, and Turkish
Conclusion
The present study demonstrated that migrants’ fit to the cultural values of the receiving country differs according to their acculturation orientations. By that, we added a new perspective to the description of individuals with different acculturation orientations, namely the one of the individual value fit to the receiving country. Similar patterns of results across four different migrant and minority groups in two countries point to the plausibility of the findings. Furthermore, it was shown
Role of the funding source
This study was funded by the German Ministry of Education and Science (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, BMBF). The funding source was neither involved in any steps of the data collection, analyses and interpretation of the data, nor in the writing of this article.
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