Assignment Discussion Brief #5. What do you think of the concept of acculturation for health research? Do you think this model can be improved? What aspects, dimensions or specifics (ie Bornstein) do you think are critical to consider from sociocontextual/socioecological perspective? Do you think US has true “culture of destination”?Your discussion brief should be 1.5 page maximum in length, double-spaced, 12 point font
Use the link please and use the reading also
American Journal of Public Health | August 2006, Vol 96, No. 81342 | Commentary | Peer Reviewed | Abraído-Lanza
COMMENTARY
Toward a Theory-Driven Model of Acculturation in
Public Health Research
| Ana F. Abraído-Lanza, PhD, Adria N. Armbrister, MA, Karen R. Flórez, MPH, and Alejandra N. Aguirre, MPHInterest in studying the
impact of acculturation on
immigrant health has in-
creased in tandem with the
growth of the Latino popu-
lation in the United States.
Linear assimilation models
continue to dominate public
health research despite the
availability of more complex
acculturation theories that
propose multidimensional
frameworks, reciprocal in-
teractions between the indi-
vidual and the environment,
and other acculturative proc-
esses among various Latino
groups.
Because linear and uni-
dimensional assessments
(e.g., nativity, length of stay
in the United States, and
language use) provide con-
stricted measures of accul-
turation, the rare use of
multidimensional accultura-
tion measures and models
has inhibited a more com-
prehensive understanding
of the association between
specific components of ac-
culturation and particular
health outcomes. A public
health perspective that in-
corporates the roles of struc-
tural and cultural forces in
acculturation may help iden-
tify mechanisms underlying
links between acculturation
and health among Latinos.
(Am J Public Health. 2006;
96:1342–1346. doi:10.2105/
AJPH.2005.064980)
BECAUSE OF ITS ORIENTATION
in and emphasis on health dis-
parities, the field of public health
should pay particular attention
to the impact of acculturation
on the health of Latinos. Latinos
are currently the largest ethnic
minority group in the United
States, numbering 35.3 million
persons and comprising 12.5%
of the country’s population.1
Although the percentage varies
across the different Latino
groups, more than two thirds
(65.2%) of Latinos (excluding
Puerto Ricans) living in the
United States are foreign-born.2
This large proportion of immi-
grants illustrates, in part, the
importance of considering
acculturation in research on
the health of Latinos.
Although definitions vary, ac-
culturation is broadly described
as the process by which individu-
als adopt the attitudes, values,
customs, beliefs, and behaviors
of another culture.3,4 The process
of acculturation presents numer-
ous challenges and life changes
that could potentially benefit or
adversely affect the health of im-
migrants as well as subsequent
US-born generations. Therefore,
it is important to consider accul-
turation processes when studying
the health of all Latinos in the
United States.
In the social and behavioral sci-
ences, there is a rich theoretical
literature on acculturation; how-
ever, models from this literature
have not been applied to much
public health research. Theoreti-
cally grounded studies of accul-
turation could provide effective
analytic tools for current efforts to
address health disparities among
Latinos. Because of its orientation
toward and examination of large-
scale structural and cultural forces
that promote health, prevent dis-
ease, and affect illness experi-
ences, a public health perspective
on acculturation may offer a
deeper understanding of Latino
health. Thus, a public health ap-
proach could contribute much to
the development and refinement
of acculturation theory and simul-
taneously address the health
needs of Latino populations in the
United States.
ACCULTURATION THEORY
AND MEASUREMENT
Research on acculturation and
health has not kept pace with ac-
culturation theory. As illustrated
in detailed reviews of the accul-
turation literature,3–7 in the early
1900s numerous social scientists
offered various acculturation the-
ories. The most influential mod-
els were set forth by sociologists
from the human ecological
school of thought, most notably
Park.8 In essence, Park proposed
a linear and directional process
by which loss of the original cul-
ture occurs through greater ac-
culturation. Despite the evolution
of more elaborate paradigms in
the social and behavioral sci-
ences, these linear assimilation
models were adopted by much
of the public health research on
acculturation.
With few notable exceptions,9
reciprocal acculturation processes,
or the influence of immigrant
groups on American society, re-
main virtually untested,7 as do
other more expansive contempo-
rary theories. Such models posit
orthogonal relations between the
original and the new culture,10 re-
sulting in various orientations that
include biculturalism (e.g., strong
adherence to both Mexican and
American value systems). Other
multidimensional models propose
typologies on the basis of cultural
awareness and ethnic loyalty.11
Still others postulate that immi-
grants selectively adopt traits and
behaviors from the new culture,
especially those traits leading to
increased economic and social
mobility, while maintaining cer-
tain values from their original
culture.3,4
There are numerous scales
available to measure accultura-
tion, perhaps reflecting its di-
verse conceptualizations. Al-
though the measurement of
acculturation is a matter of con-
troversy and debate12 in public
health literature, indexes of ac-
culturation that predominate are
nativity or generational status,
length of residence in the
United States, and language use.
These simple descriptors are
useful in laying the groundwork
for acculturation and for de-
scribing the heterogeneity of the
Latino population, but they are
limited in their ability to capture
all the nuances of acculturation
and to tap directly immigrants’
adherence to American values.
Furthermore, such proxy mea-
sures largely reflect the linear
and directional assumption of
earlier acculturation theories. To
August 2006, Vol 96, No. 8 | American Journal of Public Health Abraído-Lanza | Peer Reviewed | Commentary | 1343
COMMENTARY
address some of these problems,
multidimensional scales have
been developed to tap domains
such as language, food, and
music preferences; the extent of
social ties and contacts with
friends of the same ethnic
group; parents’ place of birth;
ethnic identity; and social affilia-
tion with Latinos versus
Anglos.9,13,14 However, many of
these scales are scored by sum-
ming across items (with greater
scores reflecting strong adher-
ence to Anglo culture). Such
procedures minimize the utility
of measuring the multiple di-
mensions of acculturation.15,16
Greater advances in research
on acculturation and health
could be made if acculturation
were represented as a “latent
variable” with various indicators.
This allows the measurement of
Latino cultural “worldviews” or
belief systems, values (e.g., indi-
vidualism vs familialism), linguis-
tic preferences, and other behav-
iors and preferences, which
would represent the latent vari-
able of acculturation. Moreover,
the use of more elaborate statis-
tical techniques, such as struc-
tural equations,17 allows for the
associations between specific in-
dicators of acculturation and var-
ious health outcomes to be mod-
eled. Furthermore, because
health behaviors encompass a
disparate array of variables,
ranging from dietary practices to
the use of social support systems,
acculturation may be measured
best by considering factors rele-
vant to the particular health
issue at hand, rather than by a
monolithic “acculturation” con-
cept. For example, research on
obesity may be best served by
asking specific acculturation
questions on nutrition (e.g., ad-
herence to “traditional” diets
consisting of low-fat foods such
as beans, rice, and vegetables) or
other culturally based behaviors
(e.g., attitudes about exercise).
This would help identify the spe-
cific components of acculturation
that are associated with particu-
lar health outcomes.18
Many existing theories and
scales disregard historical, socie-
tal, and other structural factors,
as well as social dynamics that
promote and maintain specific
acculturation orientations or pat-
terns, such as biculturalism.
Pochismo, which is the fusion and
crystallization of American and
Mexican cultural elements that
evolved among Mexican Ameri-
cans of the southern border of
the United States,19 is a salient
example of this type of bicultur-
alism. In fact, pochismo could be
considered a distinct and free-
standing culture with its own
language (Spanglish), music, and
identity that evolved from the
dynamic and reciprocal interac-
tion of Mexican and American
cultures in the border region and
that would prove very difficult to
assess with current acculturation
measures.
As described in subsequent
sections, however, historical and
sociopolitical factors that influ-
ence immigration vary across the
different Latino groups. There-
fore, the specific types of social
and structural factors that should
be taken into account may de-
pend on the particular Latino
group being studied.
ACCULTURATION AS A
HEALTH RISK OR A
PROTECTIVE FACTOR
The integration of accultura-
tion theory into public health re-
search could advance the study
of various Latino health issues.
With respect to global health
indicators, such as all-cause
mortality and life expectancy,
there is growing evidence of bet-
ter health among Latinos than
among non-Latino Whites.20–24
However, high levels of accul-
turation among Latinos are asso-
ciated with increased rates of
cancer, infant mortality, and
other indicators of poor physical
and mental health.3,25 With
some exceptions,26 rates of risky
health behaviors (e.g., smoking,
alcohol use, high body mass
index) also increase with accul-
turation.17,23,27–33 These findings
suggest that, in the process of
acculturation, Latinos may be
exposed to different risk factors
or may adopt unhealthy behav-
iors that result in shifts in mor-
bidity and mortality for various
diseases.
The results are not all nega-
tive, however. Although accul-
turation is a “risk factor” for
myriad unhealthy behaviors,
there is also some evidence that
it is associated with several
healthy behaviors, such as
greater exercise and leisure-time
physical activity.17,27,28,34 The
observations that acculturation
can be both a risk and a protec-
tive factor for various health be-
haviors requires further study.17
However, research on these is-
sues has been hampered by the
measurement problems de-
scribed in the previous section.
For example, multidimensional
scales may be useful in identify-
ing specific components of ac-
culturation, such as norms con-
cerning smoking or alcohol
consumption, that present risk
or protective factors for particu-
lar health problems, such as to-
bacco use or binge drinking.9
The role of acculturation as a
risk and protective factor also
raises some intriguing theoreti-
cal issues and unanswered
questions.
NEED FOR THEORETICAL
MODELS
Despite growing evidence of
the association between accul-
turation and health behaviors
among Latinos in the United
States, few theories have been
proposed to explain these ef-
fects. In general, there is a great
lack of theoretical models on ac-
culturation and physical health
outcomes.35
Acculturation may be a proxy
for other variables, such as pro-
longed exposure to stressful
events or adverse circumstances,
including those associated with
immigration and eventual settle-
ment, or disadvantaged social
status. Although proxy variables
have not been fully investigated,
the adverse effect of accultura-
tion on health is not always at-
tenuated when adjusting for so-
cial disadvantage confounders
(specifically, socioeconomic sta-
tus).17,25 To date, there is a lack
of research on theoretical models
concerning the mechanisms by
which acculturation affects
health. Acculturation may affect
health behaviors as a conse-
quence of coping responses to
discrimination and poverty; loss
of social networks; exposure to
different models of health behav-
ior; and changes in identity, be-
havioral prescriptions, beliefs,
values, or norms.
An underlying assumption in
the literature is that beliefs or
norms concerning particular be-
haviors change with greater ac-
culturation. These mutable be-
liefs and norms are seldom
tested, however. One recent
study indicated that the majority
(almost 75%) of less accultur-
ated Latinas considered it worse
to be a smoker than to be obese,
and the majority (nearly 75%)
of more acculturated Latinas
American Journal of Public Health | August 2006, Vol 96, No. 81344 | Commentary | Peer Reviewed | Abraído-Lanza
COMMENTARY
held the opposite opinion.36 If
we assume that these norms are
reflected in women’s behavior
concerning smoking and mainte-
nance of weight, they are consis-
tent with some observations in
the literature (e.g., that accultura-
tion increases the odds of smok-
ing and exercise among Lati-
nas)27,28,37,38 but not others
(e.g., that acculturation increases
the likelihood of high body mass
index).27,28,30
Overall, changes in values,
belief systems, and worldviews
have remained unexplored in
public health research on accul-
turation and health outcomes.
Yet a growing literature docu-
ments the importance of consid-
ering the impact of acculturation
on these psychosocial variables
and their role in shaping the
health of Latinos.35,39 Whether
cultural values and other psycho-
social mechanisms—as well as
their associated effects on
health—decline with greater ac-
culturation remains a question
for further research.
ACCULTURATION TO
WHAT?
Another critical theoretical
question concerns the reference
culture to which Latinos are ac-
culturating. Although the refer-
ence group is not always speci-
fied,12 implicit in much research
on acculturation is the unwritten
understanding that White Ameri-
cans are the standard makers for
“American-ness.” In many studies
and measures, the assumption is
that increased acculturation
brings immigrants’ values and be-
haviors in line with a standard-
ized set of values, primarily those
associated with “White American
culture.”16(p39) Positing that White
culture is the reference point for
acculturation may misrepresent
acculturation and limit the under-
standing of complex health re-
sponses and outcomes among
Latinos. Therefore, a fuller
understanding of acculturation
processes among Latinos must in-
clude the interactions of Latinos
with other groups of color (whose
ability to disappear in the main-
stream is limited). This approach
must take into consideration the
prevalence of racial conflict and
the degree to which the dualistic
racial system is embedded in the
United States.40
Segmented assimilation the-
ory, which portrays immigrants
and their subsequent generations
as complex and active members
of their lived environments, pre-
sents an alternative to the as-
sumption that White culture is
invariably the reference point for
acculturation.5 Segmented assimi-
lation refers to diverse patterns
of adaptation whereby immigrant
groups differentially adopt the
attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors
of divergent cultural groups in
the United States. For example,
whereas some second-generation
Haitian adolescents do follow a
“standard” pattern of assimilation
to middle-class White America,
others adopt the values and
norms of Black inner-city youth.40
Thus, the segmented assimilation
framework documents various
potential patterns of accultura-
tion, highlighting the importance
of considering varied reference
groups and diverse patterns of
adaptation.
Pivotal to the concept of seg-
mented assimilation is the ac-
knowledgment of structural con-
straints faced by ethnic minority
groups, who often reside in large
metropolitan areas with high
rates of residential segregation
and racism.41 Often, the synergis-
tic effects of segregation and
racism isolate residents from
amenities and services and con-
centrate large numbers of mi-
norities in economically disad-
vantaged urban areas. The
inevitable interaction occurring
at economic, political, cultural,
and social levels between differ-
ent ethnic groups living in multi-
ethnic neighborhoods (e.g., Do-
minicans living with African
Americans in the South Bronx) is
largely neglected by the accultur-
ation literature. A paucity of
studies attempt to measure the
extent to which Latinos report
closeness or ideological familiar-
ity with African Americans.42
We are aware of no public health
studies that examine whether
Latinos adopt the culture of
other ethnic minority populations
in the United States, how struc-
tural factors (e.g., residential seg-
regation) may operate to promote
“ethnic minority acculturation,”
or the impact of this process on
health.
Issues such as acculturation in
the context of residential segrega-
tion, racism, and other deleteri-
ous aspects of life as a minority
in the United States demand at-
tention from a forward-thinking
public health research commu-
nity. Equally important to this
reconceptualized version of ac-
culturation is the exploration of
how ethnic enclaves might affect
health positively or negatively
through cultural, economic, and
social mechanisms.5,40 A public
health approach should consider
contextual and structural factors
in acculturation and challenge
the popular notion of White
American culture as the “accul-
turation standard.” This approach
could offer some innovative
methods to understand health
disparities in lived environments
while also effectively describing
the reality of minority groups in
the United States.
GENDER AND AGE
Research is also needed to bet-
ter understand why the effect of
acculturation on certain health
behaviors varies by gender and
age or developmental stage. For
example, as Latino men and
women acculturate, their alco-
hol use and smoking patterns
reflect the gender-related behav-
ioral norms in the United
States.31,33,38,43 In studies of
youths, greater acculturation in-
creases the likelihood of alcohol
use and smoking44–46; however,
acculturation operates with other
psychosocial factors pertinent to
the adolescent life stage (e.g.,
peer influence, low self-esteem,
self-efficacy to resist smoking and
alcohol use) to determine risky
health behaviors.47–49 Such find-
ings challenge the assumption of
a direct relation between accul-
turation and health behaviors.
These findings further illustrate
the need for more comprehen-
sive theoretical models that in-
corporate structural and contex-
tual factors, as well as mediating
variables, to explain the associa-
tion between acculturation and
health among Latinos in the
United States. Further studies
should also examine whether be-
haviors that are attributed to ac-
culturation (e.g., tobacco and al-
cohol use), instead reflect stages
of development or gender norms.
THE COMPLEXITIES OF
“CULTURE”
Simplifying culture into “eth-
nic,” “assimilated,” or other “risk”
categories (e.g., “high” vs “low”
acculturation) can inadvertently
fuel weak explanations of health
disparities by focusing attention
on culture rather than on struc-
tural constraints (e.g., lack of ac-
cess to resources).50 Yet much
August 2006, Vol 96, No. 8 | American Journal of Public Health Abraído-Lanza | Peer Reviewed | Commentary | 1345
COMMENTARY
current research uses proxies of
culture and acculturation without
examining the societal contexts
that promote or inhibit health.
The role of individual agency on
health can be overestimated if
structural constraints are not con-
sidered.51 For example, US immi-
gration policy was amenable to
Cuban immigrants fleeing the
Castro regime (especially in the
1960s–1970s), and federal set-
tlement-assistance programs (e.g.,
the US Migration and Refugee
Assistance Act of 196252) were
established specifically to assist
them. Partly because of the up-
ward social mobility afforded by
these programs, today Cubans
are among the most healthy of
all long-standing Latino groups
in the United States.25
Other groups seeking political
asylum (e.g., Salvadorans and
Mariel Cubans), however, were
treated to noticeably less hospi-
tality. What is the impact (if
any) of these historical and po-
litical factors on acculturation
processes and health outcomes,
and how might they contribute
to different patterns among the
various Latino groups in the
United States? Although the
contextual features of accultura-
tion (e.g., circumstances before
immigrating, the political and
social climate of the United
States upon arrival) could deter-
mine the extent to which indi-
viduals and heterogeneous La-
tino groups adapt to new
environments, these contexts
are rarely studied.15,17,40
The complexity of these issues
led some researchers to suggest
that the use of acculturation
measures be suspended.12 We
disagree with this recommenda-
tion. Instead, we propose that
to understand Latino realities in
the United States, it is critical to
describe the context in which
ongoing cultural negotiations
take place and the dynamics
that reproduce and reconfig-
ure “Latino culture” according to
the equally complex American
settings in which immigrants and
other people of color find them-
selves. A consideration of the
intersection of large-scale social
forces and culture is critical to
stimulating the exploration of
much-neglected sociological con-
cepts, namely, class and power
dynamics in the public health lit-
erature on acculturation. Such
avenues of research could prove
to be fruitful in explaining the
complexities surrounding Latino
acculturation and health in the
United States.
CONCLUSIONS
Although we raise more ques-
tions than we answer, we pro-
pose that a theory-based public
health framework could con-
tribute much to understanding
the factors and mechanisms un-
derlying the association between
acculturation and health among
Latinos. If cultural norms, beliefs,
and values as well as broader
structural factors are considered,
a public health research agenda
on acculturation and health may
help to shift the paradigm from
linear models to models that are
multidimensional and more
comprehensive. A public health
framework offers the promising
opportunity to build new para-
digms that incorporate and ex-
pand on social and behavioral
science acculturation theories
and that cross disciplinary
boundaries. There is no doubt
that Latinos in the United States
face many hardships (e.g., pov-
erty, inadequate access to health
care, discrimination). However,
perhaps it is time to identify
and differentiate the cultural
resources and structural factors
that better explain how accultur-
ation affects health.
About the Authors
All authors are with the Department of
Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School
of Public Health, Columbia University,
New York, NY.
Requests for reprints should be sent to
Ana Abraído-Lanza, PhD, Department of
Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of
Public Health, Columbia University, 722
West 168 St, 5th floor, New York, NY
10032 (e-mail: aabraido@columbia.edu).
This article was accepted September 23,
2005.
Contributors
A. Abraído-Lanza originated the article
and took the lead role in its writing. All
authors participated in the literature re-
view and in the writing and revising of
the article.
Acknowledgments
Support for preparing this manuscript
was provided by the Initiative for Minor-
ity Student Development at Columbia’s
Mailman School of Public Health, an ed-
ucation project funded by the National
Institute of General Medical Sciences
(R25GM62454), by the National Can-
cer Institute (R03CA107876), and by
the Columbia Center for the Health of
Urban Minorities, funded by the Na-
tional Center on Minority Health and
Health Disparities (P60MD00206).
We give special thanks to Antonio T.
Abraído.
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The Specifici
t
y Principle in Acculturation Science
Marc H. Bornstein
Child and Family Research, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human
Development, National Institutes of Health, Public Health Service
Abstract
The Specificity Principle in Acculturation Science asserts that specific setting conditions of
specific people at specific times moderate specific domains in acculturation by specific processes.
Our understanding of acculturation depends critically on what is studied where, in whom, how,
and when. This article defines, explains, and illustrates the Specificity Principle in Acculturation
Science. Research hypotheses about acculturation can be more adequately tested, inconsistencies
and discrepancies in the acculturation literature can be satisfactorily resolved, acculturation
interventions can be tailored to be more successful, and acculturation policies can be brought to
new levels of effectiveness if the specificity principle that governs acculturation science is more
widely recognized.
Migration and Acculturation
The world is in motion. Throughout human history, people have been on the move, and
migration and acculturation have been facts of the human condition ever since peoples of the
African savannah radiated outward in their treks to new lands (Cann, Stoneking, & Wilson,
1987; Jin et al., 1999; Stringer, 1988). Polynesian expansion, Phoenician trade, Jewish
diaspora, Persian realm, Alexandrian conquest, Roman hegemony, Hun invasion, Umayyad
caliphate, Viking settlement, Ifat sultanate, Hanseatic league, and Columbian exchange
illuminate the history of successive intercultural contacts, just as, beginning 23 centuries BC
with Sargon’s expansion of Akkad across the Fertile Crescent, Egyptian, Kushite, Aksumite,
Ottoman, Inca, Mongol, Songhai, Moghul, Napoleonic, and British empires—all
intercultural permeations—followed one another inexorably. Indeed, human beings have not
ceased migrating even though virtually all habitable places on earth have long since been
settled.
It comes as little surprise, then, that migration and acculturation are global concerns in our
own time. Everywhere one looks, the numbers stun. What in 1990 was 154 million and in
2000 175 million, the United Nations (U.N.) Population Division reported that as of 2015
nearly 245 million people live outside the country of their birth or citizenship. That
translates into roughly 1 in every 30 people on the face of the globe (United Nations, 2016).
Address correspondence to: Dr. Marc H. Bornstein, Child and Family Research, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child
Health and Human Development, Suite 8030, 6705 Rockledge Drive, Bethesda MD 20892-7971, USA, TEL: 301-496-6832, FAX:
301-496-2766, Marc_H_Bornstein@nih.gov.
HHS Public Access
Author manuscript
Perspect Psychol Sci. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2018 January 01.
Published in final edited form as:
Perspect Psychol Sci. 2017 January ; 12(1): 3–45. doi:10.1177/1745691616655997.
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The top three countries in the world with foreign born as percentages of their populations are
Luxembourg with 42%, Israel with 32%, and Switzerland with 28%. In 2010, about 6.5% of
the total population of European countries had foreign nationalities, and 9.4% were born
abroad (Vasileva, 2011). As has been observed, if subsequent generations are added to first-
generation migrants the numbers become even bigger. Western European countries have
about 20% immigrants (up to the third generation), and Australia has more than twice that
number.
The quantity of people forced to flee their homes – within their countries as well as
internationally – far surpassed 60 million in 2015. The U.N. High Commissioner for
Refugees estimated that at one point in 2015 an average of ~5,000 migrants a day travelled
just from Turkey to Greece. In the “biblical march” of refugees from the Middle East to the
European Union (E.U.), about 1.1 million people sought protection in Germany in 2015, and
Austria reported that asylum applications increased 231% from 2014 to 2015; by the close
of 2015, more than 170,000 migrants had entered Slovenia, equivalent to approximately 8%
of the country’s extant population, and more than 160,000 Syrians, Iraqis, Afghans and
others applied for asylum in Sweden in 2015.
Most contemporary societies are far from culturally homogenous, but entertain (usually
roiling) sociopolitical conditions associated with such vibrant emigration and/or
immigration. Migration is consequently one of the defining issues of the 21st C and currently
forms an essential feature of the social and economic life of virtually every contemporary
nation state.
The United States is “a nation of immigrants” (Kennedy, 1964). The largest numerical
foreign-born population in the world resides in the United States, which was home to 47
million foreign-residents in 2015, or 19% of the population (United Nations, 2016). In the
18th C, when the colonies proclaimed their independence from Great Britain, the colonists
were all immigrants clinging to a narrow strip of land on the North American continent’s
eastern seaboard. Assembled in Philadelphia, the colonists’ representatives charged Thomas
Jefferson to write out their Declaration of Independence. That celebrated document is
surprisingly short, divided into three main parts. The first is a crisp statement of natural
rights. In the second part, Jefferson and his compatriots enumerated 18 grievances the
colonists held against the King of England. In Number 7, the colonists, being migrants and
wanting to promote immigration and increase their numbers, remonstrated King George for
having “endeavored to prevent the population of these States; … obstructing the Laws of
Naturalization of Foreigners; [and] refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations
hither ….”. In the third part, the Founding Fathers explicitly “reminded” their British
cousins “of the circumstances of [their] emigration and settlement… .”
So, the United States is, and has always been, a country of acculturating peoples, even if the
countries of origin of its naturalizing citizens have constantly shifted. Since its founding, the
United States has sustained two distinct waves of authorized immigration (discounting
unauthorized immigration in the form of the slave trade that dominated the 18th to mid-19th
Cs). The first from Europe reached a crescendo at the turn of the 20th C. Today’s second
wave of immigrants emanates from Latin America and Asia. The total population of Latin
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Americans reached 55.4 million in 2014 or 17.4% of the total U.S. population (Krogstad &
Lopez, 2015), making people of Latin origin the nation’s largest ethnic minority. Between
July 1, 2011, and July 1, 2012, 1.1 million Latin Americans constituted close to half of the
approximately 2.3 million people added to the U.S. population during the same period (U.S.
Census Bureau, 2012a). The projected 2060 Latin American population of the United States
is 128.8 million, or 31% of the U.S. population (Krogstad & Lopez, 2015; Passel, Cohn, &
Gonzalez-Barrera, 2012; U.S. Census Bureau, 2012b).
A record total of 20.25 million Asian Americans (U. S. Census Bureau, 2014) expanded
more than 45% between 2000 and 2012 (Hoeffel, Rastogi, Kim, & Shahid, 2012) to
constitute more than 5% of the population of the United States. Natural population growth
accounted for a small proportion of this increase (Humes, Jones, Ramirez, 2011); rather,
Asian American population growth was fueled by immigration and is projected to triple by
2050, when approximately 50% of Asian Americans will be foreign born (Passel & Cohn,
2008; U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). Children of immigrants are currently the fastest growing
population of children in the United States, accounting for nearly 1 in 4 of all children living
in America (Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics, 2011).
Migrants bring one culture into contact with another culture. Culture defines the ways in
which a collection of people processes and makes sense of their experiences, and so
generally speaking culture refers to shared meanings, understandings, or referents and
permeates a wide array of biological, psychological, and social processes (Bornstein, 2010;
Shore, 2002; Triandis, 1995). Acculturation traditionally refers to changes that take place in
all those domains as a result of contacts between culturally dissimilar peoples (Gibson,
Acculturation transpires at both individual and societal levels. At the societal level,
acculturation involves changes in social structures, service institutions, and cultural
practices. At the individual level, acculturation involves changes in a person’s customs,
habits, activities, language, and values. Immigrants face multiple challenges in acculturating
within a dominant or existing society, retaining or surrendering beliefs and behaviors from
their culture of origin while eschewing or adopting those from their culture of destination.
Thus, acculturation is a complex phenomenon comprising multiple processes and is rightly
thought of as an instance of the most thoroughgoing sort of individual disorganization and
reorganization. For example, immigrants may convert overnight from membership in the
majority group in their culture of origin to membership in a minority group in their culture
of destination (Schwartz, Unger, Zamboanga, & Szapocznik, 2010).
What this Article Aims to Do, its Context, and Limitations
The main aim of this article is to deconstruct the topical and higher-order construct of
acculturation through the introduction, explication, and illustration of five terms that
compose a Specificity Principle in Acculturation Science. The five terms consist of specific
setting conditions, specific peoples, specific times, specific processes, and specific domains
of acculturation. Their recognition and regard are meant to transform acculturation science
in ways that may be consequential theoretically, heuristic empirically, and useful practically.
The notion of acculturation dates back at least to Plato, and modern psychological thinking
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about acculturation began with G. Stanley Hall (1904) and Thomas and Znaniecki
(1918/1958), even if the construct entered the scientific literature a bit earlier through
linguistics (Powell, 1880, 1900) and sociology (McGee, 1898). Since Taft (1953, 1957) and
Born (1970), acculturation has been widely theorized to consist, in a nutshell, of a small
number of categories or types: assimilation, separation, integration, and marginalization. The
Specificity Principle offers a more nuanced and realistic logical next step in the
advancement of acculturation science. The Specificity Principle stands in contrast to that
typological construction, asserting a perspective that is sensitive to the many variations
found among contemporary migrants and their circumstances and so promises greater
fidelity to acculturation study and greater purchase on explanatory power than any “one size
fits all” belief. The overarching theory that grounds the Specificity Principle, and thus the
central argument of specificity, appeals to a moderator view that focuses on how key factors
influence the size and direction of acculturation: As the burgeoning literature amply reveals,
moderator effects are pervasive in acculturation, and here I illustrate them with numerous
examples.
It is important to underscore at the outset that the following treatment is not exhaustive in
delineating terms of specificity in acculturation, so this article does not pretend to be the
final word on which variables to include or exclude in specificity. It is only a start. Nor are
the five terms of the Specificity Principle as enumerated and elaborated here rigidly
mutually exclusive, but as in many taxonomies the terms sometimes interact and marginally
infringe on one another, and so their interactions are also discussed. Nonetheless, conceptual
distinctions among the main terms of the Specificity Principle will be intuitive. Further, this
article does not comprehensively review all studies in acculturation; already that flourishing
literature does not submit to easy summary. Rather, the goal here is to demonstrate the value
of integrating information from diverse perspectives in fundamentally re-thinking the next
developments in acculturation theory, science, and research. To substantiate its practical
worth, the article concludes with a brief exploration of prominent implications of this new
specificity view in acculturation science for empiricism and praxis.
In lifespan human development some characteristics and experiences have broad
implications. Where one is born, how much education one accrues, one’s gender, as
examples, doubtless have pervasive consequences over the life course. Even so, as life
proceeds, advantages and disadvantages cumulate to heterogeneity—so much so that
variability and so specificity are inevitable. That is, the lifespan development of specific
characteristics in specific individuals is affected by specific experiences in specific ways at
specific times. This is the Specificity Principle. To complement universals, understanding
often depends on what is studied, in whom, how, and when. The Specificity Principle
therefore differs from many common assumptions, for example that overall stimulation
influences overall development or better diet ensures better health. Some such generalities
may be valid. However, it is not the case necessarily that a monolithic global shared
experience affects performance in all areas of life, is adequate to adaptive functioning, or
compensates for selective deficiencies. Familial love, financial well-being, or a stimulating
environment do not guarantee, or even speak to, lifespan development of specific
characteristics, such as a healthy diet, empathic personality, verbal competence, sports
prowess, ethical action, or myriad others. Rather, contemporary science indicates that
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specificities are often at play. The Specificity Principle advances a theory that is
particularistic in nature, such that development depends on several separate identifiable
factors, including the experience involved, who experiences and who generates the
experience, when in life the experience occurs, how the experience occurs, and the domain
of development affected by experience.
Relatedly, with respect to philosophy of science, specificity is not contending absolute
reductionism. As noted, the life course embraces some generalizations. As will become
evident, acculturation naturally does so as well. It is possible to hold to specificity and to
acknowledge some generalizations (marked along the way and in the conclusions).
Specificity in Acculturation
A widespread assumption in contemporary acculturation study is that the processes and
pathways of acculturation are categorical and essentially universal. In précis, individuals
who relinquish their culture-of-origin identity and adopt the values, norms, and traditions of
their culture of destination assimilate into that new culture. Individuals who cling to their
culture of origin and eschew interaction and identification with members of their culture of
destination separate themselves. Individuals who maintain the integrity of their original
culture while they also participate in the mainstream culture of destination integrate
themselves. Individuals who fail to maintain their original culture and avoid relations with
the majority culture are said to be marginalized (Berry, 1997). However, the emerging
literature in acculturation science reveals that acculturation is actually a much more subtle
and differentiated process moderated by multiple factors, disabusing us of typological
notions or broad generalities.
The Specificity Principle in Acculturation Science asserts that specific setting
conditions of specific peoples at specific times moderate specific domains of
acculturation via specific processes.
In the context of the prevailing typological approach to acculturation, this principle is a bit
counterintuitive and complicates our theoretical, empirical, and practical lives — but is
nonetheless emerging as true. We need to parse this principle into its several “specifics” of
setting, person, time, process, and domain to best understand the principle, how it works,
and how to take advantage of it.
Figure 1
shows the plan. Here, I deconstruct acculturation
and define, examine, and illustrate each term of the specificity principle as well as their
interactions and afterward briefly discuss the principle’s manifold implications for science
and policy, asserting a next step in the intellectual progression of understanding
acculturation.
Specificity Principle: Setting Condition
Setting conditions of acculturation include reasons for migrating, place, experience, and
status. That is, migration arises for myriad causes, such as natural or predictable responses
with respect to resources, occupation, family reunification, demographic growth, climate
change, financial insecurity, exploitation of human rights, political or religious persecution,
and war. Emigration can occur from any country, and immigration to any country, and so all
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possible combinations and permutations of place are possible. Other relevant setting
conditions at the societal and individual levels involve immersion experience, legal status,
and so forth. Each setting condition moderates acculturation meaningfully.
Setting Condition: Reason to Migrate
Migration may be voluntary or involuntary, temporary or permanent. Some migrants
leave their homelands by choice, in search of family reunion and marriage, economic
opportunity and employment, the promise of a stable and prosperous future for themselves
and their children, or a more compatible sociopolitical climate as in expatriation (Perreira,
Chapman, & Stein, 2006). A frequent pathway to acculturation, accounting for about two-
thirds of permanent immigration to the United States for example, is through desired family
reunification as promoted by the Immigration Act of 1965 (and analogously Canada’s
Immigration Act of 1952). Economic theory posits that migration is also motivated by the
desire to maximize economic well-being (Borjas, 1987). As voluntary migrants to the United
States, Jamaican families profess to emigrate for better economic and educational
opportunities rather than to escape oppression or human rights violations (Ferguson,
Bornstein, & Pottinger, 2012). Temporary sojourners (foreign students, religious
proselytizers, occupying soldiers, guest workers) usually relocate on a time-limited basis
with intentions to return to their country of origin (Berry, 2006; Schwartz et al., 2010).
By contrast with these classes of voluntary migrants, involuntary migrants may be brought
permanently into contact with a new culture for political reasons or through slavery, escape,
abuse, persecution, defection, financial extortion, sexual exploitation, conquest, or
colonization (Gieling, Thijs, & Verkuyten, 2011; Ogbu, 1991). During the reign of the
generals in South American countries such as Argentina and Chile, droves of the middle
class sought refuge in their ancestors’ home countries in Western Europe. Refugees
displaced by war or natural disasters are currently estimated at 15.1 million persons
worldwide (UN HCR, 2015). Asylum seekers from war zones and terror regimes pursue
sanctuary in a new country because of fear of persecution or violence. Since 2013, Europe
has witnessed a sharp increase in the number of such asylees. In Germany, more than 35,000
people applied for political asylum in the month of June 2015 alone (Bundesamt für
Migration und Flüchtlinge, 2015). The United States has witnessed a surge of families and
unaccompanied minors since 2014 that originated in Central America on account of drug
trafficking, gang violence, and extreme droughts across the Golden Triangle of El Salvador,
Honduras, and Guatemala. North Korea is unwittingly fostering clandestine “chain
migrations” among family members who escape hunger and repression to the South and then
mount funds to bribe brokers and secret relatives out of the North in seriatim. These different
motives surrounding migration – voluntary versus involuntary, temporary versus permanent
– and the vulnerabilities and strengths that each introduces condition different pathways of
acculturation.
Impetuses and experiences of immigrants who choose their culture of destination versus
ones who do not differ qualitatively and in ways that shape the drive or opportunity of each
to adapt to their new culture (Akhtar, 1999). For example, historical reasons for migration
have been invoked to explain why contemporary African American mothers parent in one
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way and Mexican American mothers parent in a different way: Individuals with family
histories of voluntary immigration for economic reasons display less resistance to the
dominant culture than individuals with family histories of forced migration through
enslavement (Ispa et al., 2013; Nguyen & Benet-Martínez, 2010). Holroyd, Molassiotis, and
Taylor-Pilliae (2001) compared three types of biculturals, keeping overarching cultural
context constant: immigrants who permanently relocated from one cultural context to
another (Mainland Chinese immigrants to Hong Kong), sojourners who worked in the
foreign culture for limited periods of time (Filipina domestic helpers in Hong Kong), and
majority individuals who came into contact with a second cultural group and language in
their home culture (college students in Hong Kong and in Mainland China). Each group
followed a distinct path of acculturative change.
Setting Condition: Place
Place, a second setting condition, has several construals, each of which moderates
acculturation. One reading of place is the culture of origin. Unlike their Western European
immigrant peers to Israel, immigrants from the former Soviet Union (FSU) to Israel were
not able to withdraw their savings before emigration; these contrasting financial constraints
had contrasting consequences for the subsequent economic independence and security of
each group as immigrants (Mirsky & Barasch, 1993). Although 95% of authorized
immigration to the United States from Mexico occurs for reasons of family unification,
percentages appealing to that rationale vary dramatically among the top nations sending
emigrants to the United States: Philippines (77%), Vietnam (68%), Taiwan (59%), and India
(43%). Acculturation among Latin American immigrants to the United States similarly
depends on their country of origin (Mendoza, Javier, & Burgos, 2007): Dominican American
and Mexican American infants’ vocabulary acquisition, even though both are Spanish
speaking and living New York City, differ (Song, Tamis-LeMonda, Yoshikawa, Kahana-
Kalman, & Wu, 2012). Patterns of residence and geographic mobility among Puerto Ricans
in the United States differ from those of other Latino groups, such as Mexicans and Cubans
Zsembik & Fennell, 2005). Likewise, Asian Americans describe heterogeneous groups of
peoples in the United States who trace their ancestry to many Asian countries (Barringer,
Gardner, & Levin, 1993; Lowe, 1991).
Early adolescents emigrating from China, Central America, the Dominican Republic, Haiti,
and Mexico and migrating to the United States all separated from one or both parents for
extended periods and were all likely to report depressive symptoms (Suárez-Orozco &
Suárez-Orozco, 2001). However, these groups differed in how separations were managed.
Chinese families frequently migrated as a unit, whereas Haitians nearly always incurred a
family disruption. Chinese children reported the fewest, and Haitian children reported the
most, depressive symptoms. A meta-analysis of 83 studies revealed an overall positive
association between biculturalism and adjustment (Nguyen & Benet-Martínez, 2013).
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However, associations varied across immigrant groups and across countries of origin: Latin,
Asian, and European immigrants had positive biculturalism-adjustment associations,
whereas African immigrants had negligible or negative associations. A study from Germany
investigated whether ethnic differences in parenting reflect different investment strategies in
the future welfare of offspring as indicated by parents’ expectations about the
instrumentality (perceived costs and benefits) of schooling. Comparing German mother-
child dyads, Vietnamese dyads, and Turkish dyads, Nauck and Lotter (2015) found
differences in parenting styles, reflecting more active control in collectivist cultures
(Vietnam) and a strong emphasis on children’s individual needs in individualist cultures
(Germany) with an intermediate position of Turkey.
Calling on data from the New Immigrant Survey, Bradley, Pennar, and Glick (2014)
described the home environments of children (ages birth to 3 years) whose parents legally
immigrated to the United States. Results revealed stark variation in 32 indicators of home
conditions by both country (Mexico, El Salvador, India, Philippines) and region (East Asia,
Europe, Caribbean, Africa). Similarly, when Xu, Farver, and Krieg (2017) compared the
home environments of Chinese Americans, Filipino Americans, and Vietnamese Americans,
they uncovered group differences in parents’ English reading skills and involvement in
literacy activities in English and in their native language as well as in the numbers of
children’s picture books in the home. Hernandez and Napierala (2012) reported that more
than 60% of children whose parents immigrated from Western Europe, India, and Africa to
the United States attended prekindergarten, whereas fewer than 50% of parents who
migrated from other regions enrolled their children in pre-kindergarten. In Europe, the Dutch
Generation R Study, a population-based birth cohort study from Rotterdam, revealed large
differences in family structure across various ethnic minority groups. Only 5% of Dutch
toddlers and their peers from Moroccan- or Turkish-origin families were reared by a single
parent, but 40% of the children from Antillean, Cape Verdian, and Surinamese Creole
children lived in single-parent families (Flink et al., 2012). Generally, immigrants from non-
Western countries tend to have stronger feelings of filial obligation than immigrants from
Western countries (e.g., Dykstra & Fokkema, 2012; Liefbroer & Mulder, 2006). Emigrants
from some countries tend to quickly adopt their new culture, whereas emigrants from other
countries tend to maintain their ancestral culture (van de Vijver, 2017).
A second reading of place is the culture of destination. Here, the compositions of local and
larger cultures are meaningful moderators of acculturation. Many immigrants reside among
smaller or larger groups of co-nationals after migration. For example, contemporary
Jamaican immigrants have established ethnic enclaves around the United States, including
New York City and South Florida (Foner, 2006). Locally, coethnic communities may, on the
one hand, assist immigrant acculturation through increased access to ethnic goods, social
capital, informational resources, community services, and employment opportunities, that is
the availability of instrumental or financial support, even protecting newcomers from
experiences of discrimination. These “enclave communities” can provide important
resources for immigrants and may have their own (ethnic) shops, places of worship, mass
media, and festivities related to the ethnic culture and education in the ethnic language (van
de Vijver, 2017). A network of coethnics can serve as a satisfying well spring of shared
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experiences that positively affects individual immigrant adjustment (Kosic, Kruglanski,
Pierro, & Manneti, 2008). On the other hand, being embedded in a heritage-culture
community of coethnics may obstruct immigrants’ exposure to or adopting facets of the
culture of destination (Rodriguez, Myers, Mira, Flores, & Garcia-Henandez, 2002;
Schwartz, Pantin, Sullivan, Prado, Szapocznik, 2006a), and ethnic enclaves may harbor
concentrated poverty thereby circumscribing immigrants to resource-poor settings (Chiswick
1980). Acculturation is moderated by ethnic enclaves of different sorts. It also varies with
the general diversity and orientation of the larger culture of destination.
Some cultures of destination are pluralistic and accepting, others less so. Key influences on
immigrant adjustment and adaptation are the tenor, structure, and resources of the
community of reception (Portes & Rumbaut, 2001). Receiving cultures constrain and direct
migrants’ acculturation options. For example, members of receiving cultures may hold
different attitudes toward migrants from different ethnic groups, migrants from different
socioeconomic strata, and migrants who emigrate for different reasons. Even shared beliefs
foster or discourage cooperation between peoples depending on how they are valued
(Purzycki et al., 2016). A nation-wide public opinion poll conducted in the United States in
the early 2000s indicated that native-born Americans viewed European and Canadian
migrants more favorably and Latin American migrants less favorably (Cornelius, 2002).
Further to this point, some majority groups or members might prefer immigrants who adopt
culture-of-destination beliefs and behaviors, whereas others favor immigrants who remain
separate (Maisonneuve & Teste, 2007; Nigbur et al., 2008; Van Acker & Vanbeselaere,
2012; Van Oudenhoven, Prins, & Buunk, 1998). The countries with the highest rates of
immigration are wealthy ones with relatively open nationality or migration laws, including
the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, and the Persian Gulf States.
However, countries vary widely in their official policies toward immigrants (Helbling, 2013;
Huddleston, Niessen, Chaoimh, & White, 2011). Those with immigration laws that are more
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liberal and grant more rights to immigrants are known to foster feelings of inclusiveness,
promote learning of the host country language and culture, and support well-being in
immigrants (van de Vijver, 2017). (These considerations of the culture of destination have
social policy implications discussed below.)
Two-dimensional typological acculturation models tend to conceptualize migrant-sending
and -receiving societies (such as Australia, Canada, or the United States) as homogeneous
entities as opposed to their multicultural realities, and so inadequately capture acculturation
experiences. England is today a destination country for migrants from Eastern Europe,
Africa, and Asia but also a source country for emigration to other nations. By contrast, place
in specificity acknowledges that many receiving countries are themselves multicultural as
are many sending countries, and multicultural receiving and sending settings render
acculturation multiplicatively multi-dimensional. Work in identity formation in Caribbean
and Russian immigrants to the United States supports this conclusion. For example, Portes
and Zhou’s (1993) research with Black and non-Black Caribbean immigrant youth in
Florida demonstrated that Black immigrants were vulnerable to unique acculturation
pressures because of their appearance as African Americans and shared African heritage;
they were likely to live near inner-city African American communities due to limited
resources typical of newcomers (Iceland & Scopilliti, 2008); and they experienced similar
treatment as African Americans including discrimination (Foner, 2006). Many contemporary
Jamaican immigrants to the United States follow a tridimensional model of identification
with their heritage (Jamaican) culture, with the dominant destination (European American)
culture, and with the relevant destination (African American) subculture (Ferguson et al.,
2012). Birman, Persky, and Chan (2010) presented the parallel case of ethnically bicultural
Jewish Russians emigrating to the United States. Jewish Russian immigrant youth were
much less likely than non-Jewish Russian youth to self-identify as “Russian” and much
more likely to self-identify as bicultural “Russian Jewish” or tricultural “Russian Jewish
American”. Kim and Wong (2002) found that Chinese parents who immigrated to the United
States professed more “Westernized” beliefs pertaining to parental control than did Chinese
parents who immigrated to Taiwan (Krogstad & Lopez, 2015).
Language is a bell-weather of acculturation to the culture of destination. Subtractive forms
of bilingual education are normally designed to assimilate students to the language of the
majority culture and do not support the minority language. By contrast, additive bilingual
education programs are designed to foster bilingualism. Additive programs are also
associated with benefits to academic performance, social development, and possibly
cognitive benefits for both minority- and majority-language speakers (Esposito, Sirkin, &
Bauer, 2017). Different countries emphasize additive versus subtractive approaches to
bilingualism, and additive versus subtractive biculturalism may moderate acculturation.
More generally, within the European Union languages and cultures of immigrant groups are
often poorly protected relative to those of majorities or indigenous (national) minorities.
A third reading of place is the relation between cultures of origin and destination;
contacts may be objective in terms of language and law or subjective in terms of perceptions
of similarity or difference (Ward & Kennedy, 1993). Bartlett (1923/1970) hypothesized that
resemblance between heritage culture and receiving culture helps to determine the course of
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acculturation; Searle and Ward (1990) opined that the “fit” between personal characteristics
and norms of the culture of destination predicts immigrants’ acculturation; and Rudmin
(2003) predicted that the degree of acculturation needed to bridge cultural differences would
be high to the extent that background and foreground cultures are experienced as different.
Thus, Asian American immigrants, children and adults, who live in Hawai’i, where a
traditional Asian value system prevails, could be expected to experience less conflict
between cultures of home and school or work than Asian American immigrants living in
Arkansas. Returning to the central role of language in acculturation, when ethnicity is held
constant migrants hailing from English-speaking countries, or who are otherwise proficient
in English, likely encounter less stress and resistance in the United States than non-English-
speaking migrants. Among all Caribbean immigrants to the United States, other things being
equal, English-speaking Jamaicans experience less discrimination and acculturative stress
than French-speaking Haitians. Cultural distance (just as cultural conflict) moderates
acculturation (Benet-Martínez & Haraitos, 2005).
Immigrants are often more traditional peoples with historical ties to their religions and
religious communities (e.g., Latinos to the Catholic Church, Turks to Islam) that do not
always mesh well in the country of destination (King & Boyatzis, 2015). Much of our
knowledge of processes of acculturation is based on studies of immigration from the “old
world” to the “new world”. As described by Portes and Rumbaut (2001), over the course of
two or three generations immigrants in the United States or Canada are likely to become
either part of the majority society or part of a minority group but no longer consider
themselves to be immigrants. Inter-European migration appears to follow a different pattern.
Rather than becoming an integral part of the host society and striving to acquire citizenship,
inter-European immigrants often prefer to become integral to both their country of
destination and their country of origin (Leyendecker, 2011). Inexpensive flights across
Europe, 4–6 week vacations per year, as well as modern communications facilitate staying
connected with the country and the culture of origin, including its political and societal
institutions.
One study series that evaluated contrasts in cultural “fit” undertook two parallel accultural
comparisons (Bornstein & Cote, 2001; Cote & Bornstein, 2001). In the first, mothers in
Japan, Japanese immigrant mothers living in the United States, and European American
mothers in the United States were compared on a set of variables. In the second, mothers in
South America, South American immigrant mothers in the United States, and European
American mothers in the United States were compared on the same variables. Theoretically,
it is interesting to contrast Japanese American and South American immigrants to the United
States because the two immigrant groups come from geographically different but similarly
collectivist parts of the globe and are arriving on the same highly individualist U.S. shores.
More generally, contrasting two groups from different cultures of origin allows assessing the
generality versus specificity of acculturation by fit. South Americans and European
Americans share cultural histories, religious traditions, and the like, more than do Japanese
and European Americans. One important domain where the dynamics of acculturation play
out is in everyday parent-child relationships. In this study series, different patterns in the two
cultural contrasts emerged with respect, for example, to self-perceptions of competence in
parenting: Japanese and European Americans did not self-evaluate the same, and Japanese
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immigrants fell between the two; South Americans and European Americans also did not
self-evaluate the same, but South American immigrants responded like European Americans.
A study from Italy focusing on families with infants compared Italian families to first-
generation immigrants from Romania as well as Romanian families in Romania
(Moscardino, Bertelli, & Altoè, 2011). Investigating mother-infant interaction and
childrearing patterns, the authors found that immigrant mothers resemble more closely
Italian mothers in the importance attributed to stimulating children’s cognitive competence,
autonomy, and self-fulfillment, whereas Romanian mothers emphasized values and
behaviors related to interdependence/sociocentrism.
Even the perception that cultures of origin and destination differ may capture unique (e.g.,
affective vs. cognitive) aspects of the accultural experience. Perceived cultural similarity
increases liking, for example (Byrne, 1971), and, as years of exposure to U.S. culture
increase, perceptions of cultural distance decrease (Benet-Martinez & Haritatos, 2005).
Setting Conditions: Experience and Status
Still other setting conditions moderate acculturation; they include, notably, variations in
acculturation immersion experience and immigrant legal status. Experience in, exposure to,
and change on account of a new culture all vary, and all reshape, immigrant beliefs and
behaviors. These are largely within-group effects. Parents of Mexican descent report using
more harsh discipline than European American parents residing in the same neighborhoods
in a U.S. city (Hill, Bush, & Roosa, 2003). However, “less acculturated” Mexican
Americans report greater use of harsh discipline than “more acculturated” Mexican
Americans. Harsh discipline is also associated with fewer conduct problems and with higher
levels of warmth among less acculturated Mexican American adolescents, a relation that is
not present among more acculturated Mexican Americans and is negative among European
Americans. Harsh discipline therefore appears to be distributed and to function differently
among less versus more acculturated Mexican American families. Among immigrant
Chinese parents in the United States, greater English media consumption (a marker of
acculturation) is associated with more European-American normative authoritative parenting
(e.g., high warmth, reasoning, responsiveness, and encouragement of children’s democratic
participation), which in turn is associated with higher social and behavioral competence
among children (Chen et al., 2014). Similarly, Korean immigrant mothers who are more
acculturated to U.S. American culture use warmth more and encourage autonomy more
toward their children than mothers who are less acculturated (Shin, Bayram-Ozdemir, Lee,
& Cheah, 2010), just as Chinese immigrant mothers who are more acculturated to U.S.
American culture use praise more to boost self-confidence in their children than mothers
who are less acculturated (Cheah, Leung, & Zhou, 2013).
Degree of acculturation affects adults (parents) and their children both. Less acculturated
Asian Americans experience more challenges in their occupational careers even if they are
well educated (Saad, Sue, Zane, & Cho, 2012; Zane & Song, 2007), and paternal income is
protective of psychological well-being in highly acculturated, not in less acculturated,
Mexican American families (Crouter, Davis, Updegraff, Delgado, & Fortner, 2006).
Reciprocally, more acculturated parents are likely more accustomed to the mainstream
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educational system which may benefit their children; separate from paternal education and
family income, more acculturated Chinese American fathers have adolescents who get better
grades (Kim, Wang, Chen, Shen, & Hou, 2015). Educational attitudes are more closely tied
to educational achievement among more acculturated Asian American mothers (Shen, Kim,
& Wang, 2016). More acculturated Latin American mothers read more (Raikes et al., 2006),
provide a more cognitively stimulating home environment (Schmitz, 2005), and engage in
more structuring and verbal inquiry during parent-child interactions than less acculturated
Latina American mothers (Howes & Obregon, 2009; Teichman & Contreras-Grau, 2006).
Likewise, more acculturated Latino fathers spend more time in literacy-related activities
with their infants than do less acculturated Latino fathers (Cabrera, Shannon, West, &
Brooks-Gunn, 2006). A study of Indian immigrant fathers in the United States revealed that
those who were more acculturated (e.g., use English more, eat non-Indian food, yearn less
for their homeland) were more engaged with their toddlers than Indian immigrant fathers
who were less acculturated, controlling for family characteristics (e.g., parents’ age, family
size; Jain & Belsky, 1997). Mexican American and Chinese American fathers who are more
acculturated (i.e., longer residency, United States citizenship, greater English proficiency)
engage in more cognitively stimulating activities, than their less acculturated counterparts
(i.e., shorter residency, preference for country-of-destination language use; Capps, Bronte-
Tinkew, & Horowitz, 2010).
Adolescents who are more oriented to their heritage culture are more likely to feel they
matter to their parents and are more likely to experience feelings of efficacy related to
language brokering (translating and interpreting for parents), whereas adolescents who are
less oriented to the heritage culture are more likely to feel alienated from their parents and to
experience feelings of burden related to language brokering (Wu & Kim, 2009). Not
unexpectedly, degree of acculturative immersion has methodological implications: Marin,
Gamba, and Marin (1992) learned that the tendency for Latin Americans to both agree and
use more extreme response sets diminished as they acculturated more into mainstream
European American society.
Once, the status of an immigrant in the New World had thoroughgoing legal, economic, and
cultural ramifications. The “casta system” distinguished fine gradations of lineage as, for
example, peninsulares (Spanish born in Spain) versus criollos (pure Spanish descent but
born in the Americas) versus mestizos (one Spanish and one Amerindian parent) versus
castizos (one Spanish and one mestizo parent) versus cholos (one mestizo and one
Amerindian parent) versus zambos (one Amerindian and one African parent), and on and on
through chino, lobo, mulatto, pardo, etc. Sociocultural privileges as well as restrictions
accompanied these differential statuses.
Some nation states (Japan) deem citizenship by blood, jus sanguinis, others (the United
States) by location of birth, jus soli. The statuses of foreign born – particularly their access
to citizenship – differ globally. So-called “nationality laws” vary tremendously. Within the
E.U., people could choose their country of residence freely, and an emerging trend for
migrants is to acquire and to maintain dual citizenship. An E.U. law established at the end of
2014 allows children to maintain dual citizenship for as long as they choose. In the Gulf
States, independent of their length of residence foreign born guest workers have no right to
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citizenship; in Germany and Japan, it is trying (but not impossible) for a foreign born person
to gain citizenship; in Canada and the United States, the foreign born regularly become
citizens. Japan issues 27 types of visa each of whose requirements and authorized activities
differ. The criteria for naturalization are provided in Article 5 of the Japanese Nationality
Act and include continuous residence in Japan for 5 years or more, at least 20 years of age
and otherwise legally competent, a history of good behavior generally, and no past history of
seditious behavior, sufficient capital or skills, either personally or within family, to establish
support for oneself, and renunciation of foreign citizenship. By contrast, ready naturalization
has long been recognized as a crucial step toward full integration of immigrants into U.S.
society. According to Warren and Kerwin (2015), 8.6 million U.S. residents were eligible to
naturalize in 2013. Mexican nationals constitute the largest naturalization-eligible population
at 2.7 million, followed by Indian (337,000), Chinese (320,000), Cuban (316,000), and
Canadian (313,000) nationals. Fifty countries have 25,000 or more naturalization-eligible
persons. Because Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, their patterns of migration and settlement
in the United States differ from other immigrant Caribbean peoples to the United States
(Baer, 1992; Massey, 1981; Santiago, 1992; South et al., 2005).
Today, documented versus undocumented legal status constitutes a setting condition that has
parallel critical thoroughgoing consequences for acculturates in terms of residence, school
enrollment, availability of medical services, and standing before the law (Menjivar, 2006;
Yoshikawa & Kalil, 2011). Referring to human beings as “illegal” may be offensive and
dehumanizing as well as legally inaccurate: Under Title 8 immigration law, foreigners are
only considered “immigrants” if granted an immigrant visa by a U.S. consul. Foreign
nationals who are citizens of other countries are misnomered “immigrants.” Legal
immigrants differ from the undocumented in level of education and occupational status as
well as the psychological and personological turmoil the undocumented routinely face
(Gonzales & Chavez, 2012; Hall & Greenman, 2015). In the United States, undocumented
immigrants, even unaccompanied minors (a “humanitarian crisis” at more than 10,500 in
just one month of 2015 in the words of the sitting U.S. President), are not entitled to a public
defender in court (Nazario, 2013). One-third are children, and 5 to 10% of children are
unaccompanied minors (Berthold, 2014). The undocumented immigrant population in the
United States hovers around 11 million, and that is likely an underestimate given the
difficulty in accurately tracking unauthorized immigrants (Pew Hispanic Center, 2013).
In brief, setting condition, including reason for migrating, places of emigration and
immigration and their mutual fit, variation in acculturation immersion and experience, and
immigrant status before the law, shapes the ways people acculturate. Acculturation is
moderated by setting condition.
Specificity Principle: People
Not every migrant or migrant group acculturates in the same manner. Whether taking place
at the group or individual level, acculturation appears to proceed in different ways, to follow
different timetables, and to achieve different final states (Phinney, 2006; Phinney & Flores,
2002). As just discussed, culture of origin is a differentiating factor in acculturation; here I
focus on individual factors. Vast disparities in psychological acculturation characterize
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individuals from different cultures of origin settling in different cultures of destination and
even individuals from the same culture of origin settling in the same culture of destination
(Nauck, 2008). Person is the second term in specificity where individual-difference
characteristics of immigrants are key. They include, notably, gender, personality, and
motivation, but also a raft of other individual-difference factors.
Person: Gender
Females and males may each account for about 50% of global migrants (Boehm, 2012;
United Nations, 2016), but gender differences pervade life (Bornstein, 2013), and so
acculturation is gendered in that girls and boys, women and men, acculturate differently
(Chuang & Tamis-LeMonda, 2013). Transnational migration impacts females and males in
contrasting ways, and it modifies relationships between them. Women tend to be more
distressed by interpersonal adversities that are common after migration, whereas men tend to
be more distressed by migration-associated work-related troubles, financial problems, and
discrimination (Farmer & McGuffin, 2003). Immigrant girls who are separated from their
parents are more likely to report depressive symptoms than immigrant boys (Suárez-Orozco,
Todorova, & Louie, 2002), and immigrant boys score higher on emotional instability,
aggression, and behavioral problems and lower on prosociality than immigrant girls
2000). Turkish immigrant parents in the Netherlands and Germany place enhanced
achievement aspirations for, and greater conformity pressures on, sons than daughters as
sons are considered future caregivers of their aged parents in traditional Turkish families
(Phalet & Schönpflug, 2001). Among Vietnamese Australians (Rosenthal, Ranieri, &
Klimidis, 1996) and Chinese university students in Canada (Tang & Dion, 1999), boys tend
to be more similar than girls to their parents in terms of normative collectivism and
traditionalism. Among Mexican American adolescents in the United States, perceptions of
warmth from both mothers and fathers in early adolescence are related to later intimacy in
friendships in girls, whereas only warmth from fathers is related in boys (Rodríguez, Perez-
Brena, Updegraff, & Umaña-Taylor, 2014). Cultural messages may be delivered differently
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or interpreted differently based on gender. Together these findings point to gender as an
important moderator of acculturation among immigrants.
Gender likewise moderates culture-of-destination responses to immigrants. For example,
Dutch adolescents tend to evaluate female immigrants more positively than male immigrants
(Poppe & Verkuyten, 2012), and Dutch girls tend to be less concerned with ethnic group
differences (Verkuyten & Thijs, 2001), and are more likely to consider their Turkish and
Chinese peers in Holland as being Dutch, than Dutch boys (Verkuyten, Thijs, & Sierksma,
2013).
Turning from children to adults, prevailing gendered parenting in Dutch majority families
distinguishes fathers and mothers in terms of authoritarian (paternal) parenting and
permissive (maternal) stances, whereas relatively harsh parenting prevails among minority
fathers and mothers alike in Antillean, Cape Verdian, Maroccon, Surinamese, and Turkish
origin Dutch families (Flink et al., 2012). Mothers with stronger Mexican-heritage values
engage in more cultural socialization, which is related to their adolescents’ higher ethnic
identity and stronger endorsement of Mexican values over time, whereas fathers’ cultural
socialization efforts show no similar links (Knight et al., 2011). Parental cultural values
among immigrant Chinese Canadians show similar effects (Su & Costigan, 2009): Greater
maternal (not paternal) endorsement of family obligation values is associated with higher
ethnic identity achievement among adolescents as mediated through adolescents’
perceptions of their mothers’ family obligation values. Adolescents need to perceive their
mothers’ family values accurately to influence ethnic identity; cultural socialization efforts
of mothers are more closely linked than are fathers’ to the formation of ethnic identity
among adolescents. When mothers and adolescents both speak the same language (Chinese),
mothers can be more involved in their children’s education, so that adolescents experience
greater support (Costigan & Dokis, 2006).
Person: Personality
Other broad individual-difference person characteristics appear to affect the meaning and
course of acculturation (Chiu, Morris, Hong, & Menon, 2000). Personality is consensually
believed to be constituted of five factors (openness, neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness,
and conscientiousness), each of which has been reported to have unique implications for
Thus, constellations of personality dimensions will predispose people to acculturate
differently (Schmitz, 1994). For example, greater openness may facilitate acculturation
because individuals higher in this disposition can be expected to have less rigid views, make
greater efforts to learn about a new culture, or modify their own behavior to accord with
culture-of-destination norms (Mendenhall & Oddou, 1985). Reciprocally, less open
immigrants may perceive cultures of origin and destination more rigidly as they do the
boundaries between them (Yzerbyt, Corneille, & Estrada, 2001), and they can be expected to
be more refractory to culture-of-destination norms. In this way, openness may lead to the
embrace or the denial that one’s two cultural identities, values, and life styles can articulate
or need to remain separate (Benet-Martinez & Haritatos, 2005). Other personality facets
play roles as well. Conscientiousness predicts immigrant effectiveness (Ones &
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Viswesvaran, 1999); extraversion and agreeableness relate negatively to immigrants’ desire
to return to their culture of origin (Caligiuri, 2000); lower neuroticism and higher
conscientiousness are associated with culture-of-destination maintenance, and lower
neuroticism and higher extraversion and openness are associated with culture-of-destination
adjustment (Ryder et al., 2000).
Not only does personality affect acculturation, personality is also affected by acculturation.
Normative personality profiles on the Big Five contrast in Japanese and European
Americans (Bornstein et al., 2007). An examination of personality concordance in Japanese
American immigrants with mainstream groups in Japan and the United States revealed that
greater involvement in the mainstream European American culture changed personality in
Japanese immigrants (Güngör, Bornstein, De Leersnyder, Cote, Ceulemans, & Mesquita,
2013).
Optimism, a positive expectation for the future, is a vital psychological resource for those
experiencing negative or stressful life circumstances (Carver, Scheier, & Segerstrom, 2010).
Being optimistic may be particularly important for immigrants. For example, many
immigrants move to new cultures of destination in hopes of improving their living
conditions as well as those of their children. The “immigrant optimism hypothesis” posits
that immigrants have faith in the future despite the many barriers (e.g., language, poverty)
they encounter to social and economic mobility. Immigrants higher in optimism have better
outcomes than those without such faith in the future (Kao & Tienda, 1995; Taylor, Larsen-
Rife, Conger, & Widaman, 2012).
Some adults enter a new culture of destination with a strong desire to fully assimilate into a
way of life, whereas others come with a desire to maintain values and ways of doing things
from their culture of origin (Zhou, 1997). Thus, individual motivation plays multivocal parts
in migration and acculturation. Motivation is involved in determining steps along the
immigration path from first to last, from the decision to emigrate from the culture of origin
to how hard to work to learn the language and mazeways of the culture of destination.
Individuals who choose to emigrate have been hypothesized to possess a specific set of
motivational needs (higher achievement and power motivation, lower affiliation motivation)
that differentiates them from those who do not intend to emigrate (Boneva & Hanson Frieze,
2001). Emigrants high in achievement motivation may migrate in search of better
opportunities, to seek greater challenges, and to avoid the routine; those high in power
motivation may be more willing to take risks to reach their goals and to impress others.
Tartakovsky and Schwartz (2001) conceptualized multiple motivations to emigrate—
presentation (physical, social, and psychological security), self-development (personal
growth in abilities, knowledge, and skills), and materialism (financial wealth)—and they
confirmed the relative importance of these motivations in predicting group identification,
subjective well-being, and the eventual economic situations of immigrants.
Person: Individual-Difference Characteristics
A host of other individual-difference factors has also been implicated in acculturation. Some
prominent ones are personological, social, and cognitive. Briefly, in terms of personological
characteristics, anxiety can be detrimental to task performance when attention and deliberate
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effort are required, as is the case for immigrants’ learning a new language (Roccas &
Brewer, 2002). So, lower social anxiety is associated with better adjustment to the culture of
destination (Ryder et al., 2000). Likewise, high levels of aggravation undermine the
immigrant experience (Yu & Singh, 2012), and aversion to ambiguity in immigrants is
associated with greater stress, expressed emotional disorder, and psychosomatic symptoms
Finally, person informs acculturation methodology. The same acculturation construct may be
moderated by the reporter assessing and quantifying it. According to Moroccan parents and
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children, problem behaviors in Moroccan children in the Netherlands are as frequent as
those found in indigenous Dutch children; but, according to Dutch teachers, Moroccan
children display higher rates of problem behaviors than their indigenous Dutch peers
(Stevens et al., 2003). Albanian and Serbian immigrant children in Italy, their country of
settlement, feel positively about their social relationships; however, these behavioral patterns
go largely undetected by teachers (Dimitrova & Chasiotis, 2012). Teachers rate Asian boys
as hyperactive, where by observational measures they are not (Sonuga-Barke, Monocha,
Taylor, & Sandberg, 1993).
In brief, person factors shape acculturation. Just as people distribute themselves along a
continuum of vulnerability-to-resilience to specific experiences, and some are affected more,
whereas others less, by the same experience on account of individual differences, the two
genders and individuals with different personalities, motivations, or other dispositional
characteristics acculturate differently – a massive experience. Most typological theories of
acculturation elide over such individual-difference factors that centrally facilitate or impede
acculturation, but acculturation is moderated by person.
Specificity Principle: Time
Time is likewise a moderator of acculturation. Just as some experiences (intervention
program effects) vary in how long they take to establish themselves, and the effects of some
experiences consolidate and strengthen or attenuate and weaken over time, so acculturation
is an unfolding process, and when we catch it makes a difference. Time has several
instantiations qua moderator of acculturation. Here, three prominent ones are reviewed: age
of the immigrant, time in the culture of destination, and historical period.
Time: Age
One temporal consideration is the age (or developmental status) of the person acculturating.
Wishing to keep Greek culture pure, Plato contended that people younger than 40 should not
travel outside the country. Migrating children acquire beliefs and behaviors associated with
the culture of destination more easily and readily than migrating adolescents or adults
(Knight, Tein, Shell, & Roosa, 1992; Szapocznik & Kurtines, 1993), and adolescent children
acculturate faster than their parents (Schwartz, Montgomery, & Briones, 2006b). Thus,
immigrant youth are more often bicultural and bilingual, and immigrant adults less so
(Carhill et al., 2008; Jia & Aaronson, 2003). From 2006 to 2013, the number of children of
immigrants (children with at least one foreign-born parent) in the United States grew 12%,
from 15.7 million to 17.6 million; in the United States, 24% of children have at least one
immigrant parent (Urban Institute, 2016). Bilingual children exposed to high-quality input in
two languages prior to the age of 3 perform better in phonological awareness, reading, and
language competence than those first exposed to one of those languages after age 3
(Kovelman, Baker, & Petitto, 2008). Individuals who migrate as adolescents or adults have
had the longest and most direct contact with their cultures of origin and so retain more
heritage mazeways (Shuval, 1982); these factors likely shape how they approach interactions
with their culture-of-destination and culture-of-origin compatriots, but the same is less likely
the case for child migrants (Portes & Rumbaut, 2006). Immigrants who move at a very early
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age to the country of settlement and attend school in the new context (sometimes called the
1.5 generation) differ from the first generation that is foreign born and sometimes even the
second generation that is born in the culture of destination (Portes & Rumbaut, 2001). In the
1.5 generation the adoption of the new culture can be complete or combined with a culture-
of-origin orientation.
German 3- to 6-year-olds with a migration background showed more behavioral problems
than peers without such a background, and the migration/non-migration difference was
larger in this age range than 7- to 17-year-olds (Hölling, Erhart, Ravens-Sieberer, & Schlack,
2007). A study of Turkish adolescents in Belgium compared 14- to 17-year-olds with 18- to
20-year-olds (Güngör & Bornstein, 2009); even among adolescents, age made a difference,
and older adolescents attached greater importance to their culture of origin than did younger
adolescents. Older adolescents assign more weight to maintaining their culture of origin in
private life, but to adopting the culture of destination in public life, than do younger
adolescents. For immigrant adolescents, acculturation is also entwined with normative
Individuals who migrate as adults—and especially those who immigrate as older adults—
appear to experience the most difficulties with the attitudes and practices of the culture of
destination (Schwartz et al., 2006b). For adults, acculturation essentially constitutes a kind
of resocialization with its attendant challenges. Recognizable foreign accents and frequent
inability to speak or read the culture-of-destination language readily identify older migrants,
inviting different receptions (including discrimination) from younger migrants and native-
born individuals (Yoo, Gee, & Takeuchi, 2009). Thus, reciprocally, in the culture of
destination, divergent perceived general obligations and responsibilities to adopt the culture
of destination might underlie native children’s, adolescents’, and adults’ evaluations of child,
adolescent, or adult immigrants (Gieling et al., 2011). More generically, with age a more
complex understanding of groups and group relations develops (Killen & Rutland, 2011).
Adolescents and adults consider group-specific norms, and the preservation of those norms,
more important than do children (Killen, Rutland, Abrams, Mulvey, & Hitti, 2012). Sample
demographic factors might even be expected to play a role in this connection. Latin
Americans, with a median age of 29 years, are younger than most other immigrant groups in
the United States, and so one might predict their easier and more rapid acculturation.
Time: Penetration and Adjustment
Time in a new culture (or generation) is a second temporal moderator of acculturation (Scott
& Scott, 1989; Scott & Stumpf, 1984). Time and immersion experience (a setting condition)
might covary, but are conceptually independent: A migrant might live a lifetime in a cultural
enclave (a Chinatown, Japantown, or other) eating the foods, speaking the language, and
reading the newspapers of the culture of origin. Nonetheless, family members with the same
heritage may differ depending on their length of time in the culture of destination (Mendoza
et al., 2007). Immigrant parents who reside in the United States for longer periods
increasingly adopt American English-language and U.S. customs, and likewise change in
their parenting (Cabrera et al., 2006; Tamis-LeMonda et al., 2008; Tamis-LeMonda, Sze,
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Ng, Kahana-Kalman, & Yoshikawa, 2013). More time in the United States is a strong
predictor of oral academic English-language proficiency as well as gains in social and
economic resources among adolescent immigrants (Carhill et al., 2008). Time since arrival
in the new country is also positively associated with identity and values, and so years spent
in a culture of destination typically relate to adopting that culture’s beliefs and behaviors
(Kwak & Berry, 2001).
Thus, in families with at least one first-generation parent, the culture and language of origin
are more likely kept alive than in families with two second-generation parents (Spiegler,
Leyendecker, & Kohl, 2015). For offspring, speaking their parents’ heritage language is
important to communicate with the first-generation parent (Leyendecker et al., 2014). Youth
with migration backgrounds attribute increased importance to family members compared to
their non-migrant peers (Wissenschaftlicher Beirat für Familienfragen, 2002). Parents and
siblings are particularly important for adolescents with both parents born abroad, whereas
those who have only one foreign-born parent indicate somewhat lesser importance of
primary family members but still exceed their non-immigrant peers. Only in the third
generation of immigrants, whose grandparents were born abroad, does the effect of
enhanced family ties fade.
Thus, family ties remain relatively strong among first- and second-generation immigrants
but transition to those of the culture of destination in later generations. Navigating two sets
of cultural norms and values simultaneously has implications for family relationships as well
as individual development. In immigrant families, discrepancies often exist in parents’ and
children’s language skills, social contacts, identifications, and values (Kwak, 2003). These
parent-child differences may present significant impediments to positive adjustment among
adolescents and their families (Unger, Ritt-Olson, Soto, & Baezconde-Garbanati, 2009;
Wang, Kim, Anderson, Chen, & Yan, 2012). For example, acculturation gaps in language
abilities can inhibit effective communication, rendering it more difficult to discuss sensitive
emotional issues.
Despite the socioeconomic challenges they face, immigrant youth show positive
performance in academics and behavioral adjustment compared to their non-immigrant
peers. This situation also changes with time in the culture of destination. For example, Asian
and Latino immigrant youth in the United States report fewer behavior problems than their
U.S. peers (Fuligni & Witkow, 2004; Coll & Marks, 2009), a difference also noted among
Caribbean, African, and Eastern European immigrant youth in The Netherlands (van Geel &
Vedder, 2010) and immigrant youth across the 13-country ICSEY study (Berry, Phinney,
Sam, & Vedder, 2006; but see Albanian immigrants in Greece: Motti-Stefanidi et al., 2012).
However, for many immigrant youth length of time in the culture of destination is associated
with erosion of academic performance, familial bonds, and physical health (Hill & Torres,
phenomenon now referred to as the “immigrant paradox” (Coll & Marks, 2009). Thus, for
example, people of non-Dutch descent who grow up in the Netherlands acquire a cultural
orientation that is similar to those of Dutch descent (Dykstra et al., 2013). The immigrant
generation is mostly or exclusively fluent in their first language, their children are also fluent
in that language to some degree (depending on which language their parents speak with
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them), but the third generation—immigrants’ grandchildren—speak the language of
destination exclusively (Fishman, 1966; Verdon, McLeod, & Winsler, 2014). Nativity is an
important predictor of physical health (Acevedo-Garcia, Bates, Osypuk, & McArdle, 2010),
Palloni & Arias, 2004), and better health outcomes often obtain in the first compared to later
generations (Franzini & Fernandez-Esquer, 2004). It is also possible that the health paradox
reflects person-specific selectivity – the migration of people with better health profiles than
those remaining in culture of origin (Martinez, Aguayo-Tellez, & Rangel-Gonzalez, 2014).
Time: History
Historical time is a third temporal consideration in acculturation. Different cohorts of
migrants (even from the same cultures of origin) migrate for different reasons, face different
acculturation issues (even in a common culture of destination), and thus likely follow
different accultural trajectories. Consider, first, historical changes in cultures of origin that
inflect acculturation. Chinese immigrants to the United States in the 19th C worked as
laborers on the first Transcontinental Railroad and emigrated due to overpopulation and
poverty experienced in Canton Province; in the mid-20th C, refugees from Southeast Asia
fled to the United States on account of wars in their homelands. Once, undocumented
immigrants in the United States were predominately young men who crossed the U.S.
southern border in search of work; contemporary demographic data reveal that the typical
undocumented immigrant is 35 or older and has lived in the United States for a decade or
more. In the early 21st C, the migrant flow from the roiling Middle East and Africa to
Europe followed a path from Libya across the central Mediterranean to Italy; as that trek
was long and increasingly dangerous, a shorter and safer route from Turkey to Greece across
the eastern Mediterranean (Aegean) became preferable; but with the closure of Greece’s
northern borders to migrants by neighboring countries, the Libyan-Italian route has partially
reopened. Short-term socio-political changes in sending countries can have long-term
immigration implications in receiving ones. January 1, 2016 marked the end of China’s 40-
year one-child policy. Chinese immigrants to Australia’s Gold Coast born before and after
that date will have experienced very different childhoods.
So, historically changing circumstances in cultures of origin may be determinative in
acculturation as are changes in cultures of destination. For example, contexts of migrant
reception change over time. Italian and Jewish are today mainstream influences in New York
City, but during the late 19th and early 20th Cs many Italian and Jewish immigrants in New
York City were segregated (Sterba, 2003). Puerto Ricans migrating to New York in the
1950s and 1960s met with discrimination, but New York in the 2000s and 2010s is more
hospitable toward Latin American immigrants (Block, 2009). Conversely, Middle Eastern
migrants in Europe and the United States may be experiencing more suspicion and
discrimination since September 11, 2001 than they had experienced previously (Brüß, 2008;
Critelli, 2008). In the Netherlands today, Moroccan and Turkish Muslim immigrants are
evaluated similarly and negatively (Hagendoorn, 1995; Verkuyten & Kinket, 2000) as Dutch
perceive high levels of threat from Muslim immigrants (Velasco Gonzalez, Verkuyten,
Weesie, & Poppe, 2008), especially those who maintain their identity and culture (Velasco
Gonzalez et al., 2008). Iraqis and Syrians who had the fortune to land on the beaches of
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Lesbos, Greece before March 19, 2016 may petition for asylum in Europe; Iraqis and
Syrians who had the misfortune to wash ashore after March 20, 2016 are being returned to
Dikili, Turkey and only every other one may petition for asylum. The time difference of a
day may alienate immigrant families forever.
Many European nations once perceived themselves as countries of emigration rather than
preferred countries of immigration. This perception changed from the 20th to the 21st Cs as
now many of the same European countries are targets for immigration. OECD data from
2010 indicate that Germany has higher immigration rates than the United States. In 2013, for
example, 7 million people living in Germany were foreign nationals, and another 8.6 million
were immigrants with a German passport. As a result, 20% of the German population is
either foreign-born or has at least one foreign-born parent, and every third child age 5 or
younger in Germany grows up in an immigrant family. However, Germany’s long-standing
open-arms policy toward arriving migrants is now changing. Germany decided in 2015 to
tighten its border controls and take in far fewer asylum seekers. Similarly, Sweden first
offered permanent residency to all Syrians refugees, but in 2015 backed away from that
commitment and now offers only temporary sanctuary as the norm. More generally, the
principle of passport-free travel enshrined in Europe’s Schengen Agreement is coming under
scrutiny. Sweden, Denmark, and Austria have abandoned passport free border crossings as
the number of immigrants arriving at their borders surged to the highest levels since World
War II. Forty thousand-plus refugees are stranded in Greece, and Turkey has agreed to
become a regional refugee camp in return for Euros and E.U. considerations (visa-free
European travel for Turks, etc.). Reciprocally, the number of undocumented immigrants
from Mexico and Latin America to the United States, which more than tripled to 12.2
million between 1990 and 2007, dropped by about 1 million in 2015 on account of the U.S.
economic downturn (Krogstad, 2016).
Changing technology is playing a role in acculturation as well. The flood of emigrants from
Eastern Europe to the United States at the turn of the 20th C could not realistically expect to
stay in contact with their cultures of origin, and the finality of their emigration doubtless
engendered wholly embracing new prospects. Emigrants today phone, Skype, and text back
home at will, fostering a starkly contrasting set of contingencies. So, Jamaican immigrants
in the United States maintain close ties with relatives on that Caribbean island via diverse
forms of communication and remittances (Ferguson et al., 2012), and Hmong immigrants in
the United States Skype to maintain connections to Shaman practices back in SE Asia.
Once, historically, immigration was essentially permanent and unidirectional; today,
immigrant families often return to their native countries (reverse migration) temporarily (as
tourists) or permanently (as repatriates). Such kaleidoscopically waxing forces of the new
“Columbian exchange” (globalization) will likely continue to alter the complexion of
acculturation. Even the shift in language use by generation (described earlier) may be
changing in rate and taking place more rapidly (Hurtado & Vega, 2004). Young children in
the United States who are from immigrant, multilingual families often become English-
dominant during their preschool years, and decelerate their mastery of their parents’ native
language due to increases in exposure to English inside and outside their home (Bridges &
Hoff, 2014).
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In brief, time is a factor in acculturation. Acculturation is not static, but is dynamic on
multiple planes. Yet, prevailing typological models of acculturation rest heavily on
temporally frozen views of individuals and intergroup relations and so are of limited value.
Acculturation is moderated by time.
Specificity Principle: Process
Beyond considerations of specific setting condition, person, and time, acculturation is
moderated by the specific process through which a new culture is experienced and
potentially absorbed. For Alexander the Great, the efficient method for spreading Helenism
across Persia and the East in the 4th C BC was “acculturation by insemination.” So far,
contemporary acculturation study has advanced only a handful of mechanisms by which
acculturation is posited to proceed (Bornstein, Mortimer, Lutfey, & Bradley, 2011). One
class of process pathway is socialization; a second is learning; a third is cognition; and a
fourth is opportunity. In general, our understanding of the processes that moderate
acculturation is remarkably poor.
Process: Socialization
Socialization is generally understood as a “process by which individuals acquire social skills
or other characteristics necessary to function effectively in society or in a particular group”
(American Psychological Association, 2013). In traditional conceptions of socialization,
socializers’ primary roles are to communicate standards of behavior to socializees, help
them understand and accept an appropriate identity, and guide them toward socially
prescribed norms (Bandura, 1977; Davey, 1983; Devine, 1989). Often socialization is
implicit, informal, and nondidactic. For these reasons, this process is an unspecified catch-all
and frankly mysterious, hardly ever operationalized except by appellation – – internalization,
introjection, identification, and the like. In the family, culture-of-origin socialization
normatively reflects means by which parents transmit to their children the history, values,
and customs of their culture of origin (Hughes et al., 2006; Peck, Brodish, Malanchuk,
Banerjee, & Eccles, 2014). For adults, for whom acculturation necessitates that
resocialization referred to earlier, the culture of destination must be the effective agent, and
they must (somehow) pick up more culture-of-destination messages. Who socializes
children into their new culture of destination is less clear and feasibly distributed. Parents
maybe, but less probably; unlikely because of disjunctions that distinguish traditional and
worn parent culture-of-origin beliefs and behaviors from new and exciting child culture-of-
destination beliefs and behaviors. For immigrant children, parents’ cultural culture-of-origin
values may be at odds with those of the culture of destination. Peers are likely effective
is whom to follow and what beliefs and behaviors to adopt when the cultures of parent and
peer, of family and society, differ. For example, Japanese parents avoid confrontations and
often retreat when children resist their requests, whereas U.S. American parents tend to
exercise more direct control of children and may double down when children resist their
requests. Japanese parents threaten to banish their disobedient children outside the home;
U.S. American parents threaten to ground theirs inside the home. Chinese mothers opt for
explicit verbal instruction when socializing control of negative emotions in their young
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children, whereas European American mothers favor modeling. Migrant children attempting
to acculturate in Japanese American or Chinese American households in the United States
would be exposed to warring accultural contingencies.
Process: Learning
A second more defined mechanism in acculturation is learning, addressing the cognitions
migrants possess and the practices migrants pursue and their differential return. Here, as in
classical operant theory, appropriate and desirable beliefs and behaviors associated with the
culture of destination are incentivized and rewarded (through group acceptance, job
promotion) and undesirable ones discouraged and even negatively reinforced (through peer
rejection, discrimination). A popular form is social learning theory. From this perspective,
individuals acquire new beliefs and behaviors through reinforcement, observation, and
subsequent imitation of salient models, particularly those who are powerful. By dint of their
higher-status position within the society and their roles as providers of support and advice,
denizens of the culture of destination may be seen as both powerful and nurturant by
acculturating individuals.
Process: Instruction
A third mechanism entails outright instruction in cultural practices. Formal tuition, curricula,
and other similar institutional systems might constitute forms of didactic acculturative
transfer, although Evans and colleagues (2012) argued that ethnic minority parents’ efforts to
teach their children about the values and practices of culture should receive greater attention
as central family influences on development. In this regard, Farver et al. (2013) observed
that Latin American parents’ engagement in Spanish literacy activities is related to their
children’s Spanish oral-language and print-knowledge skills, whereas parents’ involvement
in English literacy activities is associated with their children’s English oral-language skills.
Similarly, analyzing the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study—Kindergarten Cohort, Han
(2008) learned that the academic trajectories of immigrant East Asian children related more
to family factors (the home environment, parents’ educational practices, and expectations)
than to school factors (resources, teaching practices, and learning environment), but the
reverse was true for Caribbean and Latin American children. For adult migrants the
workplace or second-language classrooms are likely locations of instruction. Indeed, an
immigrant’s success at becoming a citizen of the United States entails studying for and
passing a formal “Citizenship Interview and Test” (100 questions such as “What is the
supreme law of the land?” and “What is one right or freedom from the first amendment?”
(U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, n.d.).
Process: Opportunity
A fourth common route to acculturation occurs through the types of affordances provided or
encouraged in the migrant’s life. Access to particular people or activities or settings
(pediatricians, work, school) presents opportunities to acquire particular cognitions and
practices; denial of such access operates oppositely (Reese & Gallimore, 2000). Better
resourced families tend to invest in offspring well-being via providing more opportunities
for productive encounters with potentially enriching materials and events (Conger &
Donnellan, 2007). To the extent that certain culture-of-destination opportunities become
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regular in their lives, migrants’ knowledge, expectations, preferences, and actions are likely
to acculturate. Early in life, children usually hear just (or mainly) the culture-of-origin
language at home and only become bilingual through later access to the culture-of-
destination language. The more children are exposed to any particular language, the more
capable they become in that language. Thus, increased interaction with members of the
culture of destination is associated with increased culture-of-destination language
proficiency (Ward & Kennedy, 1999). Subtle and not-so-subtle facets of context contribute
to immigrant youth development. Hamilton and Hamilton (2009) focus on developmental
processes surrounding the transition from adolescence to adulthood, emphasizing programs
and institutions that support the transition. For youth in disadvantage, including immigrants
to Germany, the school-to-work transition affords a singular opportunity to advance. To take
advantage and effect this change, however, youth must reside in a society that allows social
mobility and live during a period when upward movement is possible. In Germany,
apprenticeship is a popular model that supports this transition. Relative to their German
peers, however, immigrant youth’s poorer school performance, limited language skills,
conflicting cultural traditions, and discrimination hamper their access to and participation in
apprenticeships. It takes small business owners in Germany to look past these differences
and adopt immigrant youth into advantageous mentoring relationships. Children growing up
in an Early Second Language Acquisition setting (ESLA; De Houwer, 1990) differ from
children who may regularly hear both minority and majority languages in the home from
birth, known as Bilingual First Language Acquisition (BFLA; Meisel, 1990). Exposure to
and mere consumption of cultural products in the locale of destination (TV and foods)
reinforce a cultural identity concordant with that culture (Cheryan & Monin, 2005;
Guendelman, Cheryan, & Monin, 2011). Based on high levels of exposure to U.S. American
culture in Jamaica (via U.S. media, consumer products, and tourism), some non-immigrant
island Jamaicans display “remote” acculturation toward U.S. culture, beliefs and behaviors
that in some respects resemble those of Jamaican immigrants actually living in the United
States (Ferguson & Bornstein, 2012).
Process: Transaction and Beyond
In practice, acculturation is not unidirectional (as the foregoing socializer-socializee
processes imply), but acculturation is interactive, transactional, and bidirectional. As Lerner
(2002) crisply explained, individuals actively participate in their own development. So,
observation and imitation are notably efficient mechanisms for acquiring cultural
information. Migrants both search for and respond to cultural cues in different situations and
draw implications from them that guide their future beliefs and behaviors. Thus, children
think and seek to become imbued with culturally appropriate beliefs and behaviors, even
ones they do not yet enact. Conformity to the culture of destination is typically seen as a
disposition to copy an individual’s reference group rather than any minority displaying a
different option. Conformity is especially common in contexts of ignorance or uncertainty,
as characterizes the young and the acculturate. Normative conformity aligns the conformist’s
behavior with local norms. In acculturation, conformity can pay off through capitalizing on
established expertise of the majority in the new community (Whiten & McGuigan, 2017).
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Only a small variety of acculturation processes has been identified, and as suggested earlier
these mechanisms are still not well understood. Some new ones are also on the horizon. For
example, intergroup attitudes appear to emerge in young children in forms indistinguishable
from those of adults (Dunham, Chen, & Banaji, 2013). Implicit intergroup attitudes appear
not to require a protracted period of internalization or social tuning, but are characterized by
early enculturation and developmental invariance. In-group preference and status-based
enculturation may be automatic and early-emerging mechanisms that represent rapid social
orienting, in which children map membership and status onto existing social groups while
simultaneously acquiring group representations. Deeper understandings of acculturation will
depend on closer penetration of process mechanisms.
In brief, to effect acculturation, four broad classes of process mechanism have been
identified – socialization, learning, cognition, and opportunity. Participation in a culture of
destination can structure acculturates’ experiences in ways that increase the likelihood that
they acquire beliefs and behaviors that more faithfully jibe with those of the mainstream
society and that children develop into culturally successful members of that society.
However, cultures may vary in the normative use and effectiveness of different process
mechanisms and employ different mechanisms for different outcomes: Socialization may be
the primary mechanism for successfully acquiring social information about a new culture,
but cognitive scaffolding may be more efficacious for acquiring declarative information.
Add to these factors the agency of the acculturate. Each mechanism may be effective in its
own way, so acculturation is likely moderated by process. The specific domain that is
acculturating is a final moderating factor.
Specificity Principle: Domain
Acculturation is neither digital nor holistic, but a dynamic and multidimensional process. As
individuals from one society come into contact with a new society, they will acculturate
some beliefs and behaviors from the culture of destination but they will retain others from
their culture of origin. Individuals likely seek to balance cultures of origin and destination
(Stuart, Ward, & Adam, 2010). All manner of indices of beliefs and behaviors have been
examined as outcomes in acculturation. Should we expect all domains of life (qua dependent
variables) to acculturate identically? Assuredly not. Immigrants do not acculturate all facets
of their being in a uniform fashion as assimilationists, integrationists, or marginalists, nor are
they strict separatists (as typological views maintain). In accord with relational
developmental systems metatheory (Overton, 2015), acculturation is best framed a
multidimensional and dynamic process.
Domain: Multidimensionality
The domain term in specificity is not new. Acculturation science already broadly
distinguishes among many classes of dependent variables that acculturate differently. So-
called public domain activities tend to be aimed at participation in the social life of the
culture of destination (interpersonal contacts), whereas so-called private domain activities
tend to involve personal value-related matters of the culture of origin (family celebrations).
The two realms acculturate differently. For example, Turkish and Moroccan immigrants in
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the Netherlands attribute more importance to their culture of origin in the private domains of
home and family but more importance to their culture of destination in the public domains of
school and work place (Phinney, 2006). From a different perspective, Ward (2001)
distinguished among affective, behavioral, and cognitive areas in human life (referred to as
the “ABCs of Acculturation”). Each, she observed, acculturates uniquely. Additionally,
acculturation might be biological (including, e.g., medical health status), psychological
(including, e.g., well-being), or sociocultural (including e.g., pragmatic communicative
competence). Generally, domain-sensitive analyses reveal that different domains follow
different trajectories of acculturation. Thus, an immigrant may seek to behave and be treated
like culture-of-destination workmates, speak the languages of cultures of origin and
destination, and maintain culture-of-origin relationship hierarchies or religion within the
family. Acculturation is multidimensional and selective. Asian American and Muslim
adolescents may or may not be proficient in or use their families’ native language, but still
identify strongly with their heritage or religious values (Portes & Rumbaut, 2001), and Latin
American adolescents who speak little or no Spanish might still endorse a Latin ethnic
identity (Schwartz, Zamboanga, & Jarvis, 2007). For some Asian American adolescents
(e.g., Chinese), socioemotional well-being appears to improve with acculturation (Chen,
Hua, Zhou, Tao, Lee, Ly, & Main, 2014), but for other Asian American adolescents (e.g.,
Filipino) acculturation is associated with poor adjustment, academic disappointment, and
So, acculturation is multidimensional and selective; it is also dynamic. Increasing
involvement with a new culture is believed to instigate changes in immigrants that result in
better fit with the norms of the culture of destination and reduced fit with the norms of the
culture of origin. However, this dynamic depends on the domain and is not always
advantageous. In some domains immigrants may maintain their culture of origin (e.g.,
religious practices in Foner & Alba, 2008; Ross-Sheriff, Tirmazi, & Walsh, 2007); in other
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domains, immigrants may be in the process of changing from culture of origin to destination
(e.g., vocal interactions of parents in Gratier, 2003; knowledge of child development in
Bornstein & Cote, 2007; restrictive childrearing attitudes; Chiu, 1987; Lin & Fu, 1990); in
still others, immigrants may have completed a change from their culture of origin to
resemble their culture of destination (e.g., personality in Güngör, Bornstein, & Phalet, 2012;
& Frost, 1972, 1974). Caudill and Frost (1972, 1974), for example, observed Sansei (third-
generation) Japanese American mothers and their Yonsei (fourth-generation) infants. In a
three-culture comparison, Sansei mothers behaved more similarly to European American
mothers than to mothers in Japan. To the extent that origin and destination culture norms are
dissimilar, exposure to and involvement in the culture of destination may establish or
strengthen ways of being that are more relevant and adaptive to the acculturation context.
When investigators focus on a single outcome domain in acculturation, or in the typological
school on one general pattern, they obscure the actual and more differentiated domain-
specific nature of acculturation. Furthermore, domain variability in acculturation suggests
certain other conclusions. One is that some aspects of life might be more plastic and
sensitive to situation-specific demands, whereas others are less so. A second is that change
in one acculturation indicator does not guarantee that others will change or change in the
same degree or direction or on the same timetable. Acculturation research in many domains
(self-evaluations, emotions) has revealed that immigrants become increasingly concordant
with the normative patterns of the culture of destination over time and through contact (De
Leersnyder, Mesquita, & Kim, 2011; Heine & Lehman, 2004). Such acculturation may be
positive or adaptive. As discussed in reference to the immigrant paradox, acculturation is not
uniformly positive; Riosmena, Everett, Rogers, Dennis (2015) examined how the health of
foreign- and U.S.-born Latin Americans deteriorates with increasing exposure to mainstream
U.S. society. Acquiring U.S. culture traits that have untoward health effects – negative
acculturation – has become the primary explanation for generational Latin American health
deterioration in the United States. Startlingly, the same domain may be positive and
negative. Language brokering refers to assistance that children provide their immigrant
parents in translating and interpreting written or spoken, formal or informal, cultural
material from the culture of destination (Chao, 2006). Language brokering might benefit
children’s cognitive and emotional development (Hua & Costigan, 2012) because it is
associated with greater biculturalism and academic performance (Buriel, Perez, DeMent,
Chavez, & Moran, 1998), higher ethnic identity and cultural value endorsement (Weisskirch
et al., 2011), enhanced perspective taking and greater empathic concern (Guan, Greenfield,
& Orellana, 2014), and greater respect for mothers and fathers (Chao, 2006). However,
language brokering also confers risks on children by placing too much responsibility on
them or exposing them to sensitive personal information about a parent or themselves.
In brief, acculturation does not affect all domains of the psyche identically. Domain
specificity predicts that different indices of acculturation can and will vary. Some indicators
of acculturation may not change, and others change or change at different rates, to different
degrees, in some but not other migrants, and so forth. Any uniform model of acculturation is
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inappropriate and misplaced. Rather, specificity appears more apt: Acculturation is
moderated by domain.
Terms of the Specificity Principle Interact
The different terms of the Specificity Principle moderate acculturation. In bioecological
theory (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006), development is hypothesized to be the joint
product of several defining properties: Process X Person X Context X Time. In this
formulation, characteristics and qualities of the developing person are posited to interact,
and so on this model terms of specificity might be expected to condition one another. They
do. Only a few illustrations are necessary to support this assertion. In theory, the ability to
speak a heritage language is independent of the ability to speak the language of a
mainstream society; however, setting condition interacts with person. Thus, Chinese
immigrants in Canada and Australia often maintain their native language across generations,
but Dutch immigrants to the very same places often lose their native language. Likewise, as
suggested, different processes are appropriate to different domains of acculturation. And so
forth.
To bring this point home, consider how setting condition, person, process, and domain each
interacts with time.
Setting Condition x Time
Years spent in the culture of destination may be unrelated to adopting majority culture
practices among individuals who immigrate as adults to ethnic enclaves where culture-of-
origin cognitions and practices prevail. In such enclaves, those immigrants can remain
separated from the culture of destination across generations (Phinney & Flores, 2002). As a
result, even if enveloping media promote acquisition of culture-of-destination cognitions and
practices (Stilling, 1997), enclave conditions offset the effects of the culture of destination
on loss of culture-of-origin cognitions and practices. New immigrants and older immigrants
born long before in the sending society may continue to resemble one another. However,
spatial assimilation theory posits that, as they adapt in a society, immigrants tend to move
out of enclaves and into less ethnically circumscribed areas (Alba & Logan, 1991; Massey &
Mullan, 1984). Whereas first-generation immigrants may choose to live with co-ethnics as a
strategy of adaptation, for later generations continued residence in an ethnic enclave may be
a consequence of blocked opportunities and housing market segregation. Culture is treated
as static and non-changing, but culture is dynamic and is constantly changing. There is
variability regarding what cultures value or find relevant at different points in time along the
lifespan. As noted earlier, at one time Asians immigrated to the United States for economic
reasons, whereas at a later time political motivations prevailed.
Person x Time
Asian American mothers are primarily responsible for socializing younger children (Inman,
Howard, Beaumont, & Walker, 2007), and Asian American fathers are primarily responsible
for socializing older children (Costigan & Dokis, 2006; Kim, Wang, Orozco-Lapray, Shen,
& Murtuza, 2013). In the contemporary migration from the Middle East and Africa to
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Europe, most initial asylees were young single men, but the balance later shifted to women
and children, as well as unaccompanied minors, who have since accounted for the plurality
of asylees; the gender gap in acculturation of values is larger in older than younger Turkish
adolescents in Belgium (Güngör & Bornstein, 2009, 2013); years in the culture of
destination are more strongly associated with adoption of culture-of-destination practices
among adolescent girls than boys (Schwartz et al., 2006b); the risk for depression among
Vietnamese refugees to the United States increases 2 years after their arrival, but only among
the elderly (Hinton, Tiet, Giaouyen, & Chensney, 1997). First-generation women are
sometimes depicted as carriers of their heritage culture because of their more limited
connections to the wider receiving society beyond the home (Ward, Bochner, & Furnham,
2001); as later-generation women acquire greater understanding of culture-of-destination
policies surrounding education, welfare, and health care, and become skilled in the social
mazeways of the culture of destination, they appear to embrace attitudes of those cultures of
destination (e.g., gender role egalitarianism) more readily than do men (Hojat et al., 2000;
socialization goals for their children may not perfectly match their own personal values (e.g.,
Farver, Xu, Bhadha, Narang, & Lieber, 2007), and parents may come to actively and
intentionally foster their children’s competencies in the mainstream culture regardless of
their own cultural orientation.
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Domain x Time
Different adaptations appear to follow different developmental courses. Acculturation
studies point to decreases in ethnic behaviors, but not beliefs, from the first to the second
generation (Bornstein & Cote, 2006; Nagata, 1994). Among immigrants to Israel from the
FSU, more positive changes in acculturation took place 5 years after immigration as
compared to 1 year (Shuval, 1982). Acculturation effects may need time to consolidate. The
“immigrant paradox” suggests that physical, psychological, social, and cultural outcomes
vary depending on the time since immigration (Borrell & Crawford, 2009; Coll & Marks,
2009; Palloni & Arias, 2004). Thus, cumulative attainment must be considered to fully
explain health deterioration among immigrants in the United States (Riosmena et al., 2015).
The acculturation literature even evidences 3-way interactions: In ethnic enclaves, years
spent in the culture of destination as a marker for adopting culture-of-destination practices
applies to females who immigrated at young ages, but its weight with males and with
females who immigrated as adults is questionable (Schwartz et al., 2006b). The effects of
acculturation on peer liking depend in part on perceived host national belonging, vary across
immigrant groups, relate to intergroup contexts rather than to migration per se, and differ for
high versus low national identifiers (Verkuyten et al., 2013).
In brief, as is the case in moderator analyses, the terms of the Specificity Principle of
Acculturation Science interact.
Is Specificity New to Acculturation?
This article attempts to formalize a Specificity Principle in Acculturation Science. However,
specificity is not entirely new to acculturation or, actually, to developmental and
psychological science generally. Indeed, the field of acculturation studies has been drifting
rather consistently toward specificity. Formalization here of the Specificity Principle is only
a next logical (but nonetheless important) step.
For example, the works of Ward and Phinney (mentioned above) already hinted at some
specificities in acculturation, as did Arends-Tóth and van de Vijver (2006). Immigration is
experienced in widely varied ways between and within groups, as a function of economic,
cultural, sociological, political, and many other factors (Berry, 1997), and the notion of
“segmented assimilation” suggests that acculturation could differ depending on the
immigrant’s country of origin and the context of reception in the country of destination
(Zhou, 1997). More generally, as in developmental science, this specificity perspective on
acculturation implicitly references a PPCT-type approach (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006).
Still others in development (Wachs, 2000; Wohlwill, 1971), and earlier Paul (1969) in
clinical psychology, have championed specificity (even if not calling it that).
To paraphrase Ecclesiastes (1:9), there is little new under the sun. Specificity — not the
formal principle developed here, but, in crystallis form or one or another guise as an
important psychological perspective — has been considered in the past by many authors.
Here, I have merely built on that work and attempted to present the principle formally, to
parse its central constituents, and to divine their implications with respect to acculturation.
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The typological view has also been thoroughly debunked previously (Rudmin, 2003, 2008).
This treatment of acculturation to fill the lacuna in theory is inspired by the prevailing
relational-developmental systems metatheory (Lerner, Lerner, Bowers, & Geldhof, 2015;
Overton, 2015). This theory provides a rich and generative framework for organizing
acculturation, drawing attention to central active constituents and features of acculturation
and formulating ways to conceptualize relations among them, because it comprises
numerous constituents that together account for the plasticity and dynamism that constitute
acculturation. Together these considerations advance beyond the dated typological approach
to acculturation in favor of a fresh specificity perspective.
The Specificity Principle, Acculturation Science, and Social Policy
With the foregoing in mind, we can see that the Specificity Principle has implications for
theory and research and for social policy concerned with acculturation. A brief foray into
each is warranted to round out this thesis.
Pertinence of the Specificity Principle to Acculturation Theory and Research
The Specificity Principle has immediate implications for defining acculturation.
Acculturation has traditionally included “…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 et
al., 1936, p. 149–150). However, considering a broadened definition of process, for example,
reveals that remote acculturation of immigrants through education and globalization occurs
even in the absence of “first-hand contact” (Ferguson & Bornstein, 2012). Clearly, the five
terms of the Specificity Principle identified here refine, concretize, and reinvigorate the
classical, limited, and essentially vague definition of acculturation.
Beyond definition, specificity has implications for theory, design, measurement, and
methodology as it has for understanding the acculturation literature itself. The Specificity
Principle advances theory and helps to make sense of disparate findings in acculturation
research, to enhance the design of investigations of acculturation, and to identify gaps in
acculturation science. No extant theory of acculturation explains how it is that individuals
from the same educational, socioeconomic, generational, or familial backgrounds might still
differ in their keenness and competence to acculturate. Moderators in the Specificity
Principle offer a beginning explanation. Attending to specificity may also help to
disambiguate factors that affect acculturation. For example, all families (immigrant and non-
immigrant) experience intergenerational differences to some extent, so disentangling parent-
child conflict that is related to cultural differences from parent-child conflict that is
developmentally normative is challenging but necessary (Phinney & Vedder, 2006).
Similarly, ethnic minority and immigrant families both face challenges and risks, such as
discrimination, prejudice, and low income, and these risks have deleterious effects on
individuals and families, but they differ by minority versus immigrant statuses.
With the Specificity Principle in mind, acculturation researchers will want to re-evaluate
some central design features of their research. For example, specificity requires reports with
more detailed information about participants and the reference group to whom their findings
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apply (Bornstein, Jager, & Putnick, 2013). Researchers often adopt a pan-ethnic approach to
studying certain immigrant groups, say “Latinos” or “Asians,” regardless of country of
origin, but such a stance likely obscures significant and meaningful variation in some
domains among peoples from different countries or cultures (Tamis-LeMonda, Baumwell, &
Diaz, 2011). Most cultural subgroups diverge in language, immigration history, and cultural
tradition. Mexican and Ukrainian immigrants likely did not acculturate similarly to U.S.
cultural mazeways yesterday, just as Syrian and Afghan immigrants likely will not
acculturate similarly to German cultural mazeways tomorrow. Analyses that combine even
seemingly similar acculturating groups may mislead because levels of variables, and
associations among them, often differ across groups, and results based on heterogeneous
groups may obfuscate meaningful subgroup patterns (Song et al., 2012). Moreover, such
lumping also confounds ethnicity, immigration status, and SES. In short, specificity shows
how aggregating acculturating groups increases risks of unwarranted and inaccurate
overgeneralization. Even the use of blanket appellations like “immigrants”, without
specifying participant composition, age at immigration, time in the culture of destination,
and so forth, can misinform.
Until now, acculturation has also been measured haphazardly and poorly, applying years in
the culture of destination, generation, nativity, and the like… sometimes interchangeably.
Attending to each of the five terms of the Specificity Principle should help to bring a greater
degree of operationalization, precision, and quantitative rigor to the measurement of
acculturation. For example, nativity (i.e., being born in the country of origin versus being
born in the country of destination; Harker, 2001; Kao, 1999) needs to be distinguished from
the number of years spent in the culture of destination (Coatsworth et al., 2002; Gfroerer &
Tan, 2003) as the two are not necessarily interchangeable and may have different
implications and consequences. In ethnic enclaves, nativity may be a poor marker for
adoption of culture-of-destination practices because results obtained using nativity may
differ from results that would be obtained by directly measuring culture-of-destination
practices.
Specificity speaks to other investigative concerns as well. Many studies compare minority
families and children to those of the majority group (Kouider, Koglin, & Petermann, 2014;
Molcho et al., 2010; Nauck & Lotter, 2015). Research in acculturation also often relies on
cross-sectional designs and samples of convenience (that frequently overrepresent low-
income families) to assess relations between family or parenting influences and aspects of
child or youth development. There are many fewer longitudinal studies of middle-class
immigrants that might tease apart the common confound of SES and acculturation and their
relative effects over time. The lack of longitudinal data is also a barrier to understanding
processes and directions of associations among constructs of interest in acculturation
research, and it is difficult to explain negative acculturation effects because most studies are
correlational, vary in how acculturation is measured, and do not often disentangle
report and interview are common in the field, but the inclusion of experimental and
observational research methods would expand the scope of the questions that are asked. It is
past time to turn to systematic comparisons of different acculturating groups in similar
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settings, the same acculturating group in different settings, etc. so as to logically tease apart
specific issues. Moreover, research conclusions based on large-N community samples,
longitudinal designs, and independent reports from parents, youth, and others (e.g., teachers)
would enhance the validity and generalizability of acculturation research. For example, the
Specificity Principle points to the need for longitudinal designs involving pre- and
postmigration assessments to address the temporal term of specificity more adequately.
Acculturation is valenced and may take place towards the culture of destination or away
from the culture of origin or both. Thus, specificity calls for pre- and postmigration two-
sided comparisons in three-culture designs that include the acculturating culture as well as
cultures of origin and destination. Daglar, Melhuish, and Barnes (2011) studied families with
stable residence in Turkey and residentially mobile migrants within Turkey as comparison
groups to Turkish immigrants in the United Kingdom to capture more precisely effects of
mobility on acculturation. Such designs are needed to expose the specific complexities of
acculturation.
As elsewhere, methodology matters in acculturation science, and many methodological
criteria must be met to ensure the validity of specific accultural comparisons (Matsumoto &
van de Vijver, 2011). For example, who conducts the acculturation study, their culture of
origin, their assumptions in asking certain questions, posing certain hypotheses, whom they
study, and so forth can all shape acculturation findings. In the Netherlands, compared to
native Dutch children, Turkish and Moroccan immigrant children show higher levels of
internalizing and externalizing problems as reported by teachers. In contrast, immigrant
children themselves report fewer emotional and behavioral problems compared to native
Dutch children (Stevens et al., 2003; see also Loo & Rapport, 1998). It is possible that
differences in behavioral adjustment are not perceived in school settings by teachers, or it is
possible that teachers share negative social stereotypes of immigrants. Contra a typological
approach (which tend to reify individual styles into static entities), the Specificity Principle
recommends that acculturation researchers reconsider both person-oriented and variable-
oriented approaches in their work (Seelye & Brewer, 1970; Taft, 1957), just as segmented
assimilation theory is followed in sociology (Portes & Zhou, 1993). A dominant approach to
assessment in psychological science uses single variables, combinations of variables, or
relations among variables as the main conceptual and analytical units. Here a single datum
for an individual derives psychological meaning from its position relative to the positions of
data from other individuals. “In a variable approach, the lawfulness of structures and
processes in individual functioning and development is studied in terms of statistical
relations among variables. …” (Magnusson, 1998, pp. 45–46). However, the configuration
of individual variables in a system also has meaning, and information about the individual as
a Gestalt is of interest as well. The person approach is based on a wholistic-interactionistic
research paradigm to development and functioning, meaning that it sees the individual or
dyad as an organized whole, functioning and developing as a totality (Magnusson & Allen,
1983). The totality derives its characteristic features and properties from interactions among
its elements (the whole is more than the sum of the parts) rather than from the effect of
isolated parts of the totality or as an integration of variables. In the person approach, the total
dynamic complex process is not understood by summing the results of single aspects; rather,
the whole individual or dyad is the main conceptual and analytical unit (von Eye, Bergman,
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& Hsieh, 2015). As Lerner et al. (2015, pp. 633–634) wrote, “Accurately capturing the
oftentimes idiographic nature of development … requires that researchers consider the
contexts in which their participants are embedded, as well as which coactions with those
contexts are adaptive. This problem can be tackled through idiographic research designs and
analyses …, or they may alternatively be represented [by] statistical interaction … (e.g.,
Theokas et al., 2005).”
The Specificity Principle addresses and resolves inconsistencies and discrepancies in the
current acculturation literature and identifies gaps that will stimulate future research.
Multiple moderation explains why the sizes of acculturation effects often vary depending on
the particular situations, populations, periods, mechanisms, or variables of acculturation that
have been considered; for example, why research uncovers links between particular setting
conditions and domains for some, but not other, acculturating groups. Absent specificity, a
great deal of variation in acculturation goes unexplained (Pessar & Mahler, 2003). That said,
investigators should expect that different terms of specificity will explain only portions of
variance in acculturation (Schmitz, 1994).
Cultures that adapt to immigrants (via colonization, invasion, or globalization) without
migrating themselves also “acculturate.” So, for example, still too little is known about
indigenous children’s understanding of immigrants (Gieling et al., 2011; Malti, Killen, &
Gasser, 2012; Pfeifer et al., 2007) or their evaluation of immigrants’ acculturation strategies
(Nigbur et al., 2008). However, Verkuyten et al. (2013) examined how native Dutch children
(8–13 years) evaluated migrant peers who followed different paths to acculturation. Some
immigrants discard features of their culture-of-origin identity and adopt those of the culture
of destination (Hartmann & Gerteis, 2005). These immigrants may be perceived to value the
culture of destination and to become more similar to “us” and thereby “one of us.” In-group
identity theory posits that inclusion in a shared category improves attitudes toward out-group
members through the general tendency to esteem people who belong to the same category as
oneself (Gaertner & Dovidio, 2000). Not surprisingly, members of the culture of destination
prefer and evaluate more positively immigrants who adopt mainstream modes to immigrants
who maintain their culture of origin (Van Oudenhoven et al., 1998; Verkuyten, 2005).
Other gaps in the current acculturation literature reflect surprising “unknown unknowns”.
Despite the wide range of domains that populate the contemporary research literature,
developmental outcomes that are assessed are still limited in scope. Two examples. First,
Yarumal in Colombia is well-known for an odd reason: It has the world’s largest population
of people with Alzheimer’s disease; an estimated 5,000 of its denizens carry a gene mutation
that causes an early-onset form of the disease. Taking acculturation into consideration (as
provided by an identity-by-descent analysis), Kosik and his colleagues (2015) sequenced
genomes of the town’s inhabitants and identified E280A as the mutation causing Yarumal’s
form of early-onset Alzheimer’s. Kosik then traced the mutation to a common ancestor — a
conquistador, soldier, and explorer of the Spanish Empire who arrived in Colombia 375
years ago. Second, Cabrera and Leyendecker (2016) have argued for a shift in focus from
deficit models of immigrant youth development towards positive psychology models that
consider the effects of cultures of origin and destination in conjunction with other salient
ecological contexts, such as social class, gender hierarchies, and school and neighborhood
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environments. Positive youth development is an undeveloped area in acculturation research
ripe for study. Increasingly, research is identifying strengths and protective processes that
promote positive development, and future research should embrace the study of positive
development among immigrant youth (Neblett Rivas-Drake, & Umaña-Taylor, 2012; Zhou
et al., 2012). Is positive development defined differently in diverse acculturating
communities? Beliefs and behaviors that are valued in mainstream cultures of destination
may be irrelevant or devalued in certain immigrant groups, and other culture-specific
developmental strengths may be overlooked.
Thus, attention to the five terms of specificity raises novel questions. For example,
acculturation theories that collect individuals into types (assimilationist, etc.) essentially
ignore or relegate to noise potentially meaningful individual-difference factors, such as
personality, but as demonstrated above, different facets of personality moderate acculturation
as the personality fits between individuals and their cultures of origin and destination play
key roles in the process (Güngör et al., 2012; Kosic, 2006). Likewise, motivations condition
both emigrant decision-making and immigrant adjustment. Boneva and Hanson Frieze
(2001) deduced that individuals in a culture of origin who choose to emigrate possess
different motivational needs from those in the same culture of origin with no intention to
emigrate. Most contemporary research in acculturation focuses on peoples migrating from
the developing to the developed world of usually Western, educated, industrial, rich, and
democratic societies (Henrich, Heine, & Norenzayan, 2010). What of acculturation in the
opposite direction? When culturally disparate peoples come into contact with each other, the
differences between them may become salient and can change cultural patterns in sending,
acculturating, and receiving societies alike. To date, the focus of acculturation research is
occupied with the acculturating group, but the effects on the cultures of origin and
destination alike are of equivalent empirical interest.
As noted, acculturation science has inadequately investigated basic mechanisms of action.
What are the relative efficacies of media and communication, consumer products and
tourism, technology and trade as vehicles of acculturation? It is not well-known how
acculturation proceeds for those embedded in homogeneous ethnic enclaves where the
culture of origin predominates versus those living in other heterogeneous contexts in the
same culture of destination. Existing research on country-of-origin and country-of-
destination members’ evaluations of immigrants has not adequately considered setting
conditions of emigrants (Gieling et al., 2011). Immigrants who adopt the mazeways of their
new culture of destination may be evaluated more positively in that culture than those who
do not, but such emigrants are likely to be evaluated more negatively by their culture of
origin than emigrants who maintain their heritage culture. Studies which differentiate
between these different status groups allow one to tease apart the influence of the minority
status per se, the support provided by the government, and degrees of discrimination
experienced by children and families from different groups.
Because ethnic minority children in pluralistic societies are developing in multicultural
contexts, there is a need to understand what parents value of their own culture of origin and
of their culture of destination to pass on to their children. The immigration context might
provide a particularly fortuitous opportunity for immigrant parents to reflect on the values
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they transmit (or not) to their children as well as those they themselves do not possess but
wish their children might.
Finally, the five terms of specificity discussed here are not exhaustive, but rather illustrative
of the principle. The tenability and value of these five terms will be a matter of continuing
empirical scrutiny, and other terms (or variants) in specificity might arise in the future.
Consider objective versus subjective acculturation qua independent variable (Spencer, 2006).
Acculturation of immigrants is often measured by objective parameters, such as years in the
culture of destination, employment status, language proficiency, and social network.
However, more subjective components of acculturation may be operative. The numbers of
years of settlement in the United States do not predict immigrant fathers’ involvement in
their children’s lives, whereas acculturated attitudes constitute a significant predictor (Jain &
Belsky, 1997). Perceptions — that one’s two cultures overlap or do not, are associated or
dissociated, or are close or distant from one another — condition the acculturation
experience, including exposure to each culture, language proficiency and use, and
identification. In this connection, cognitive appraisal processes constitute important
heretofore uninvestigated intervening variables in immigrant acculturation. It follows that
“acculturation” is to some degree in the eye of beholder: Japanese university students who
return to Japan after spending some time in the United States report “feeling un-Japanese”
and experiencing lasting adjustment problems. When with peers, returnees claim to feel
altered with respect to physical appearance, behaviors, and interpersonal styles (Kidder,
1992; Yoshida et al., 2003, discussed peer perceptions that matched these self-reported
feelings of anomie and poor fit). Japanese who had lived in Western cultures were more
assertive and direct in expressing their opinions, which their Japanese homeland peers
perceived as inconsiderate and crass (Minoura, 1988). These findings imply that Japanese
Americans experience deep ambivalence: They may feel “Japanese” among European
Americans but “American” in Japan. Reciprocally, from a European American perspective,
Japanese Americans may seem rightly to retain their heritage cultural patterns, but from the
deeply monocultural Japanese perspective, they may seem Americanized. In short, objective
measures, such as time, as well as subjective ones, such as self-definitional markers that
embrace phenomenology and attempt to capture psychological feelings of belonging to the
new culture, are both meaningful, depending….
In brief, the specificity principle has several implications for the conduct of acculturation
science. As the way of the world continues, we can clearly foresee that the Specificity
Principle will exert increasingly significant sway over the conduct of acculturation science.
It will also profitably insinuate into social policy.
Pertinence of the Specificity Principle to Acculturation Social Policy
The Specificity Principle has implications for the design of interventions and programs in
the service of acculturation, for respectful understanding of migrant cultures, and for policy
in sending and receiving societies’ ideologies.
Policy makers need to become mindful of the Specificity Principle and how it can inform
their goals and good works. As detailed, acculturation effects are conditional and not
absolute (i.e., true for all people under all conditions and so forth), yet majoritarian positions
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traditionally shape program development and policy recommendations. In the real world,
interventions are applied to specific individuals and specific groups, rather than to abstract
populations, and so to be effective they must be appropriate to specific people and specific
goals as well as the specific social-cultural-ecological settings those specific people inhabit.
Facing the same challenges, different migrants acculturate in different ways and different
people respond to migrants in different ways. Different peoples carry with them their shared
histories as a cultural group and their idiosyncratic immigration experiences (hardships,
discrimination, sense of ethnic pride), and so programs, which are themselves cultural
systems, must engage immigrants in activities, roles, and relationships within a framework
that is compatible with those beliefs, values, meanings, and expectations. That said, such
frameworks are all too frequently rooted within a uniform culture of the destination society.
Therefore, cultural miss-fit can create misunderstandings, breed conflicts, and impede
cultural engagement. For example, perceptions of discrimination are frequently cited by
Latino youth and parents in the United States to explain the poor participation of youth in
school (Simpkins, Delgado, Price, Quach, & Starbuck, 2013).
Effective programs allow immigrants to build on and apply their knowledge, skills, and
strengths (Cole, 2006; Villarruel, Montero-Sieburth, Dunbar, & Outley, 2005). Program
designs therefore need to take into consideration specific setting conditions, people, times,
processes, and domains of acculturation. Only a specificity orientation can hope to inform
policies of specific means that will productively meet the specific needs of specific migrants
in specific contexts at specific times. Structural characteristics of programs, such as the
mode of delivery, duration, and frequency of services, and whether the program is part of a
multimodal effort that includes other services, need to be accounted for to ensure program
efficacy and improve program possibilities. In this connection, recall that Hamilton and
Hamilton (2006) described a model German apprenticeship program for adolescents
transitioning to the adult labor force; alas, national structural characteristics proved telling as
85% of native German 25- to 35-year-olds came to possess a formal occupational certificate
by this route versus 43% of Turk immigrants to Germany.
Cultural backgrounds of immigrants from outside the dominant cultural group in a society
are sometimes viewed from a deficit perspective. Yet each culture provides its members with
funds of knowledge, tools, norms, and ways of thinking that can contribute to immigrants’
engagement in and learning from program activities (Morland, 2007; Villarruel et al., 2005).
For example, the high cultural value placed on mutual trust and cooperation (confianza) in
many Latino cultures is a valuable asset among some Latino youth in immigrant programs
(Salusky et al., 2014). This asset might aid youth’s collaborative work on program projects
and contribute to processes that help them grow in responsibility, confidence, and maturity.
More research is needed to understand how other specific cultural assets (e.g., cultural
precepts, ties to family, models of relationships) can optimize program effectiveness for
specific groups.
Perhaps the clearest policy recommendation that has emerged from the acculturation
literature is the value of supporting transmission of the culture of origin within immigrant
families. One major way in which families foster positive acculturation is by exposing
children to and valuing diverse frames of reference so that children become familiar with
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and feel comfortable interacting in multiple cultures (Mistry & Wu, 2010). Fostering
culture-of-origin assets, programs that promote and support positive parenting and build
family cohesion likely contribute to the positive development of immigrant youth (Corona et
al., 2012; Leidy, Guerra, & Toro, 2012). A 2014 Council of Europe publication states that
programs to promote adult migrants’ “linguistic integration” should “encourage them to pass
[their mother tongue(s)] on to their children (at least using them within the family)” (Beacco
et al., 2014). A UNICEF report covering several E.U. countries likewise stressed the
importance of proficient bilingualism for young immigrant children’s well-being
(Hernandez, 2012).
Some programs, by chance or by design, provide socialization for specific cultural groups,
and research suggests that those programs succeed in strengthening cultural consciousness
and identity–– including understanding prejudice and acquiring coping skills – that
Davidson, 2010). Sharing ethnic identity with peers is believed to provide a condition for
youth to engage in identity building in a safe and supportive environment. Such situations
may be especially valuable for youth from ethnic groups that have experienced trauma,
injustice, or marginalization (Ginwright, 2010) as they provide opportunities for overcoming
a sense of isolation, learning about and analyzing experiences of discrimination, and
grappling with the “vexing and contradictory forces that shape their lives” (HoSang, 2006, p.
16). Those same conditions may also provide opportunities for youth to become proactive in
asserting their ethnic identity and to develop civic skills to effectively address grievances
(Ginwright, 2010; Kwon, 2008). Further research is needed on the promising practices of
such programs and how their moderations will best fit the needs, and capitalize on the assets,
of specific immigrant groups.
The value of specificity becomes even clearer in the shortcomings of programs that attempt
to serve diverse cultural backgrounds. The possible combinations of immigrants from
different groups in such programs overwhelm, and these different combinations likely
contribute to widely varying program dynamics and successes. On specificity, programs that
attempt to serve diverse ethnic groups with diverse goals in mind are likely to be much less
effective in meeting culture-specific needs of immigrants from any one group because of
challenges to provide specific supports of same-ethnicity staff, a critical mass of ethnic
peers, and so forth (Okamoto, Gast, & Feldman, 2012). Only by focusing on Latina
immigrant mothers’ daily pro-educational beliefs and behaviors were the negative effects of
low maternal education overcome (Schaller, Rocha, & Barshinger, 2007). The difficulty of
providing targeted experiences to multiple immigrant groups helps to explain the infrequent
successes of “one size fits all” program models (Fredricks & Simpkins, 2012). An important
related issue therefore regards instances in which a general program model is employed with
youth from one immigrant group that differs from the group with whom it was originally
developed. Cole (2006) described the adaptation of the Fifth Dimension to culturally fit
children in a Latino neighborhood. Latino staff were recruited, and Spanish language and
Mexican American heritage infused into activities, games, and program relationships. The
program also drew on Latino norms of multi-generational assistance as a cultural asset,
cultivating parent participation and encouraging older youth to take responsibility for
younger youth. Specificity in action. Research is needed on the effectiveness of, and best
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practices for, adaptation of general program models to specific cultural and immigrant
groups, in specific settings, etc.
Immigrant families present distinctive issues and opportunities for social programs.
Immigrant parents and children are typically involved in an ongoing process of cultural
adjustment, one in which (as suggested) children may assimilate more quickly than parents
toward the culture of destination; this generational disjunction can provoke family conflict
(Berry, 1997; Chao & Otsuki-Clutter, 2011). Recently arrived immigrant youth are often
isolated in their schools and neighborhoods, and youth programs can play an important
“bridging role” in facilitating adjustment (Gaytan, Carhill & Suárez-Orozco, 2007). They
can connect youth to peers in similar situations and to program staff and service
professionals who can act as cultural guides. They can also provide opportunities to identify
youth’s cultural backgrounds as assets (Morland, 2007) and help youth to develop bicultural/
One parent and two child examples: Immigrant parents may feel optimistic that in a new
homeland they might better fulfill the role of being a parent, but they can be thwarted.
Migrant families are sometimes exposed to unique legal circumstances that arise when their
normative culture-of-origin practices come into conflict with culture-of-destination customs
or laws. Parenting practices that may be routine and perfectly acceptable in the migrant’s
origin culture may be deemed “neglectful” or “abusive” in certain destination cultures. For
example, Korean Americans living in Los Angeles regard certain American laws concerning
child abuse to conflict with Korean heritage cultural values and childrearing norms (Song,
1986). Such differences of opinion over “normative” parenting have been known to create
cultural clashes between minority foreign-born parents and child protective services systems
in the majority culture (Coleman, 2007). Belgium and the Netherlands enforce strict laws
regarding child marriage, whereas religious leaders in Syria make exceptions for marriage
starting at age 13. Now 13- to 15-year-old Syrian “child brides” in Belgian and Dutch
asylum centers are posing similarly thorny questions to public officials.
International adoption has been called a “silent migration.” Consider the experience of the
adopted Chinese or Nigerian children growing up in the United States or the United
Kingdom, where there is considerable cultural heterogeneity, versus in Scandinavian
countries, where there is more cultural homogeneity. Children in the first instance are likely
to have many more opportunities to learn about their cultural heritage and to meet others
who share their cultural origins. Internationally and domestically placed adoptees fare
differently (Juffer & van IJzendoorn, 2005, 2007), but the differential adjustment of these
children is a function of where they come from, when they are placed, and where they wind
up (Barni, Leon, Ronsati, & Palacios, 2008). Many children today are fleeing drug cartels,
gang violence, sexual exploitation, and domestic abuse in the Central American triangle of
El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. Since 2011, more than 125,000 such unaccompanied
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minors have been stopped at the U.S. border (many placed in shelters funded by the federal
Office of Refugee Resettlement) and nearly 20,500 younger than 18 were apprehended by
the U.S. Border Patrol in Fiscal Year 2016 alone (U.S. Customs and Border Protection,
2016). In a recent 2-year period (October 1, 2013 to December 31, 2015), more than 95,000
unaccompanied minors were released into U.S. communities. The Vera Institute of Justice
(Byrne & Miller, 2012) reported that ~40% of unaccompanied immigrant children
potentially qualify for statuses that would exempt them from deportation from the United
States, including asylum (because they fear persecution in their home country) or special
immigrant juvenile status (because they have been abused or abandoned by a parent).
However, the differential treatment of immigrants by their developmental status is woefully
unappreciated. Even children, sometimes toddlers, who are charged with violating
immigration laws have no right to appointed counsel and can be compelled to appear in
court alone and unrepresented, when the U.S. Government is represented by Department of
Homeland Security lawyers. The U.S. Justice Department reports that 42% of the more than
20,000 unaccompanied minors involved in deportation proceedings completed between July
2014 and late December had no attorneys. One senior U.S. Justice Department official
contended in 2016 that 3- and 4-year-olds can learn immigration law well enough to
represent themselves in court. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit is hearing an
appeal stemming from a Seattle federal court case regarding whether such immigrant
children are entitled to taxpayer funded attorneys.
On the basis of their nationalist immigration policies, whole countries can be arrayed from
more pluralistic and open climates to more restrictive and closed ones; generally, the latter
show lower levels of sociocultural adjustment and higher levels of ethnic orientation
(Huddleston & Niessen, 2011). Immigration from outside of the E.U. is basically limited to
family unification, to (acknowledged) refugees, and to highly skilled professionals. Some
acculturating groups may be evaluated positively by their culture of destination, others
negatively. The common esteem of ethnic groups according to liking or social distance from
the mainstream is sometimes referred to as the “ethnic hierarchy.” In the Netherlands, for
example, Chinese, Surinamer, and Antillean immigrants are evaluated more positively than
Verkuyten & Thijs, 2002). In some E.U. countries, Syrian asylum seekers are acceptable, but
Afghans and Iraqis are not. Less well accepted migrants often experience hostility, rejection,
and discrimination, encounters that in turn predict poor long-term adjustment. Societies that
foster cultural pluralism are less likely to enforce cultural change or exclusion of immigrants
and tend to provide positive settlement contexts. Holding culture-of-origin constant
(Turkey), Yagmur and van de Vijver (2011) found that immigrants to Australia (an
immigration country with a pluralistic ideology) showed higher levels of identification with
their new mainstream culture and lower levels than their brethren immigrants to France and
Germany (where cultural ideologies are more homogenous and the differentiation of
indigenous versus immigrant peoples is more pronounced). Therefore, the receiving
country’s acculturation climate helped to explain differences in the course of Turkish
immigrants’ acculturation. Because of its proximity to the Balkan States, Northeast Italy has
a longer history of migratory movements from Eastern Europe than do other parts of Italy;
this region has stable settlements of Albanians and Serbians, greater numbers of family
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reunifications, mixed marriages, and local policies on education and community settings that
facilitate the acculturation of newly arriving families (Marra, 2002). These factors partly
explain positive social adjustment outcomes for Albanian and Serbian immigrant children in
the area. By contrast, Albanian immigrant children in less-accommodating Greece
experience more behavioral problems (Motti-Stefanidi et al., 2008). The social policies and
ideological nature of the specific community to which immigrants acculturate thereby
shapes whether and how they acquire culture-of-destination practices and accommodate
those of their culture of origin (Phinney, Horenczyk, Liebkind, & Vedder, 2001; Ryder et al.,
2000; Schwartz et al., 2006b).
The 2015 world refugee crisis polarized Europe and altered cultural landscapes of the
Americas. In Europe, every E.U. member agreed to accept an immigrant quota based on its
gross domestic product and population. Under new rules, asylum seekers cannot choose their
culture of destination. Previously allowing refugees to decide their country of destination led
to an imbalanced distribution of the burden, and the quota system was abandoned. Sweden
absorbed the largest per capita share of refugees of any E.U. country, but having exhausted
accommodations in hotels, apartment buildings, tents, abandoned army barracks, and
converted prisons, Sweden eventually housed migrants in the headquarters of the Swedish
Migration Agency. When Angela Merkel opened Germany’s borders to Middle Eastern
migrants, her German critics observed that she could say, “Yes we can,” but she also had to
say, “What, when and how.” Ultimately, 1.1 million refugees reached Germany in 2015,
whose population is ~82 million. Even Merkel’s sympathizers wondered about the country’s
ability to accommodate that drove of new arrivals. Facing social disorder and political
disruption, Germany eventually tightened its border controls to admit fewer asylum seekers,
and Europe decided to pay Turkey to keep asylees penned there. Other once sympathetic
European states turned away migrants who were unable to prove that they were fleeing war
in Syria, Afghanistan, or Iraq, and instituted stricter screenings, balancing humane treatment
with security of national borders. Thus, tens of thousands of emigrants are stranded in
Greece, the Balkan countries, and now Turkey. The soldiers of Odin and Finnish Resistance
vigilantes fashion a case study in escalating immigrant fear and suspicion; the Danish
Parliament sanctioned seizures of cash and valuables from migrants, cut refugee benefits
(even advertising the cuts in Lebanese newspapers), and prosecuted Danish Samaritans who
aided asylum seekers; and Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, and Sweden imposed
checks that placed the future of Europe’s open borders at risk as these nations seek ways to
curb the flow of migrants.
In South America, a liberal discourse of universally welcoming immigrants replaced
formally restrictive immigration policies. But contrary to rights publically claimed in laws
and policies, in practice South American governments reject increasing “irregular migration”
from Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean to varying degrees. A “reverse immigration policy
paradox” obtains in which South America de jure welcomes, but de facto obstructs,
migrants. Ecuador and Brazil, for example, have immigration systems in which restrictive
actions clash with liberal policy. In Argentina, policy is more consistent with a welcoming,
liberal immigration discourse (Arcarazo & Freier, 2015). Meanwhile in the United States,
between 2006 and 2013 children of immigrants accounted for all growth in the U.S.
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population of children under age 18. (The number of children of native-born parents fell 1.3
million, while the number of children with at least one immigrant parent grew 1.9 million.)
Paradoxically, on account of increasing life expectancies and decreasing birth rates in many
developed countries, national economies as well as nonimmigrant senior citizens’ retirement
pensions partly depend on the economic contributions of immigrants. In the 21st C,
immigrants are expected to become a prominent force in the economies of these societies
and contribute meaningfully to the care and support of their aging nonimmigrant populations
(Hernandez, 2012). Immigrants in many countries will pay more in taxes over their lifetimes
than they receive in social benefits (Dustmann, Frattini, & Preston, 2013). European
reactions to this economic fact of life can be fierce: The Prime Minister of Hungary urged
Europeans to have more children instead of welcoming refugees from South Asia, North
Africa, and the Middle East.
Pressures associated with globalization across multiple domains of language skills, work
force, intercultural relations, refugee status, and so forth moderate national policy in cultures
of destination. Within countries, immigrants may exert short-term downward pressures on
wages among the lower more than middle- or upper-economic classes. Between countries,
integration strategies obtain for valued immigrants and separation or assimilation strategies
for less valued immigrants (Canada: Montreuil & Bourhis, 2001), where other countries
show no differences in national strategies for different immigrant groups (France:
Maisonneuve & Teste, 2007; the Netherlands: Van Oudenhoven et al., 1998).
In brief, the Specificity Principle reveals that acculturation is moderated by the
sociopolitical ideologies and policies of countries of destination (Baubock, Heller, &
Zolberg, 1996; Bourhis, Moise, Perreault, & Senecal, 1997; Koenig, 1999).
Conclusions
Main effects tell us about the size and direction of differences; moderator effects tell us to
what extent certain factors influence the size and direction of main effects. Acculturation is
subject to multiple moderation. Therefore, acculturation theoreticians, researchers, and
policy makers need to concern themselves with understanding which circumstances affect
which aspects of which migrants when and how, and they should be interested to learn the
ways in which migrants with which individual characteristics are affected, as well as the
ways migrants affect their culture of origin, their own acculturation, and their culture of
destination. The Specificity Principle provides a framework intended to explain trajectories
of acculturation in individuals or groups who may or may not share significant
characteristics.
Typological assumptions in acculturation study have held that pathways of acculturation are
categorical and universal: assimilation, integration, separation, or marginalization. The
Specificity Principle offers a distinctively new, realistic, nuanced and more comprehensive
replacement for that outmoded and increasingly irrelevant singular perspective. The
Specificity Principle presents a pluralistic option that is sensitive to the many variations
among present-day migrants and their situations. Thus, specificity assures greater precision
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with respect to acculturation and a more valid account of it. As war, oppression, extremism,
climate change, and poverty show no signs of abating in the near future, and
communications technology, ease of transportation, liberal ideology, and free trade continue
to rise, the Specificity Principle, as acculturation science itself, will wax in significance.
Some readers will take issue with the further fragmentation of acculturation (already
instigated in typological systems). The Specificity Principle, as advanced here, is not
intended to be blindly dogmatic or reductionist. Very likely, students of acculturation can
arrive at many generalizations (some mentioned in the foregoing text): immigrants who
know the language of the culture of destination, those with higher IQs or more open
personalities, or those who are more motivated will all likely fare better through the
acculturation process, where those with histories of misbehavior or conflicting religious
orientations will fare worse. Since Heisenberg (1927), however, scientists have
acknowledged that different individuals approach and understand the world in ways that
reflect their unique interactions and experiences. To fathom acculturation, therefore, it is
necessary and desirable to differentiate among specific setting conditions, people, times,
processes, and domains. This is difficult to do and has been done in only piecemeal fashion
to date. The unhappy truth is that not so much as we would like is currently known
scientifically about the threads that are woven into the intricate fabric of acculturation or
about the delicate weaving process itself. However, mounting evidence suggests that more
sophisticated and sound approaches in a refreshed future acculturation science – motivated
by the Specificity Principle — will help to expose, explain, and appreciate the refined
tapestry that is acculturation. Eventually, acculturation science will have to embrace the
Specificity Principle’s moderating terms if it is to move forward, as acculturation itself
keeps the world in motion.
Acknowledgments
Supported by the Intramural Research Program of the NIH, NICHD.
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Figure 1.
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Abstract
Migration and Acculturation
What this Article Aims to Do, its Context, and Limitations
Specificity in Acculturation
Specificity Principle: Setting Condition
Setting Condition: Reason to Migrate
Setting Condition: Place
Setting Conditions: Experience and Status
Specificity Principle: People
Person: Gender
Person: Personality
Person: Individual-Difference Characteristics
Specificity Principle: Time
Time: Age
Time: Penetration and Adjustment
Time: History
Specificity Principle: Process
Process: Socialization
Process: Learning
Process: Instruction
Process: Opportunity
Process: Transaction and Beyond
Specificity Principle: Domain
Domain: Multidimensionality
Domain: Dynamic Adaptability
Terms of the Specificity Principle Interact
Setting Condition x Time
Person x Time
Process x Time
Domain x Time
Is Specificity New to Acculturation?
The Specificity Principle, Acculturation Science, and Social Policy
Pertinence of the Specificity Principle to Acculturation Theory and Research
Pertinence of the Specificity Principle to Acculturation Social Policy
Conclusions
References
Figure 1
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