Refugees, Acculturation Strategies, Stress and Integration

Abstract

The advent of super-diversity and politicisation of migration has been accompanied by heightened interest in migrant settlement. Much has been written in policy and academic fields about the importance of integration particularly in relation to the settlement of refugees. However little attention has been paid to the varied settlement experiences of individual refugees or how personal, cultural and experiential factors combine to influence settlement experiences. This paper turns to cross-cultural psychology's discussion of acculturation processes and in particular Berry's acculturation strategies (Berry 1997) to look at the different factors that influence acculturation and how these factors impact upon the ability of individual refugees to integrate. Using qualitative data collected from 138 interviews with refugees living in Birmingham, England, the paper shows how a range of group and individual factors relating to their experiences both in refugees' home and host countries influence the acculturation strategies adopted by different refugees. It shows that in the current policy environment many refugees lack choice about acculturation strategy, are vulnerable to psychosocial stress and struggle to integrate.

After Coming In, Settling In: An Analysis of Early-Stage Acculturation Preferences of Male Syrian and Iraqi Asylum Seekers in Belgium

“…This result replicates quantitatively what Phillimore (2011) showed through a qualitative analysis of interviews with refugees and demonstrates, as Yijälä and Jasinskaja-Lahti (2010) highlighted with potential Russian migrants, that early-stage acculturation preferences of Syrian and Iraqi asylum seekers recently arrived in Europe are influenced by these perceptions. Even before their arrival in the host country, asylum seekers, and more generally migrants, are often deeply embedded in social networks with people living in their destination country (Massey, 1990;Portes & Sensenbrenner, 1993).…”

“…This idea was supported by several empirical studies (Jasinskaja-Lahti, Liebkind, Horenczyk & Schmitz, 2003;Phillimore, 2011;Zagefka, Gonzales & Brown, 2011). For example, Phillimore (2011) showed, through interviews with refugees from various countries, that perceptions of majority members' attitudes toward them affected their desire to participate in the host society. This author argued that the negative headlines in the media vilifying asylum seekers and reporting their criminal behaviours reduce their confidence and lead them to endorse either separation or marginalization strategies.…”

Faith Resilience: Everyday Experiences

“…The attractiveness of the concept is continuously increasing, so too is the complexity and diversity of the cultural and social fabric of Western societies. As such, some authors have identified this process as being 'super-diverse' [1,2] or 'hyperdiverse' [3] to overcome the limitations of the complex conceptualisations of today's increasingly diverse societies inherent in previous accounts. Therefore, larger cities in the UK, such as Birmingham-and elsewhere-have been described as 'super-diverse'.…”

Refugees in Cyprus: Local Acceptance in the Past and Present

“…In order to integrate and acculturate refugees in their host countries it is necessary to raise the importance of a more balanced discussion of migration from where asylum seekers and refugees are vilified by the state, media, and general population to a point where the reality of the refugee experience is understood, and they are treated with more sympathy and less fear, and provided with appropriate support to settle (Phillimore 2011).…”