“Togetherness in Difference”: Perceived Personal Discrimination and Acculturation Preferences among Internal Migrants in a Poor Urban Community in Accra

Abstract

This paper assesses the relative effects of acculturation preferences (assimilation, separation, integration, and marginalization) on migrants' perception of acceptability in James Town, a traditional urban neighborhood in Accra, Ghana. There is a paucity of academic work on the relationship between migrants' acculturation inclinations and their assessment of the hosts' attitude towards them in Ghana. Cognizant of the fluidity of acculturation strategies, the study focuses on individual inclinations towards acculturation. To examine migrants' perception of acceptability by the host, we use perceived personal discrimination. We utilize results from a semistructured questionnaire administered to 301 migrant individuals from different migrant households in James Town. Our findings suggest that migrants with assimilation preferences are less likely to have a higher rating on the extent to which they are discriminated against by the host population. Such an exploratory study is pertinent to understanding relationships (conflicts or "togetherness in difference") in poor multi-ethnic settings.

“Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don’t”: Perceived Discrimination and the Paradoxes of Assimilation among U.S. Muslims

“…English language proficiency is also expected and is positively associated with residential integration (Espenshade and Fu 1997). Integration and its proposed rewards are further expected to increase with the duration of stay in a host society for immigrant groups (Asare et al 2018; Jun and Ha 2015). New immigrants appear more vulnerable to discrimination than more established immigrant groups, and time spent in a new country is associated with decreased perceptions of discrimination, as new immigrants struggle to adapt socially and economically (Daley et al 2007; Fleury 2007; Oxman-Martinez et al 2012).…”