Prioritising Family Needs: A Grounded Theory of Acculturation for Sub-Saharan African Migrant Families in Australia (original) (raw)
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Child & Family Social Work, 2011
This study documented the parenting styles among African migrants now living in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, and assessed how intergenerational issues related to parenting in a new culture impact on family functioning and the modification of lifestyles. A total of 10 focus group discussions (five with parents and five with 13-17-yearold children; N = 85 participants) of 1.5-2 hours duration were conducted with Sudanese, Somali and Ethiopian migrant families. The analysis identified three discrete themes: (i) parenting-related issues; (ii) family functioning and family relations; and (iii) lifestyle changes and health. African migrant parents were restrictive in their parenting; controlled children's behaviours and social development through strict boundary-setting and close monitoring of interests, activities, and friends; and adopted a hierarchical approach to decision-making while discouraging autonomy among their offspring. Programmes seeking to improve the health and welfare of African migrants in their host countries need to accommodate the cultural and social dimensions that shape their lives. Such programmes may need to be so broad as to apply an acculturation lens to planning, and to assist young people, parents and families in addressing intergenerational issues related to raising children and growing up in a different social and cultural milieu.
Journal of International Migration and Integration, 2021
The study examined whether there was an influence of region of origin, area, or residence prior to migration, religion, and perceived discrimination on the acculturation strategies of sub-Saharan African migrants in Australia. These factors have been found to affect acculturation, given the multi-dimensionality of identify formation. Data were obtained on 425 sub-Saharan African migrants and refugees living in Victoria and South Australia. Acculturation was measured using the Vancouver Acculturation Index. Compared to migrants from central Africa, those from eastern Africa (adjusted odds ratio [AOR], 0.45; p < 0.01) were less likely to assimilate, while migrants who lived in large towns or the city prior to migration (AOR, 0.54; p < 0.05) were less likely to separate but more likely to assimilate (AOR, 2.26; p < 0.01) than those who came from refugee camps. Compared to Muslims, Christians (AOR, 0.57; p < 0.05) were less likely to integrate while those practising religions other than Islam or Christianity (AOR, 3.54; p < 0.01) were more likely to separate. Migrants reporting not fitting in/ excluded were less likely to be in the culturally marginalised group (OR, 0.86; p < 0.01) but more likely to report being integrated (AOR, 1.14; p < 0.01), whereas those reporting personal discrimination (AOR, 1.12; p < 0.01) and societal discrimination (AOR, 1.13; p < 0.01) were more likely to separate or remain traditional. In order to promote cultural pluralism and facilitate cultural adaptations among sub-Saharan African migrants, educational programs, anti-racism policy, and legislative reforms need to reposition multiculturalism in a way that promotes tolerance and acceptance of ethnic, cultural, and religious diversity.
Acculturation challenges that confront Sudanese former refugees in Australia
Journal of Intercultural Communication, 2012
This study investigated acculturation challenges that Sudanese former refugees faced as a consequence of settling in SouthEast Queensland, Australia. A total of 28 females and 11 males participated in focus groups. The findings indicate that both women and men face acculturation issues relating to successful settlement. The women were particularly challenged by low English language proficiency and parenting issues, while the men faced challenges to their traditional gender role within the family, as breadwinner, and their role outside the home-at work and in the public sphere. Thus, the research offers important insights into acculturation issues faced by both genders.
International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 2012
Berry (1990) distinguished four acculturation attitudes (integration, assimilation, separation and marginalization) arising from two acculturation questions (concerning cultural maintenance and cultural contact). This research examines the distributions of acculturation attitudes based on his original cultural maintenance-cultural contact conceptualization and on a later cultural maintenance-cultural adoption model. In line with the Relative Extended Acculturation Model it also compares the outcomes of real (self-reported behavioral) and ideal (attitudinal) assessments of acculturation. Two hundred and eightynine first generation immigrants in New Zealand participated in the study. In line with the hypotheses, integration occurred more frequently when derived from cultural contact than from cultural adoption and when acculturation was framed in attitudinal, rather than behavioral, terms. The findings point to the necessity of clearly defining the dimensions of acculturation, ensuring they are appropriately operationalized, and differentiating attitudinal and self-reported behavioral measures. The consequences of the operationalization of acculturation for its relationship to adaptation are also reported and discussed.
Background Immigration often results in changes in family dynamics, and within this process of dynamic relational adjustment youth can be conceptualised as contested sites of culture and associ- ated intergenerational conflicts. This paper considers the experiences of migrant youth in Greater Western Sydney, New South Wales, Australia using conflict as a useful lens through which to view issues of migrant youth identity and their sense of social connected- ness, belonging, and agency. The aim of this study was twofold: 1) to explore how migrant youth cope with acculturative stress and intergenerational conflicts, and 2) to better under- stand the systemic and family-related factors that facilitate positive settlement experiences for migrant youth. Methods A total of 14 focus group discussions, comprising 164 people, were carried out in Greater Western Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. These focus groups targeted newly arrived migrant parents and young adults (aged 18–24) of African, Burmese, Nepalese, Indian, Afghani, Bangladeshi and Iraqi backgrounds. Each focus group was 1.5 hours in duration and was conducted by a team of three people (an experienced facilitator, an accredited interpreter/bilingual worker, and a note taker). Data were collected using a standard inter- view schedule, and an accredited interpreter/bilingual worker asked the questions in the appropriate language and translated participant responses into English. Results The findings highlight how youth in new migrant families become contested sites of culture as they try to balance integration into the new culture while maintaining their originating country’s cultural values. Two themes and four subthemes emerged from the analysis: Inter- generational acculturation gap (loss of family capital and intergenerational conflicts); and factors that successfully protected positive family values while still allowing young people to integrate (the legal system that disarm authoritarian parenting practices and family rules; and parental use of children’s increased knowledge of the new environment to navigate their new environment). Migrant families conceptualised family capital as the social solidar- ity, influence, and control governing obligations and expectations, intergenerational knowl- edge transmission and information flow, social norms, and cultural identity. The loss of family capital was characterised by children’s refusal to associate with or meet family mem- bers, preferring to be alone in their rooms and private space. Migrant youth find themselves caught between and negotiating two cultures, with unwanted negative consequences at the family level in the form of intergenerational conflicts. The new found freedom among chil- dren and their rapid transition into the Australian society gives children an increased sense of agency, which in turn threatens parental authority, allowing children to exercise three forms of power: increased assertiveness due to legal protection of children against any cor- poral punishment; and English language fluency and greater understanding of the function- ing of Australian social institutions. Conclusion Our findings suggest the need for an inter-generational approach to healthy family dynamics within migrant communities when dealing with youth negotiating the complexity and sensitiv- ity of forging their cultural identity.
Rethinking the Concept of Acculturation: Implications for Theory and Research
This article presents an expanded model of acculturation among international migrants and their immediate descendants. Acculturation is proposed as a multidimensional process consisting of the confluence among heritage-cultural and receiving-cultural practices, values, and identifications. The implications of this reconceptualization for the acculturation construct, as well as for its relationship to psychosocial and health outcomes, are discussed. In particular, an expanded operationalization of acculturation is needed to address the " immigrant paradox, " whereby international migrants with more exposure to the receiving cultural context report poorer mental and physical health outcomes. We discuss the role of ethnicity, cultural similarity, and discrimination in the acculturation process, offer an operational definition for context of reception, and call for studies on the role that context of reception plays in the acculturation process. The new perspective on acculturation presented in this article is intended to yield a fuller understanding of complex acculturation processes and their relationships to contextual and individual functioning.
Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 2014
The challenges confronting neighbouring South African countries such as Zimbabwe continues to increase as a result of the economic down turn it experiences. Consequently people are forced to break barriers in order to cross to South Africa in an attempt to settle down. Their settlement in South Africa presents the reality that their children have to attend South African schools with the attendant challenges and opportunities. Not much is known about how the children of immigrants from Zimbabwe acculturate to the school environment and the South African cultures. Utilising a qualitative case study approach, legitimate peripheral participation, semistructured interviews and observation, this paper explores the impact of familial and school experiences of immigrant children from Zimbabwe on their acculturation to the school environment and the society of sojourn. The study sample consisted of four male immigrant children from Zimbabwe and their parents. The study revealed that familial dynamics seemed to predispose Zimbabwean immigrant children to receive incessant protection in terms of the culture to adopt and the culture to refuse. They were trained at the home front to imbibe their home-based culture and not to inculcate the mainstream culture.