2. ‘Pulled’ towards a new country
• Most significant ‘pull’ is economic opportunity
• Migrants may be dissatisfied with their
employment and come from a lower
socioeconomic environment than non-
migrants
• Generally relocate with long-term
resettlement intentions
3. Members of plural societies
• Overseas born, first-generation settlers should
be described as migrants
• Second or later generation descendants are
referred to as members of ethnocultural
groups
• In Canada, no single ethnic group constitutes a
majority
• 4 out of 5 Australians are children of
immigrants
4. Immigration and Integration Policies
• Pluralism Ideology
• Civic Ideology
• Assimilation ideology
• Ethnist Ideology
May overlap or shift along a continuum with
pluralism diminishing antagonism and ethnist
increasing tensions
5. Pluralism (Integrationist)
• The expectation that immigrants will adopt
public values of the host society but private
values and cultural activities are not
regulated by the state (freedoms of
religion, language etc)
• Ideological Pluralism permits the
government to offer financial and social
support to immigrant groups
• Canada’s Multiculturalism Act of 1988
6. Civic Ideology
• Similar to pluralism in its distinction of public and
private values, demanding respect for the former
and regarding the latter as a matter of private
choice
• State policies are non-interventionist (for all
social groups) but the rights of groups to organize
activities promoting cultural maintenance are
recognized
• May not support immigrant groups, favoring the
collective interests of the majority
• Great Britain’s anti-discrimination laws
7. Assimilation Ideology
• Similar to pluralism and civic with respect to
public and private values
• Entitles the intervention of the state in some
areas of private values
• Assumes immigrants should abandon their
cultural and linguistic distinctiveness and
adopt those of host community
• U.S. ideology until 20th century
8. Ethnist Ideology (Exclusionist)
• Immigrants must adopt the public values of
their hosts and the state has the right to
regulate certain aspects of private values
• Citizenship determined by birth or kinship
(“German Blood”)
• Members of receiving society may not accept
immigrants as equal partners in national
development
• Germany, Israel, Japan
9. Republican Ideology
• Variation of assimilationist ideology
• The notion of the equality of the
universal man in France
• May be used as a legitimizing tool that
justifies the suppression of ethnocultural
differences deemed backward or divisive
for the unity of the state (Bourhis et
al., 1997)
10. Outcomes
• More likely positive when immigrants and
members of the receiving society share similar
attitudes toward acculturation
• Adaption is influenced by social-psychological
phenomena that influence attitudes and
behaviors in multicultural societies
11. Attitudes towards immigration in
Australia (Goot, 1993)
• Members of host society endorse official state
policies to varying degrees
• Though many support immigrants in terms of
access and equity, there is little endorsement
of cultural pluralism
• More members support multiculturalism but
many are caught between two positions
12. Realistic Threat Theory
• 1998 poll revealed that 49% of Canadians
believe immigration increases unemployment
among people already in the country
• Majority of Americans are more likely to agree
that immigrants take jobs or government
assistance than to believe immigrants
strengthen the country due to hard work and
talent
• Explains negative attitudes among hosts
13. Contact Hypothesis
• Intergroup relations are strengthened
based on equal status and mutual
cooperation for achieving common goals
• Members of non-dominant groups are
more willing to engage in such contact
14. Migrants’ attitudes toward cultural
ethnicity
• Likely to be influenced by premigration beliefs
and postmigration experiences
• Out-group perceptions held by immigrants are
shaped by prevailing attitudes in the receiving
culture
• Russian immigrants to the U.S. and British
migrants to South Africa reported more
negative opinions toward blacks after
migration (Ward, pg 201)
15. Migrant adaption and links to physical
and mental health problems
• Jews from the former Soviet Union report
more problems/demoralization than Israeli-
born settlers of European descent
• Chronic illness is greater in foreign-born
settlers than the native-born population in
Sweden
• Irish immigrants in the U.K. have a higher rate
of suicide
16. Some studies suggest less
psychopathology among immigrants
• Southeast Asian immigrants in the U.K. have
lower levels of depression compared to the
white majority (Berthound & Nazroo, 1997)
• Adolescent migrants from third world
countries in Norway have fewer behavioral
problems than native-born peers (San, 1998)
• Methodological and conceptual difficulties
such as assessment instruments and
bias, access to participants etc.
17. Sociocultural and Economic
Adaptation
• Some evidence that social skills of
immigrants are poorer than native-borns
• Related to positive self concept and
decreased feelings of alienation
• Majority of migrants settle for economic
reasons but often encounter more
obstacles to economic success than
natives
18. Intergroup Interactions
• Perceived discrimination leads to more
psychological distress
• Acculturation orientation of biculturalism is
related to psychological well-being and
satisfaction
• Stress & Coping model used widely to account
for psychological adaptation of migrants
19. Mixed outcomes of co-ethnic support
• Samoan migrants in the U.S. ‘build a cocoon of
Samoan-ness’ that is unsustainable over a
period of time thus the initial stress-buffering
kin allegiance eventually becomes
burdensome and stressful (Barker, 1991)
• Conflicting values—communal vs.
individualist—lead to physical/psychological
disorders
20. Longitudinal, Comparative Research
• Revealed that patterns and predictors of
psychological adaptation are similar between
natives and immigrants
• Psychological satisfaction is related to length
of settlement (loneliness of new
migrants), personality factors, social and
spousal support
