Track 8

Track 08

Lecturer: Today I’d like to continue from last week’s lecture by looking at what helps people successfully integrate into a new culture. Whereas the reasons for migration are nowadays fairly easy to identify and largely related to employment opportunities or political instability, the factors behind being able to adapt to the new culture and create a new life are considerably more complex.

Let’s start with an overview of the issues as shown on this diagram. Starting on the left of the diagram there are two lists of factors: internal and external. It’s important to notice that the internal factors, in other words, those based on an individual’s personality, are divided into positive factors — trusting others and acknowledging that people are different, and negative — being afraid and being suspicious of people.

You might think that the list of negative factors would include discrimination, but it doesn’t because discrimination comes under the larger category of fear. Now, what you should also notice is that the external factors are not labelled in this way. It’s much more difficult to know how to measure the affects of external factors and whether they actually are external or not.

The influence of family relationships, climate, beliefs and values, and the ability to communicate in the language of the new culture have wide-ranging effects which are difficult to measure and can distort any research.

Now focus on the centre of the diagram, and you’ll see this phrase: ‘Coping strategies’. This is important because studies have shown that people who integrate well into a new culture, and that is any culture by the way, are those who have eradicated any negativity, and made positive choices, and adopted coping strategies such as observing people and taking time to listen and ask questions in order to diminish the effects of culture shock.

What we have observed is that people who demonstrate positive coping strategies such as observing, listening, and questioning end up by understanding the host culture better and integrating quicker and more successfully. However, those who choose to be critical of the differences, and therefore react negatively to the host culture, are likely to have increased feelings of alienation. This alienation can tail off and become the beginning of acceptance if a person has some positive experiences, but it usually deteriorates quickly into isolation.