ABD’DEKİ TÜRK GÖÇMENLERDE KÜLTÜRLEŞME SÜRECİ

Abstract

This study aims to investigate how Turkish immigrants manage their lives in the United States (US) and the relationship between acculturation pathways and demographic background of Turkish immigrants. Data was collected from 467 Turkish immigrants who were born outside of the US. This study adopts a bidimensional acculturation approach, stating that both heritage and dominant host cultures can live together. Results suggest that demographic backgrounds are significantly linked to both their heritage and dominant host cultures, therefore they have important effects on the acculturation process of Turkish immigrants. Ethnic identity is found to be the most significant factor predicting involvements in heritage culture, whereas American identity contributes the most predicting involvements in the dominant host culture. The most preferred acculturation pathway is integration among Turkish immigrants in the US. The results confirmed acculturation process is bi-dimensional, not a zero-sum game as we found a significant positive correlation between the heritage and the dominant host cultures, which assume the independence and orthogonal of involvements in the dominant host and heritage cultures.