Adjustment and Assimilation of Immigrants: A Problem in Social Psychology

Abstract

While there are many studies of the social integration of immigrants written from the sociological viewpoint, there are few reported on the role of relevant psychological variables. The assimilation of immigrants can be treated as a case of socialization, or, more strictly, resocialization, involving such psychological factors as changes in attitudes, values, and identification; the acquisition of new social skills and behavior norms; changes in reference and membership group affiliations; and emotional adjustment to a changed environment. The study of the assimilation of immigrants can serve as a prototype for other social processes whereby a group imposes pressures on new members to accommodate their attitudes, behavior and affiliations, e.g., when a person is accepted into a profession or when a freshman enters a residential collese (Taft, 1957). Using a conceptual structure derived from the above analysis, 3 serles of comparative studies has been conducted on the adjustment and assimilation of several groups of immigrants and their children in Western Australia.' Unlike most of the studies of this type, scientific methods were used for collecting and analyzing the data, including cumulative scaling methods and factor analysis. As a result of these analyses, the data have been interpreted with respect to three aspects: social and occupational adjustment, identification with Australia and acculturation to Australia. Factors have been isolated corresponding to these aspects and the contribution of individual assimilation variables has been assessed according to their loadings. An analysis of sequences in the assimilation of three groups of immigrants suggests that a certain degree of adjustment is a prerequisite for identification with the new country which, in turn, is required before a high degree of acculturation can occur (Richardson, 1961; Taft, 1961; Taft & Doczy, in press). One important finding was that identification occurred more quickly where the reason for emigrating was the migrant's uncomfortable life in his native country rather than the attractiveness of the new country.