Advantages of being bicultural: Acculturation and mental health among rural-urban migrants in China

Abstract

Acculturation is of great interest in research on immigrants' health. However, few studies have addressed this association for internal migrants in developing countries. Using data from a survey of rural-urban migrants in 2015-2016 in Guangdong, China, this paper goes beyond examining the link between acculturation and mental health and explores possible mediating roles of social support, perceived stress, and socioeconomic status (SES) for this association. The mediating effects of social support and SES are partially confirmed and allow us to explain bicultural migrants' advantages in mental health. Our findings carry important policy implications. To improve their mental health, migrants should be encouraged to maintain rural culture and to acculturate to urban culture. Our results suggest that, as migrants become integrated into the host society, they attain higher socioeconomic status but at the expense of losing social support from fellow villagers or fellow migrants. Thus, finding ways to strengthen and develop social support for migrants while facilitating their integration will be beneficial to their mental health. Urban governments should develop migrant-sensitive health systems/programmes and provide culturally sensitive mental health services for rural-urban migrants in the future.