Cultural Adaptation

Abstract

The chapter examines the cultural adaptation of new Eastern European immigrants measured by their English proficiency and native language retention. The chapter first summarily reviews acculturation of Eastern European immigrants who arrived at the turn of the twentieth century, followed by an in-depth examination of the extent of post-1991 immigrants’ acculturation. The variety of individual-level (i.e., age, sex, marital status, cohort, country of origin, socioeconomic status, region of US residency, length of stay in the United States) and country-level determinants (i.e., economic stability and political and personal freedom in countries of origin) of immigrants’ acculturation is examined. The chapter provides cross-country and cross-group comparisons, followed by an evaluation of the new Eastern European immigrants’ cultural adaptation.