Immigrant acculturation and wellbeing in Canada.

Abstract

This article examines the acculturation and wellbeing of immigrants in Canada. Acculturation is broadly defined as the set of cultural and psychological changes that follow the contact between two cultural groups and their members (Berry, 2005).The different ways of relating to the larger society and to their heritage group have been called acculturation strategies (Berry, 1980; Berry, Kim, Power, Young, & Bujaki, 1989). We examine some of the social and demographic factors that may lead immigrants to acculturate in these different ways. We also examine the wellbeing of immigrants (specifically their psychological adaptation; Ward, 1996) and relate their wellbeing to both their acculturation strategies, and to these social and demographic factors. We compare the wellbeing of the immigrant sample to a nonimmigrant sample. Finally, we draw some implications from these concepts and findings for improving the settlement and adaptation of immigrants to Canada.These issues are important not only for the success of immigrants, but also for the cohesion of the larger society. Achieving the wellbeing of immigrants and refugees is an essential goal for Canadian society (Kirmayer et al., 2011). This goal may be pursued within the context of the official policy of multiculturalism, which seeks to create a climate of positive mutual intercultural relations and mutual adaptation among all groups, in a society that is cohesive and relatively free from prejudice and discrimination (Jedwab, 2013; Noels & Berry, 2016).These goals are pursued by two major multiculturalism policy initiatives (Berry, 1984). The first is by supporting the cultural maintenance of individuals and groups (who so wish) to sustain cultural diversity across generations as a valuable feature of Canadian society. The second is to support intercultural interactions and inclusion to enhance mutual familiarity and acceptance; this is accomplished by programmes to break down social barriers to participation in the larger society, and by promoting opportunities for intercultural encounters in person, in the media, in schools, and in other institutions. Inherent in this multicultural vision is the acceptance of the view that individuals can be proud of and feel attached to both their heritage cultures and to Canada. The underlying notion is that an individual may hold many identities, know many languages, and develop many cultural competencies, and thereby participate in many cultural communities, without any serious psychological incompatibilities among them.The first goal of the present study is to examine how immigrants are acculturating to Canada by examining immigrants' sense of belonging to their source country and to Canada. We conceive of sense of belonging as a general feeling of inclusion and the desire to be close to a relevant social group (Hidalgo & Hernandez, 2001; Pearce, 2008). For immigrants, a sense of belonging to their source country can provide a cultural anchor during their transition into the new society. And a sense of belonging to the receiving society reflects whether they feel accepted, secure, and at home in their adopted country (Berry, 2005; Hou, Schellenberg, & Berry, 2016; Schimmele & Wu, 2015; Wu, Hou, & Schimmele, 2011). Note that these two ways of relating to a cultural community are parallel to the two main features of multiculturalism policy that were identified above: maintaining one's own heritage culture and being involved with the larger society. From these two indicators of sense of belonging, we create four acculturation strategies (Berry, 1980): integration (high sense of belonging to both their source country and to Canada), assimilation (high for Canada and low for source country), separation (low for Canada and high for source country), and marginalisation (low for both).A second goal of this study is to examine the wellbeing (psychological adaptation) of immigrants, using the concepts and measures of life satisfaction and mental health. …