New Immigrants’ Perceptions of Family Life in Origin and Host Cultures: In-group and Out-group Favoritism Effect

Abstract

This paper explores the degree of congruency of new immigrants’ opinions regarding family life among, the in-group (the Soviet Jewish family) and the out-group (the veteran Israeli family). Contradictory tendencies are described: the one attributes positive characteristics to the in-group, and the other tends to view the out-group more favorably. The present study examines the impact of different factors (sense of well-being and satisfaction with family life before and after immigration; adjustment to the new environment; ethnic self-identification; and level of stress) on perceptions of host family life and their role in redicting tendencies towards in-group and outgroup favoritism. The paper is based on data collected from 2 IO ex-Soviet couples who immigrated to Israel between 1990 and 1993. The results indicate that: ( I) the general tendency of new immigrants to attribute more positive characteristics to the in-group is due to a combination of contradictory tendencies on the individual level; (2) the higher the level of adjustment, the more positive characteristics are attributed to the out-group than to the in-group; (3) the more dissatisfaction with one’s family life and the worse a person’s psychological status, the stronger the tendency towards in-group favoritism effect.