The Hidden Power of Self-affirmations: Chronic Identity Threats and Multicultural Identity Formation

Abstract

Research on multiculturalism has predominantly focused on how multicultural identities predict personal, social, and task outcomes of high-skilled migrants (HSMs). What has gone unaddressed are the underlying dynamics of how HSMs form multicultural identities, especially when exposed to chronic identity threats. To address this puzzle, we conducted a qualitative study, interviewing 98 HSMs from 41 countries of origin who currently live and work in Austria. The data revealed a variety of identity threats that the interviewees perceived as beyond their control. We found that in response to these chronic stressors, HSMs relied upon two core psychological building blocks: self-affirmations and integration-conducive coping. The self-affirmations occurred outside of their awareness and were unrelated to the identity threat provocations they encountered. This represents a behind-the-scenes mechanism that triggers integration-conducive emotion- and problem-focused coping strategies, which in turn, support multicultural identity formation among the HSMs. Based on our insights, we developed a recursive process model that explains the specifics of the psychology of change that we witnessed in our data.