Sociocultural adjustment 1 Sociocultural adjustment of immigrants: universal and group-specific predictors Anna Zlobina, Nekane Basabe, Dario Paez Social Psychology Department, Psychology Faculty, University of the Basque Country, San Sebastian, Spain Adrian Furnham Department of Psychology, University College of London, London, UK Running title: SOCIOCULTURAL ADJUSTMENT OF IMMIGRANTS Requests for reprints should be sent either to Anna Zlobina (Departamento de Psicología Social, Facultad Psicología Social, Universidad del País Vasco, Avda. de Tolosa 70, San Sebastián 20009 Spain, Tel.: 943 015738, Fax: 943 311055, E-mail: anyazlobina@hotmail.com), or to Nekane Basabe (Departamento de Psicología Social, Facultad Farmacia, Universidad del País Vasco, Paseo de la Universidad 7, 01006 Vitoria, Spain, Tel. 945 013051, E-mail: pspbaban@vf.heu.es). This study was supported by the following Research Grants: MCYT BSO2001-1236- CO-7-01, 9/UPV00109.231-13645/2001, from the University of the Basque Country and by the PhD grant from the Basque Country Government for the first author. We thank Dr B. Martin and Dr T. Chamorro-Oremuzic for their help in the preparation of this paper.
Sociocultural adjustment 2 Abstract The study examined sociocultural dimension of acculturation of 518 first-generation immigrants in the Basque Country, Spain. Members of five ethno-cultural groups (88 Brazilians, 98 Colombians, 139 Ecuadorians, 105 North and 85 Sub-Saharan Africans) answered self-report questionnaire. The study aimed first to replicate the findings of previous investigations regarding the predictors of sociocultural adaptation at the whole sample level. The results showed that length of residence in the new culture, immigration status (having resident permits or being illegal ), and perceived discrimination were the most powerful predictors of sociocultural adjustment of immigrants. Education, relationships with host nationals and perceived culture distance were other factors significantly associated with social difficulties in the receiving society. The second purpose of the study was to test the universality of these predictors taking into account the possibility of culture-context interaction. For this, separate multiple regressions were made for each ethno-culture group. Length of residence, immigration status and perceived discrimination were found to be independent or semiindependent on the context and culture. On the other hand, it was found that over variables contributed the unique explanation of outcomes of adjustment of the ethnocultural groups in their specific context. Moreover, the groups varied in their degree of social difficulty: the Colombians and the immigrants from Sub-Saharan Africa had the highest degree of self-reported difficulty, the Ecuadorians had a medium degree, and the Brazilians and the North Africans had the lowest. Keywords: Sociocultural adjustment; Immigration; Cross-cultural transition; Social difficulty
Sociocultural adjustment 3 Sociocultural adjustment of immigrants: universal and group-specific predictors Introduction Sociocultural adaptation along with psychological adaptation has been conceptualised as a major dimension of intercultural adjustment (Searle & Ward, 1990; Ward & Kennedy, 1992; Ward, Furnham & Bochner, 2001). While psychological adaptation, conceived within the stress and coping theoretical framework, refers mainly to affective well-being and mental health in general, sociocultural adaptation, interpreted from a culture learning perspective, consists predominantly of behavioural and cognitive components of cultural learning for performing effectively in a new milieu (Ward et al., 2001). The results of empirical studies conducted primarily by Colleen Ward and her associates, have shown that sociocultural adjustment is conceptually distinct from psychological well-being during a cross-cultural transition, as it is predicted by different types of variables and exhibit a different diachronic pattern of variation. Since the theoretical distinction was made between the two categories, extensive research has been conducted to identify the factors that predict successful adaptation in both dimensions among different groups of sojourners. Psychological adjustment was found to be affected principally by personality, life changes, coping styles and social support (Ward & Kennedy, 1999; Ward et al., 2001). Sociocultural adaptation, by contrast, is more strongly influenced by factors associated with culture learning and culture-specific skills acquisition. An examination of the literature shows that certain variables emerge as robust predictors of sociocultural adjustment, despite the type of the group of sojourners, its origin or its destination (Ward & Kennedy, 1993, Ward, 1996; Ward et al., 2001). Length of stay in a new culture is one of the stronger of the factors that affect sociocultural adjustment adaptation is especially low at the beginning then improves in the earliest stages until it reaches a plateau (Ward & Kennedy, 1996; Ward, Okura, Kennedy, & Kojima, 1998). Other important variables are resources such as higher education and income (Ataca, 1996). Gender was also found to be associated with the degree of social difficulty. For instance, Turkish females living in Canada (especially those with lower socioeconomic status) were found to have poorer sociocultural adjustment then males (Ataca & Berry, 2002). Other factors that have been shown to predict cross-cultural adjustment are quantity and quality of relations with hosts (Ward & Kennedy, 1993; Ward & Rana-Deuba, 2000). Host national contact provides opportunities for cultural learning and culture-specific skills acquisition, and gives resources for gaining support from members of the host society (Searle & Ward, 1990; Ward & Kennedy, 1992, 1993; Ataca & Berry, 2002). The quality of relationships was also shown to be important. Thus, it was found that satisfaction with host national relations predicted better adjustment of New Zealand students living abroad (Ward & Kennedy, 1993). Research carried out mostly on international students and sojourner adaptation, has demonstrated that social difficulty is related to cultural distance between
Sociocultural adjustment 4 home and host culture and is also associated with perceived cultural differences. Thus, the acquisition of new skills and culture knowledge depends on the similarity between the home culture and the new culture: the greater the cultural distance, the more cultural learning is required to fit in (Furnham & Bochner, 1982; Ward & Searle, 1991; Ward & Kennedy, 1993). Similarly, it was demonstrated that those who perceive greater cultural distance between their home culture and the culture of the receiving society are likely to experience more social difficulty during the transition process (Searle & Ward, 1990; Ward & Kennedy, 1992, 1993). The role of discrimination as antecedent of social difficulty was less investigated. Nevertheless, as Fernando (1993) pointed out, this factor is probably one of the most serious handicaps for immigrants. Some authors considered the effects of perceived discrimination. Thus, the malign influence of perceived negative attitudes on the success of the immigrant s and sojourners efforts to adjust to a new culture was found (Ward, 1996). The recent study of Turkish immigrants in Canada referenced above also demonstrated that degree of perceived discrimination was a significant predictor of problems of sociocultural adaptation, at least among males (Ataca & Berry, 2002). However, it is worth mentioning that as Ataca and Berry (2002) have pointed out, the empirical findings on predictors of sociocultural adaptation have some limitations: most of them have been based on sojourners, so the conclusions can not be extended automatically to the immigrants group. For instance, sojourners and immigrants differ in terms of their length of stay in the new culture. Sojourners are short-term visitors while most immigrants intend to establish themselves in the receiving country. Another consideration may be that sojourners probably, have better status in eyes of the host nationals and experience less discrimination. Hence the relative importance of antecedences in immigrant adaptation may differ from that of sojourners. Overview of the study The aim of this study was first, to replicate the findings of previous investigations regarding the nature and predictors of sociocultural adaptation among different groups of sojourners and to examine which factors best predict successful acculturation of immigrants. To measure sociocultural adaptation, a scale was developed composed of those aspects that represented the most significant difficulties for immigrants in Spain. Following other researchers, we conceptualised immigrants sociocultural adjustment as a broader phenomenon which included not only problems of intercultural communication such as cultural knowledge or handling the language, but also successful resolving of practical problems that imply interaction with hosts (Brislin, Cushner, Cherrie, & Yong, 1986; Hawes & Kealey, 1981). We assumed that renting a house, arranging appointment in a surgery, and other similar everyday tasks require culture-specific information and skills. For example, we supposed that the knowledge of how public institutions and social services (e.g., job agencies, hospitals, police, etc.) work and how to get assistance from them was a substantial part of cultural learning. Variables more frequently mentioned as predictors of sociocultural adjustment
Sociocultural adjustment 5 were selected (Ward, 1996; Ward et al., 2001). First, personal and demographic information was gathered including age, gender, education, length of residence in Spain, and immigration status. The last of these variables could be interpreted also as a consequence of the adaptation rather than its predictor. However, we decided to consider it as a contextual variable since it does not depend only on the effort or personal abilities of immigrant but also is a function of contextual factors such as arrival date or country of origin. The impact of immigration laws and the likelihood of obtaining residence permits depend strongly on these factors. For instance, recent hardening of legislation in Spain regarding admission of immigrants sharply divided those who had arrived before the legislative change and after. Consequently, recent immigrants in Spain now find it much harder to obtain permits. Moreover, there exist differences in agreements between Spain and other countries regarding immigration. Thus, historically there is a stronger migration links between Latin America and Spain (Paez, Basabe & Zubieta, 2000). Therefore, until now most Latin American immigrants had fewer difficulties in entering in Spain compared with immigrants from other regions. Second, individual and context variables were introduced. The role of expectations and their match with the actual situation were analysed. As other researchers have affirmed, if new culture experience is inconsistent with one s expectations, adjustment can be much more difficult (Furnham & Bochner, 1986; Wiessman & Furnham, 1987; Taft, 1977). Moreover, the overly optimistic expectations of streets of gold in the country of arrival are quite common among immigrants (Moghaddam, Taylor & Wright, 1993). Thus, the negative contrast between the previous view of immigration and the reality was expected to frustrate successful culture learning. We also investigated the plan of immigration variable, that is, the intention to reside permanently in Spain. Various authors have analysed consequences of intercultural contact, classifying sojourner groups by the type of their permanence in a receiving society. Bochner (1982) considered time-span as one of the basic dimensions of intercultural relations and introduced short term long term classification to predict outcomes and nature of the interaction with hosts. Contact variables were also introduced as potential predictors of adaptation. As it was pointed out above, the importance of relationships with host nationals has been consistently demonstrated in previous studies. Nevertheless, we considered the role of conationals as a source of practical and cultural information. We assumed that immigrants who had been living for a longer time in the new country can act as experienced anthropologists of the receiving culture, providing advice and information about norms, conditions and available resources. Perception of the degree of cultural distance between home and host cultures was another variable. Finally, perceived discrimination was introduced as a possible predictor of sociocultural adaptation of immigrants, one that takes into account the intergroup nature of cross-cultural transition. The other interest of the present research was to test the universality of the predictors of sociocultural adaptation among different ethno-cultural groups. That is, are
Sociocultural adjustment 6 they similar for all groups regardless their origin and socio-economic and cultural characteristics? Our working hypothesis was that there should be a set of stable robust predictors of acculturation common to all the ethno-cultural groups under consideration. For instance, we hypothesized that higher length of residence, higher education level, legal immigration status, lower perceived cultural distance, and lower self-reported discrimination will be universal predictors of successful sociocultural adjustment, as was found in the previous extensive research and as it consistent with social learning perspective (H1). On the other hand, although there are some aspects of acculturation that all immigrants deal with, the particular social, economic and cultural circumstances of each group will create a unique combination of predictors of or obstacles to their successful adjustment. As Ward and her colleges pointed out, the process and outcomes of crosscultural transition are influenced by both culture-general and culture-specific phenomena (Ward & Kennedy, 1993; Ward & Rana-Deuba, 2000). Certain factors should be viewed in the broader sociocultural context which can modulate the relationship between predictors and outcomes. Thus, we hypothesized that somewhat different patterns of acculturative experience will be found for different groups (H2). For instance, we hypothesized gender to be a significant variable only for some ethnocultural groups due to the fact that different cultures do not mark gender role differentiation to the same degree. We expected this factor to be especially important for the North African immigrants. We hypothesized that women in this sample would experience more difficulties in adjustment (H 2.1). We based our prediction on the arguments and finding of other investigations, where Muslim women have been found to have more social difficulties than men (Ataca & Berry, 2002). The explanation of these findings was that they have fewer opportunities to adjust to a new cultural milieu, being more isolated from members of the receiving society and due to the traditional role distribution in these cultures, in which they are expected to stay at home more and to be responsible for the origin culture maintenance. Moreover, we expected the contact with host nationals be important only for groups with low self-reported discrimination (H 2.2). We assumed that positive or at least neutral character of the intercultural interaction is a necessary condition of culture learning (Ward & Kennedy, 1993). Our third hypothesis (H3) followed the logic of the considerations made above. We expected different amount of social difficulty to be reported for each ethno-cultural group under study due to its particular sociocultural and intergroup context. Thus, we hypothesized that more culturally and historically similar groups (Colombians and Ecuadorians) will experience fewer problems of sociocultural adaptation compared to more culturally distant groups (Brazilians) or visible groups (North and Sub-Saharan Africans).
Sociocultural adjustment 7 Context of the study The study was conducted in the Basque Country, Spain. The large scale of immigration in Spain is a relatively recent phenomenon. A decade ago, in the early 90 s, about 400,000 foreigners resided in Spain, 1% of the total population (Blanco, 2002). Now the total official number of foreign people is 1,647,011 that is, 4% of the total population (Barbulo, 2004). This percentage could increase up to 5-6% if we also consider the people who have obtained Spanish citizenship and those who don t have any residence permit. According to several estimations, these groups represent approximately one million people ( El censo revela, 2003). Of the total number, the number of subjects from the Third World is 1,074,000, which constitutes 2.6% of the population of Spain. Regarding the countries of origin represented in Spain, the largest group of immigrants is those from Morocco (333,770). Other large groups are those of Ecuadorians (174,289) and Colombians (107,459). These two groups represent more than half of Latin-American immigrants in Spain who form the most numerous group (Barbulo, 2004). Regarding the intergroup relations dimension, that is, the attitudes of the Spanish society towards immigrants, a recent study showed that the members of the host society prefer immigrants to assimilate in most domains of everyday life rather than adopt any other option (García, Sánchez, Rojas & Asensio, 2003). On the other hand, a sociological study conducted in the Basque Country showed that the population of that region is more likely to have positive attitudes towards immigrants than are the other regions of Spain. For example, 55% in the Basque Country agree that there should be equal opportunity for immigrants compared to 39% in the rest of Spain; 12% in the Basque country disagree that immigrants should preserve their home culture, compared to 17% in other regions of Spain. However, it is worth mentioning that because of political correctness, these responses may not reflect the actual attitudes. The population of the Basque Country, one of the most economically developed zones in Spain, answered more frequently that members of the minorities provoke insecurity (43% compared with 34%) and are involved in crime (53% compared with 31%) (Sociómetro Vasco, 2003). Method Participants Five hundred and eighteen adult first-generation immigrants from different countries participated in the study. The sample consisted of 284 male (55%) and 234 female immigrants, aged between 16 and 57 (M = 32.8, SD = 8.8), who had been living
Sociocultural adjustment 8 in Spain from 3 months to 32 years (M = 4.6 years, SD = 5.5) and who came from Latin America, North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. The Latin-American subsample was the biggest group (63% of the total sample) and, therefore, was divided into three groups according to their country of origin: 88 Brazilian immigrants (17% of the total sample), 98 immigrants from Colombia (19% of the total sample) and 139 Ecuadorian immigrants (27% of the total sample). The North- African subsample consisted of 105 immigrants (20% of the total sample), mostly from Morocco (77.2%). Other countries of origin were Algeria (4.4%), Syria (7.9%), Egypt (2.6%), Palestine (2.9%) and Jordan (2.6%). The Sub-Saharan-African subsample was rather heterogeneous and consisted of 85 subjects (16% of the total sample). Most of them came from Senegal (44%) and another large part was from Cameron (15%). Other countries of origin were Angola (5.4%), Burkina Faso (6.5%), Rwanda (3.2%), and Nigeria (6.5%). Regarding their marital status 41% of the participants were single, 47.3% were married or were in a de facto relationship, 10% were divorced or separated, and 1.3% was widowers. In terms of education, 31% reported had achieved a university degree, 47.5% had completed secondary education, 17.8% had completed primary school degree and 3.6% had no formal education. Regarding their immigration status in Spain, 20.9% reported not having any type of permission of residence and 78.1% had some permission of residence or had obtained Spanish nationality, and 1.1% did not answer. One-way ANOVAs and χ²-tests revealed that immigrants from different ethnocultural groups differed in relation to their length of residence in the new country, educational level, immigration status and gender distribution. Between-group analyses (Scheffé-tests) indicated that Ecuadorian immigrants had been living in Spain for a shorter period of time than the other groups, while the North-Africans were the most long-standing group in Spain (see Table 4). There were more men among North and Sub-Saharan immigrants (66% and 68% respectively), and more women among the Brazilians and the Colombians (62% and 57% respectively), χ² = 28.65, p <.001. The Ecuadorians were the group with nearly equal distribution of genders (52% were men). The North Africans had the lowest educational level, while the other groups did not differ significantly from each other (see Table 4). The percentage of people without any type of permission was the highest among the Colombians (47.7%), lower among immigrants from Brazil, Ecuador and Sub-Saharan Africa (13.4%, 20.7% and 18.5% respectively), and the lowest among the North Africans (4.4%), χ² = 59.34, p <.001. Procedure
Sociocultural adjustment 9 Previous qualitative interviews were conducted with approximately 30 immigrants from different ethno-cultural groups before selecting and developing measures for this study. Some scales were adopted from the earlier research conducted by Paez, Gonzalez and Aguilera (2000) with Chilean refugees living in the north of Spain. Studies by Ward and associates on the topic were consulted, and reference was made to the Social Situations Questionnaire developed by Furnham and Bochner (1982) and to it s modified version proposed by Searle and Ward (1990). A self-administered questionnaire was administered during a personal interview. Immigrants were contacted via ethno-cultural organizations existing in the Basque Country, NGOs working with immigrants and personal contacts. Linguistic adaptation. The back-translation procedure was used to translate all scales into Portuguese and Arabic. In addition, in the questionnaire administrated among Spanish-speaking Latin Americans, differences in vocabulary were also considered as well as the particular use of some expressions. Several experts from these countries were consulted to revise the survey in order to avoid unfamiliar or unpleasant forms of speaking. Measures Sociocultural adjustment. Sociocultural adjustment was assessed by 18 items asking about the degree of difficulty in dealing with practical, social and interpersonal communication problems during the previous year. For example, Have you had problems getting medical assistance? / obtaining information or assistance from official institutions (police, hospital, employment office, etc.)? / understanding the local people (their way of life, their intentions, etc.)? Response options ranged from 1 (not at all) to 5 (very much). The total mean score was calculated for each participant, a higher score indicating a higher level of difficulty of sociocultural adaptation. The whole scale was highly consistent; its internal reliability assessed by Cronbach s alpha, was.90. Expectations. The match between previous expectations and the reality was measured by asking immigrants to evaluate their actual situation as 1 (worse then expected), 2 (same as expected) or 3 (better then expected). Here, the higher score indicated higher match between the expected progress of immigration and the real situation.
Sociocultural adjustment 10 Plan of residence. Participants were asked about the expected length of their residence in Spain, answering 1 (uncertain), 2 (temporal) or 3 (permanent). A higher score on this indicator indicated a higher level of desire to live permanently in the receiving country. Contact. The quantity of contact was assessed with two items. One asked about the degree of contact with conationals living in Spain and the other assessed the degree of contact with host culture members. Answers ranged from 1 (not at all) to 5 (very much). In each case, a higher score indicated higher degree of contact. The quality of interactions was measured by the following two items: Do you feel supported (in your problems, troubles) by your fellow countrymen who live here?, and Do you feel supported (in your problems, troubles) by the local people? with the same response options. Factor analysis (principal component analysis, varimax rotation with Kaiser normalization) of these four items demonstrated the existence of two independent factors that accounted for 69.39% of the variance. First factor referred to the relationships (amount and quality of contact) with host nationals, accounting for 34.16% of the variance. Second factor referred to the relationships with conationals (33.23% of the variance). The reliability of these two factors was calculated using Cronbach Alpha and it was.62 and.58 respectively. Resulting factor scores were assigned to each participant and used in all subsequent analysis as indicators of relationships with conationals and hosts. Perceived cultural distance. The differences perceived between the culture of origin and the Spanish /Basque culture in terms of various areas (family life, gender relationships, work habits, punctuality, competitiveness, etc.) were ascertained by the 36-item scale developed for the study. Participants were asked to say whether the type of behaviour described by each item was displayed in a lesser, the same or a higher degree by the Spanish compared to their culture of origin (e.g., They help their family: their parents, grandparents, cousins, other relatives or Married persons have friends of the other gender ). The response options were 1 (less), 2 (in the same degree) and 3 (more). For the purposes of this study, the total mean score of the perceived cultural distance was calculated for each participant: responses indicating the perception of difference between two cultures were codified as 1, while the absence of difference was codified as 0. Thus, the scores estimated the magnitude, but not the direction, of the perceived cultural differences. The resulting scores ranged from 0 to 1, a higher degree indicating a higher perception of cultural distance. Perceived discrimination. The scale consisted of 6 items assessing the frequency of being treated negatively due to ethnic background (e.g., Have you been victim of the hostile actions that the Spanish would never use with other Spanish? ), and ranged from
Sociocultural adjustment 11 1 (never) to 4 (almost always). The reliability of the scale, assessed by Cronbach s alpha, was.87. Demographics. Participants reported their age in years, their gender, and their length of residence in Spain in years and months. They also were asked about their marital status, their immigration status in Spain and their educational level as described above (see also Table 4). Results To test the first hypothesis, we examined the relationship of each of variables to the sociocultural adjustment and explored their possible interaction. Because the various factors of acculturation and the predictors of sociocultural adaptation were assumed to be correlated, we looked both at the bivariate correlations among these indicators and also at their joint and interactive effects on adjustment in multiple regression analysis. We first carried out bivariate correlations among all the variables, as many of them were assumed to be related. The results are shown in Table 1. Better sociocultural adjustment was associated with having longer length of residence, being female, having permissions of residence, evaluating the actual situation as better than expected, planning to live permanently in Spain, having more contact with hosts, having less relationships with conationals, and perceiving smaller cultural distance and less discrimination. The two demographic characteristics, namely, age and education, did not correlate significantly with this type of adjustment. In addition, there were significant relationships among the variables. Thus, length of residence was negatively associated with socio-demographic characteristics such as gender and education, and correlated positively with age. Moreover, longer stay in Spain was related to having permission of residence, viewing the actual situation as better then expected, planning to live permanently in the host country and having more relationships with hosts. Correspondingly, these four variables were associated significantly. Gender was related to discrimination and cultural distance: males perceived more discrimination and cultural differences. Age was positively associated with resolved immigration status, better fit between expectation and the actual situation, and discrimination. Education was associated negatively with plan of residence and contact with conationals. Satisfied expectations were associated with the perception of lower cultural distance. Plan of residence correlated positively with contact with host nationals and self-reported discrimination, and negatively with contact with conationals. Relationships with hosts related negatively with perceived cultural distance. Finally, there was positive correlation between perception of cultural distance and self-reported degree of discrimination.
Sociocultural adjustment 12 ------------------------------ Insert Table 1 about here ------------------------------ As a next step, a multiple regression analysis was carried out (see Table 2). Length of residence, education, immigration status, relationships with conationals and with hosts, perceived cultural distance and discrimination (displayed in bold) each made a unique contribution to the prediction of sociocultural adaptation. Gender, expectations and plan of residence were no longer significant in the regression analysis. As in the correlations, age showed no significant relationship to sociocultural adjustment, and was therefore dropped from the subsequent analysis. ------------------------------ Insert Table 2 about here ------------------------------ In order to test our hypothesis regarding the universality of the predictors of sociocultural adjustment among different ethno-cultural groups, the multiple regressions were conducted separately for each subsample (see Table 3). Beta weights and zeroorder correlations provide some indication of the relative magnitude and significance of contribution of each variable. ------------------------------ Insert Table 3 about here ------------------------------ The results of the multiple regression for the Brazilian subsample showed that higher education level, attained immigration status, higher degree of relationships with the members of the host society, and lower perceived discrimination were significant predictors as was the case in the regression of the total sample. In the case of the Colombians, three variables were significant and were the same as in the general model: legal immigration status, higher contact with conationals and lower perceived discrimination were related to successful adaptation. The regression made for the Ecuadorian group showed that there were five significant variables predicting their adjustment to the new culture. Longer length of residence, attainment of legal
Sociocultural adjustment 13 immigration status, and low perceived discrimination all of which are variables from the general model and additionally, satisfied expectations and the perception of their residence as temporal, were important for predicting successful adjustment of this ethno-cultural group. The regression model for North African immigrants was more powerful as it accounted for more variance. Here, a quite different set of predictors arose: immigration status was no longer important, but length of residence, gender, expectations, relationships with hosts, along with perceived cultural distance and perceived discrimination appeared as predictor variables. The direction of the association indicated that for this group, residing longer in Spain, being female, having more relationships with members of the larger society, perceiving the culture of residence as being more similar to the culture of origin, and experiencing less discrimination were related to having better sociocultural adjustment. Surprisingly, the nature of the association between expectations and adaptation showed that evaluating the situation as worse than expected predicted having fewer difficulties among the North Africans. Multiple regression analysis found six predictors for the Sub-Saharan Africa sample adjustment. Significant variables associated with better sociocultural adjustment were higher length of residence and education level, legal immigration status, fulfilled expectations, permanent plan of residence, lower perceived discrimination, and permanent plan of residence. To analyse the degree of sociocultural adjustment of different ethno-cultural groups and the importance of the predictors, we carried out an analysis of variance assessing the mean scores of the 5 subsamples on the degree of sociocultural difficulty as well as on the predictor variables. The results are shown in Table 4. ------------------------------ Insert Table 4 about here ------------------------------ The groups differed significantly in their degree of sociocultural adjustment to Spanish society, and also on most of the predictors. Between-group post-hoc analyses (Scheffé-tests) showed that the Colombians and immigrants from Sub-Saharan Africa had more self-reported difficulties in adjusting to the new culture while the Brazilians and the North Africans had less, the Ecuadorians were in between, and that this difference was significant. The statistics and differences in the demographic characteristics (length of residence, gender, education and immigration status) are described above. Regarding expectations, the immigrants from Brazil, Colombia and Sub-Saharan Africa reported significantly more fit between their expectation and the reality compared to the immigrants from Ecuador and North Africa. Comparing groups with respect to their plan of residence, it was shown that the North Africans had significantly more intention to live in Spain forever compared to the others. The Colombians and the immigrants from Sub-Saharan Africa had significantly less
Sociocultural adjustment 14 relations with host nationals than other groups. The significant differences in the conational contact variable indicated that the Colombians had more relationships with members of their own group than others. There were significant differences in the degree of perceived cultural distance: Colombian and Sub-Saharan African immigrants saw the host culture as significantly more distant then the rest of the participants did. Finally, the Colombians and the Sub-Saharan Africans reported to be more discriminated against compared to other groups. Discussion At the general level, we tested the importance of the variables that were found to be predictors of sociocultural adaptation in the previous research. Analysing the model resulting from the multiple regression analysis of the whole sample, we found that the sociocultural problems decreased significantly over time. This result is consistent with the previous theory and research on social skill acquisition (Ward & Kennedy, 1999; Ward et al., 2001). Gender was not related to sociocultural adaptation on the total sample level but as it will be discussed below, was a significant predictor at the culturespecific level. Age was unrelated to sociocultural adaptation. Probably, the curvilinear pattern of relationship between age and sociocultural adjustment is the explanation (Ward et al., 2001). Education was a significant predictor of sociocultural adaptation, controlling for other sociocultural predictors (though it did not show a significant relationship at the bivariate correlation level). As expected, having attained legal immigration status was one of the most important predictors of sociocultural adaptation. A few studies considered this factor but our results indicate that having official permission not only facilitates the access to services and assistance but also to the specific cultural knowledge shared by the members of the host culture. One possible explanation of the relationship between being illegal and having more difficulties of sociocultural learning is that those immigrants who don t possess necessary documentation are more vulnerable. The participants of the previously conducted focus groups told us that the illegal immigrants sometimes have to avoid going out on the street because of the threat of being repatriated, and in general, don t perceive themselves as equal members of society but rather as invisible shades. This can lead to feelings of defencelessness and fear and, therefore withdrawal from larger society. For instance, the bivariate correlations showed significant association between immigration status and relationships with the members of the host society when immigrants without documentation had less contact. Relationships with members of the country of origin did not seem to be important to sociocultural competence acquisition at the general level: the predictor power of this variable was low and its direction was not consistent with that of the zero-order correlation. Regarding intergroup relations, our results showed that closer supportive relationships with members of the receiving society lessened the amount of difficulty in the new culture. What is more, perceived discrimination was a powerful predictor of the degree of difficulty of sociocultural adaptation, as in over similar studies (Ward, 1996; Ataca & Berry, 2002). The overall results seem to indicate that being accepted at the juridical and at the interpersonal level increases the sociocultural adjustment of immigrants to the host culture. Another
Sociocultural adjustment 15 consistent finding was that lower perceived cultural distance was important predictor of acquisition of new skills and learning of the appropriate behaviour in the new society, as was demonstrated in various studies regarding the relationship between perceived cultural distance and adaptation (Searle & Ward, 1990; Ward & Kennedy, 1992; 1993). One might conjecture that when the experience of culture shock is not very strong, the individual feels himself able and motivated to learn more about a new culture. In contrast, when the situations of intercultural misunderstandings and faults are frequently experienced, this leads to the perception of incapacity and incompetence to deal with the new environment. If so, self-esteem and the feeling of self-efficacy could be considered as moderators in the relationship between perceived cultural distance (culture shock) and sociocultural adaptation. At the whole sample level, the above mentioned variables excluding age, expectations and plan of residence were demonstrated to be important factors associated with immigrants adjustment to their new sociocultural environment and therefore, our study replicated successfully findings of other investigations. Most of our results are consistent with the broader literature on sociocultural adaptation. However, a more rigorous analysis of the effect of the same variables at the ethno-cultural group level provided a substantial insight into the universality of these conclusions. The results presented evidence of the stability of some predictors on one hand and interesting differences between the groups on the other. First, some variables were consistently significant. Length of residence, the variable which was expected to be universal predictor, demonstrated its significance for the most part of the sample, namely, it was predictor of sociocultural adjustment for immigrants from Ecuador, North and Sub-Saharan Africa. Immigration status had a powerful effect predicting sociocultural adaptation of Latin American immigrants. As we hypothesized, perceived discrimination was demonstrated to be stable predictor of the sociocultural adjustment as it was significant in all the regressions. So far, length of residence, immigration status and perceived discrimination can be considered as a potential universal (culture- or context-free) predictors of sociocultural adaptation of immigrants, that confirms our Hypothesis 1. Second, other variables were significant predictors of sociocultural adaptation only for some ethno-cultural groups. Education and perceived cultural distance indicators contrary to what was predicted by the Hypothesis 1, did not demonstrate their universality. Education was only significant for the Brazilians and for the Sub-Saharan Africans. Perceived cultural distance was related to sociocultural difficulty of the North Africans. Additional data is essential to explain the role of these factors. Thus, motivation to emigrate, economical level and its change after migration, along with acculturation attitudes may play a moderating role. As a speculation, we can suppose
Sociocultural adjustment 16 that education is more important for those immigrants who search progress of their professional status and nor merely improvement of their economical situation; who have achieved the expected occupational status (the Brazilians had one of the highest degrees of fulfilment of their expectations). Similarly, perceived cultural distance could be more significant for sociocultural adjustment of those immigrants who are motivated to settle down permanently in the receiving society and establish close relations with hosts. For instance, the data showed that the North Africans had the highest self-reported degree of relationships with members of the larger society and were more determined to live forever in Spain. On the other hand, this group is one of the most rejected by the Spanish society (Díez Nicolás & Ramírez, 2001). Gender was important predictor of the amount of social difficulty among the North Africans, as was predicted by the Hypothesis 2.1, but the direction of the association was opposite to the expected one. Contrary to our prediction, being male rather that female was related to experience more problems of adjustment to a new country. However, the gender role distribution still can be used as a base of justification of this difference. Men in this ethno-cultural group are more responsible of the relationships with larger society going to work and to public institutions (Martínez García, García Ramírez, & Maya Jariego, 2002). In this places they have to deal with closer interaction with hosts nationals and, as was demonstrated above, men had more discrimination than women. Probably, their higher degree of sociocultural difficulty compared to that of women can be explained by both, broader exposition to host culture with more culture-specific skills required, and higher experience of discrimination. The role of expectations was shown to be ambiguous. The direction of significant association of this factor with social difficulty varied among the ethno-cultural groups. Thus, evaluating actual situation as better than previous expectations was related to having higher adjustment among Ecuadorian and Sub- Saharan African immigrants, and was associated with having more difficulties in the case of the North Africans. This may be attributed to the weakness of the measure (only one item was used) and therefore, to be interpreted as an artefact. On the other hand, the impact of expectations was stronger (higher beta weights) and went in the predicted direction in the regression models for the Ecuadorians and the Sub-Saharans supporting previous findings. Nethertheless, the results seem to be inconclusive and more elaborated measured are necessary to test the role of the expectations in the adjustment process. As Furnham and Bochner have asserted (1986), the migrants have a set of expectations related to different aspects of their life in new country. The important question here may be which expectations about what aspects of life in the host culture are more important to adjustment. Plan of immigration made a particular, group-specific contribution to explain sociocultural adaptation of Ecuadorian and Sub-Saharan immigrants but in the opposite direction. Similarly to expectation variable, this result can be viewed as an artefact or assessment error as it was measured with one item. As far as we know, this variable was not investigated previously. Probably, the future research can verify its relationship with the nature of adaptation of different groups of those who undertake cross-cultural relocation. Varying significance of relationships with host nationals among ethno-cultural groups showed that the contribution of this variable can be modulated by group-specific context as was predicted by the Hypothesis 2.2. Correlation analysis revealed negative association between self-reported degree of discrimination and supportive relations with hosts. This result suggests that positive relations between contacts with members of the receiving society and cross-cultural adjustment may be modulated by the degree of acceptance or discrimination toward
Sociocultural adjustment 17 particular ethno-cultural group. In our study, relationships with host nationals had significant positive impact on sociocultural adjustment only for the Brazilians and the North-Africans, groups that had the lowest degree of perceived discrimination. These groups were also shown to be more oriented towards Spanish society than the other groups (Campos, Basabe, Zlobina & Paez, 2003). Hence, it appears that positive character of interactions with hosts is required to make easier the cross-cultural transition. Moreover, the predictor power of perceived discrimination variable varied among ethno-cultural groups. The beta weights of this predictor were higher for the Colombians and the Sub-Saharan Africans. At the same time, the analysis of variance showed that the means of perceived discrimination of these two groups were also the highest. This fact supports our hypothesis about the role of the group-specific context (H 2). Thus, it seems that for those groups that perceive higher discrimination, this factor is more significant. Another interesting aspect of this finding is that the Colombians, a group more similar to Spanish culture, reported have been experienced practically the same degree of discrimination as the Sub-Saharans. One possible explanation could be the cultural bias of responses. However, the overall results make more plausible another type of explanation. As Ward et al. (2001) pointed out, a migrant group which is linguistically and culturally similar to members of the host society may feel more socially disadvantaged being treated negatively by them. Moreover, their perception of the discrimination may match to the reality. Thus, the image of the Colombians is frequently associated with arm conflict, mafia and crime in the massmedia in Spain (Igartua et al., 2003). This may lead immigrants from this country to experience more prejudice and discrimination. Separate regression analysis made for different subsamples showed that relationships with conationals were only important for Colombians. This result contradicts our hypothesis about the importance of this factor for no Spanish-speaking immigrants. Probably, other factors such as acculturation strategies modulate the impact of conational contact variable on acculturation. For instance, other preliminary results of this research showed that the Colombians was the group more oriented to the culture of origin preferring more frequently than the others the separation strategy (Campos et al., 2003). As we expected, the modulating role of the ethno-cultural group was found. The results revealed differences across immigrant samples and suggested that the importance of one or another intrapersonal and interpersonal factor for sociocultural adaptation varies depending on the group what proves the Hypothesis 2. Our third hypothesis was also confirmed. The results of the study demonstrated that there are significant differences between the ethno-cultural groups in their level of adjustment to the new culture. Specifically, the Colombians and the immigrants from the Sub-Saharan Africa had the highest degree of self-reported difficulties, the Ecuadorians had a medium degree and the Brazilians and the North Africans had the lowest. The distribution of the groups in the sociocultural adaptation dimension indicated that the mere degree of cultural dissimilarity is not enough to predict a level of social difficulty. Thus, the means of the ethno-cultural groups involved in the study did not follow the pattern predicted by the previous research (Furnham & Bochner; 1986; Ward & Searle, 1991; Ward & Kenedy, 1993). Colombian immigrants, who are linguistically and culturally closer to Spanish culture, reported practically the same
Sociocultural adjustment 18 degree of problems as the Sub-Saharan Africans did, and higher degree than the North Africans, while the expected order would be the opposite one. Yet, the combination of contextual and intergroup variables predicts more accurately the outcomes of acculturation than one single factor. The results should be interpreted while keeping the limitations of the study in mind. Firstly, biases of measurement should be considered. Only self-reported measures were used to obtain dependent and independent indicators. Possible cause and effect relationships are suggested, yet it is impossible to make definitive statements. Triangulation of the data was recommended by various researchers to get more objective results. Information from other informers or external behavioural indicators will provide important additional evaluation of dependent variable. Secondly, response biases represent another disadvantage of self-reported measures. Among many biases associated with such instruments, social desirability and acquiescence are the most relevant ones then studying immigrants adaptation (Ataca & Berry, 2002). As all participants of our study are from collectivistic cultures, tendency to represent themselves in a socially desirable way is likely to appear (Triandis, 1989). Acquiescence, the tendency to agree with any assertion regardless of its content, is also may affect the results, especially among less educated respondents (Kronsnick, 1991). Firdly, another limitation of the study is the instability and potential lack of validity of single measures. Although multiple items scale was developed for the dependent variable, some independent variables were represented by individual items. Multiple measures of this independent variables should lead to more reliable assessments of them, which is in turn should provide more consistent findings in future studies. Fourthly, our sample was of the medium size and was carried out in a non-random order. Because of these characteristics of the sample, any generalization of the results should be made with caution. In summary, this study has reiterated Ward s and her associates (Ward & Kennedy, 1993; Ward, 1996; Ward & Rana-Deuba, 2000) contention that both culturegeneral and culture-specific factors play a role in the adjustment process, and has identified both cross-cultural similarities and differences in variables that predict successful adaptation of immigrants to new cultural environment. Variables as length of residence, immigration status and perceived discrimination were found to be independent or semi-independent on the context and culture. These factors can be used to predict the development of sociocultural adjustment at the general level. On the other hand, our study has demonstrated that over variables can contribute unique explanation of outcomes of adjustment of ethno-cultural groups in their specific context.