Balancing identities during acculturation: Migrant’s identification with their host country and their home country depend on their perceived differences

Abstract

Immigration remains a relevant topic in a globalized world and understanding of acculturation processes is important to contribute to the well-functioning of multicultural societies. Building on a cognitive balance approach we test predictions from a Multiple Identity Integration Model. The model predicts that host culture identification depends on identification with the home culture and perceived cultural differences. Only when perceived cultural differences are small (i.e., home and host culture are perceived to be similar), migrants’ identification with their home culture will be associated with a simultaneous strong host culture identification (i.e., identity integration). Yet, when perceived cultural differences are large, immigrants will either more strongly identify with their home culture or their host culture. We tested predictions using two secondary data sets ( N = 289, N = 183) of immigrants in Germany. Results largely support predictions from the model: across both datasets, perceived cultural differences moderated the relationship between home culture identification and German host identification. When cultural differences were low, stronger home identification predicted stronger German host identification; but when cultural differences where high, stronger home identification tended to be negatively related to German identification. This distinguishes perceptions of cultures from immigrants’ identification with those cultures helping to understanding individual factors contributing to different acculturation positions.