Migration and acculturation

In the media and political debates, international migration and acculturation are considered as interrelated processes. The academic literature though is predominantly domain-specific. Migration studies focus on economic, political, spatial, and social network factors, while acculturation studies focus on psychological and psychosocial factors. This study explores determinants of migration and acculturation and their interrelatedness, paying particular attention to the role of psychosocial and contextual factors. Survey data of potential emigrants in Ghana, Senegal, Morocco, Egypt, and Turkey, and survey data on young adults of Turkish parentage in Austria, Switzerland, Germany, France, The Netherlands and Sweden are used to study these processes.   

The study shows that threats to living conditions, benefits of and barriers to migration, self-efficacy, and contextual factors are important for understanding migration intentions of potential emigrants. Furthermore, the study shows that religiosity and exposure to discrimination are important for understanding the acculturation style of people of immigrant origin, but also that contextual factors – such as neighbourhood quality and city of residence – are even more important. Acculturation style was found to influence both involvement in transnational activities and migration intentions, whereby people who are more transnationally active more often have migration intentions. Economic-demographic scenarios up to 2030 suggest that labour migration pressure and potential in traditional countries of emigration to the EU in the Mediterranean region are expected to increase, posing new challenges to migrant-integration and acculturation. Future research should study migration and acculturation in conjunction, including development of scenarios of future prospects.

Dissertation: http://hdl.handle.net/11370/b6c75237-dba0-4fac-a970-5db46cecae91