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The role of competition in the integration of immigrants to the host society
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Büki, Lívia Noémi |
| Copyright Year | 2013 |
| Abstract | Integration and social inclusion is essential for immigrants to become successful, contributing and active citizens (de Weerd et al, 2005) of the host society. Thus studying factors that are instrumental in acculturation carry important conclusions for integration and citizenship issues. The present study aims to investigate such factors. This paper presents the results of an explorative pilot study. The study’s main goal was to test a theoretical model and to prepare a larger study on the role competition plays in immigrant groups, in acculturation and intercultural adaptation. Previous studies revealed the importance of competition between immigrants and the citizens of the host society in the acculturation of immigrants (Zagefka et al, 2007), in their opportunities to become accepted, contributing and active citizens (de Weerd et al, 2005) in their new society. At the same time in-group competition among immigrants is almost unexplored, just like its possible role regarding acculturation. However indirectly related studies (Grzymala-Kozlowska, 2005) and previously presented findings of the present study (Buki & Fulop, 2012) suggest that in-group competition may play role in acculturation. The latter suggests that different competitive patterns (Fulop, 2009) inside the immigrant community can facilitate different acculturation strategies (Berry et al 2002). Beyond this competitive processes may be shaped by migration motives (Margolis, 2009) and by the domains of competition (Takacs & Fulop, 2013). However these issues remained almost unstudied so far. The study had three main questions: 1. Which acculturation strategies are facilitated by constructive and by destructive competition inside the immigrant group? 2. a. What kind of migration motives appear in the immigrant communities? 2. b. Is there a relationship between these migration motives and the competitive patterns of in-group competition? 3. Do competitive patterns differ along different domains of life (e. g. work, interpersonal relationships)? Participants of the study were Brazilian immigrants (3 men, 7 women; M(age)=36,4 years) from 7 countries, living there at least for 1 year. The future study aims to investigate Brazilian immigrants living in Hungary and Portugal. The Brazilian community in Hungary is small thus for the pilot study Brazilians living in other countries were involved. 10 semi-structured interviews were conducted online in Portuguese with them. The interviews were verbatim transcribed and content analysed along the main questions of interest. The results showed that constructive and destructive competition inside the immigrant group may facilitate different acculturation strategies. Beyond this, that destructive ingroup competition may be present in a greater extent than constructive in-group competition in immigrant communities where the economic migration motive is dominant and in competitive domains related to economic migration motives (‘Material aspects of life’; ‘Work and business’) and to ‘Interpersonal relations’. The results contribute to citizenship research too: if consequences of destructive ingroup competition prevail among immigrants in the labour market and in business this might hinder their social inclusion and successful integration to the host country on the long term. |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://real.mtak.hu/8510/1/NoemiBuki_The%20role%20of%20competition%20in%20the%20integration%20of%20immigrants%20to%20the%20host%20society.pdf |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
