Intercultural contact

Intercultural contact: Processes and outcomes There are essentially four ways in which the process of intercultural contact can be described, corresponding to different approaches and emphases in the multidisciplinary literature. First, contact research may be categorised by the sorts of individuals or groups who have been studied. For instance, there exist specialist bodies of literature on tourists, foreign students, migrants, expatriate workers, and so forth. Second, it is possible to analyse the contact experience in terms of situational variables, such as purpose, time-span and type of involvement, and the relationship of these variables to particular groups of participants. We have considered both the types of cross-cultural travellers and situational dimensions of intercultural contact in the organisation of Chapters 6– 10 on tourists, sojourners, immigrants and refugees. Third, the outcomes of intercultural contact may be discussed. These outcomes may be classified in terms of their impact on the participating groups or the consequences of contact can be described and categorised in relation to individuals. The analyses of micro and macro processes and outcomes are presented in an integrated fashion throughout the book. Finally, the literature on intercultural contact and change can be presented in terms of guiding theoretical frameworks. We have adopted this organisational method in Chapters 3–5, which are devoted to culture learning, stress and coping, and social identification theories, respectively. In this chapter an introduction to four perspectives on intercultural contact is followed by a discussion of intercultural adaptation and a proposed model for understanding cultural contact and change. GROUPS IN INTERCULTURAL CONTACT Tourists The World Tourism Organisation (WTO) defines tourists as visitors whose length of stay exceeds 24 hours in a location away from home and whose main incentive for travel is other than financial. International tourists are short term, voluntary holiday-makers, and they constitute the largest group of cross-cultural travellers. Nearly 600 million people made international trips in 1996, most commonly as tourists, and these numbers are expected to increase over the next two decades. By 2010 the WTO’s projected world-wide figures are 940 million tourists per annum (cited in Vellas and Becherel, 1995). Despite being the largest group of cross-cultural travellers, tourists have been studied less frequently by psychologists than have sojourners, immigrants and refugees. In addition, less is known about the psychological aspects of tourism than about the demographic trends and their social, economic and cultural consequences. Nevertheless, psychology has contributed to our understanding of tourism, particularly in terms of viewing the tourist experience from the individual’s perspective and assessing the influences of tourism on intercultural interactions and intergroup relations. A significant portion of the psychological literature has concentrated on the motives of tourists. This line of research has revealed that there are a range of reasons that people travel abroad, including scenery, nature, sport and sex; however, only a minority of their motives relate to culture learning. Because the intercultural interactions involved in crossing cultures are often difficult to manage and because culture learning is not always of primary interest, many tourists opt for travel where the amount of contact with members of the host culture is limited. They choose to stay with other conationals in hotels and resorts where the staff speak their language and accurately anticipate their needs. They are therefore unlikely to experience any genuine or intimate intercultural contact or to have any of the pleasure and pain associated with it. Despite this insulation from members of the receiving society, tourists may still exert influence on host nationals and their indigenous culture. Research that has considered the outcomes of intercultural contact has revealed that being a tourist can be a very stressful experience. Often the expectations that tourists have are unrealistic, and many react badly when confronted by experiences of ‘culture shock’. Indeed, research has suggested that tourists experience more minor health complaints on holiday than before, and mood disturbances increase in the early stages of a vacation (Pearce, 1981). More extensive research has been undertaken on the effects of intercultural contact between tourists and their hosts on intergroup perceptions and relations. Although many have viewed tourism as a vehicle for promoting international harmony and world peace, there is very little evidence to support this contention. Indeed, studies have demonstrated that contact per se does not improve intergroup relations, and in many cases it leads to the mutual sharpening of negative stereotypes. The nature of the tourist-host interactions, which are typically brief, superficial, and characterised by power imbalances in terms of financial and informational resources, does not bode well for congenial intergroup relations. This is particularly the case for the host nationals who often hold ambivalent attitudes toward tourists and tourism. There is, however, a potential for improving relations between tourists and their hosts which includes sound planning and development strategies as 20THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INTERCULTURAL CONTACT well as the implementation of training programmes for personnel in the hospitality industry. These and other issues will be addressed in Chapter 6. Sojourners A sojourn is a temporary stay, and, therefore, a sojourner a temporary resident. Sojourners voluntarily go abroad for a set period of time that is usually associated with a specific assignment or contract. Thus, a volunteer might take an overseas assignment for a year or two; a business person might accept a foreign posting for between three and five years; a missionary might go abroad for a longer stint, while military personnel are often posted overseas for shorter ‘tours of duty’; and international students generally remain overseas for the duration of their diplomas or degrees. In most cases sojourners expect to return home after the completion of their assignment, contract or studies. In Chapters 7 and 8 we will review the literature on international sojourners with emphasis on students and business people, respectively. For a review of the earlier literature on volunteers the reader may wish to consult the 1986 edition of Culture Shock (Furnham and Bochner, 1986). International students Since the Second World War, governments and foundations have supported a huge number of students and senior scholars, enabling these persons to spend varying lengths of time attending overseas institutions. In addition, many privately funded students have swelled the ranks of academic exchange. Foreign scholars, often a highly visible minority, constitute about 10 per cent of the student population on many campuses throughout the world. At any time there are likely to be over a million students and scholars attending institutions of higher learning abroad, and recent estimates have set the figure at about 1.3 million (Hayes, 1998; Koretz, 1998). In the major receiving countries such as the United States, Britain, Canada, and Australia, overseas students have become part of the export industry. For instance, it is estimated that in Australia, international students, drawn mainly from the emerging middle classes in Southeast Asia, contribute about A$2 billion annually to the Australian economy. In the larger, metropolitan universities, full- fee paying overseas students can make up to 20 per cent of the student population (Bochner, 1999). In Canada in 1995, there were 72,000 foreign students, contributing C$2.3 billion and 21,000 jobs to that country’s economy, while in New Zealand international education, increasing 400 per cent over the previous five years, provided NZ$530 million in foreign exchange—more than the wine and venison industries combined (Smith, 1997). World ‘trade’ in international education has been estimated at US $28 billion, and many universities throughout the world now derive a substantial portion of their funds from this source. INTERCULTURAL CONTACT21 The psychological literature on international students has, to some extent, reflected the need to sustain the educational export industry, and a significant portion of the contemporary literature has dealt with the problems of international students. More recent research has also concerned itself with the dynamics of the intercultural classroom and the ways in which multicultural education can benefit both international and local students. However, as student sojourners are perhaps the best-researched group of cross-cultural travellers, there is an extensive body of work that has focused on theory testing. This includes studies of: friendship networks and skills acquisition in international students; intergroup perceptions and relations; the prediction of psychological, sociocultural and academic adaptation; fluctuations in cross-cultural adaptation over time; and the process of re-entry to home culture. These topics will be reviewed in Chapter 7. International business people While it is difficult to obtain reliable figures on international business relocations, it is apparently the case that the number of business people working abroad is on the increase. Data from 1978 to 1990 record, for instance, a 700 per cent increase in British business people’s visits to Japan, a 200 per cent increase to America, and a 100 per cent increase to the Caribbean. Although short term assignments of under one year are becoming more common, having risen to about 16 per cent of overseas postings, the more conventional three to five year contracts are still considered a necessity to ensure effective global operations. Recent data from a survey of United States-based companies estimated that there are about 350,000 overseas assignments, and these numbers are expected to grow in the next few years (Solomon, 1999). Many big companies are now multinationals, and it is often thought desirable that senior managers should have the experience of managing a foreign subsidiary. It is not uncommon for business people, like diplomats, missionaries and the military, to take their entire family abroad, and they often find that their loyalties are divided among their organisation, their personal career and their family responsibilities. Unfortunately, preparation for employees and their families before overseas relocation is haphazard at best, and the significance of family concerns is commonly underestimated, despite evidence which suggests that spousal dissatisfaction is one of the most common reasons for early repatriation. Research on expatriate families, however, is currently increasing and now includes issues pertaining to women in the labour force as well as dual- career couples. Of particular interest to multinational organisations is the work performance of expatriate executives, and unlike most other groups of cross-cultural travellers, there exist accessible, objective data to determine expatriate adaptation. Conceptual models of expatriate adjustment have included both work and non- work domains, and a segment of the research has concerned itself with the prediction of cross-cultural adaptation by factors such as predeparture training, 22THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INTERCULTURAL CONTACT motivation, cultural distance, personality, and interactions with host nationals. Within the organisation special attention has also been paid to differences in cross-cultural values and their implications for effective leadership and team- building. Culture learning is considered essential for successful overseas postings, and this has been facilitated by onsite mentoring as well as more formal training packages (see Chapter 11). Both have been shown to diminish the likelihood of premature return. Like the empirical literature on student sojourners, research on international business people has a very practical component to it, and one topic that has received special attention is the repatriation process. Research has considered changes in the individual and the organisation in addition to how these changes might contribute to readjustment difficulties and dissatisfaction in expatriate employees. This and other topics relevant to expatriate adjustment are discussed in Chapter 8. Immigrants World-wide immigration figures are difficult to verify, but it has been estimated that over 100 million people live outside their country of origin (Russel and Teitlebaum, 1992). The United States and Canada alone accept over one million immigrants a year (Citizenship and Immigration Canada, 1999; United States Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1999). Most agree, however, that there has been a massive swell in international migration in the twentieth century and that this will continue to increase over time. Migrants include those individuals who voluntarily relocate for long term resettlement. They are generally ‘pulled’ toward a new country by social, economic and political forces. The majority of immigrants are strongly motivated by economic factors and usually move from poorer to richer countries. A smaller number, however, choose to migrate for political, religious or cultural reasons. Nevertheless, migration is not simply an issue of choice for the migrant. Receiving countries have very different and strict criteria for the admission of migrants. Because there are often enormous barriers that must be overcome in the process of migration, aspiring immigrants sometimes resort to illicit means, and the number of illegal entrants is a serious concern for some countries. Migrants, like sojourners, are an extremely diverse group. There are wide variations in the relative cultural distance between society of origin and society of settlement across immigrant groups. In addition, the amount of contact that immigrants have with other cultural groups, particularly members of the host society, may vary enormously. There is all the difference in the world between a white English speaking South African migrating to Australia and a South Indian or Korean doing the same thing. Because of interest and research in the topic of migration and mental health dating back over 100 years, there is a rich literature on the experience of migrants. There are moving personal testimonies, mental health INTERCULTURAL CONTACT23 hospital admission figures, survey research, self-help group reports and the writings of clinicians interested in helping migrants cope with cross-cultural transition. As we shall see, a great deal is known about the factors which seem to be associated with adaptation and acculturation. The costs and benefits of immigration for cross-cultural travellers and members of the receiving society have meant that this has become a significant applied area of research. As a result, there are a number of contemporary theories that attempt to describe and explain the causes, manifestations, and consequences of ‘culture shock’ in immigrants. More recent research has also considered the acculturation process in relation to changes in ethnocultural identity and intergroup perceptions. In addition, immigrants, compared with other groups of cross-cultural travellers, have been more frequently studied over generations. These intergenerational studies can provide insight into salient changes in a specific immigrant group as it evolves into a more established ethnocultural community over time. These issues are discussed in greater detail in Chapter 9. Refugees Refugees, as a group, have also played a significant role in the global growth of international migration. The number of refugees has steadily increased over the last 50 years, has approximately doubled between 1980 and 1990, and has recently reached an all time high of 19 million people (Leopold and Harrell- Bond, 1994; UNHCR, 1993). World-wide figures indicate that Africa, the Middle East and South Asia shelter over 90 per cent of the world’s refugees; surprisingly, Europe has typically resettled only about 4 per cent of the refugee population, and North America has assumed responsibility for even less (USCR, 1992) although these figures are beginning to rise (UNHCR, 1998). On the country level Croatia has provided shelter and support for approximately 400,000 refugees who account for more than 10 per cent of its total population (Ajdukovic and Ajdukovic, 1993). Similar refugee-to-population ratios are found in countries such as Malawi, Belize, and Armenia (UNHCR, 1993). What are the origins of these refugees? United Nations figures for 1991–92 indicate a massive movement of refugees, over half a million respectively from Liberia, Somalia, Mozambique, Ethiopia, and Afghanistan (UNHCR, 1993). More recent figures cite Afghanistan, Rwanda, and Bosnia-Herzegovina as the greatest sources of refugees with each displacing over one million persons (UNHCR, 1996), and in the last two years Iraq, Burundi, and Sierra Leone have joined these ranks (UNHCR, 1998). While these figures may summarise refugee movements within a single year, they do not describe the dramatic and devastating effects of genocide, war and famine on a country and its people over time. In Vietnam, for example, it has been estimated that 900,000 individuals were wounded, 250,000 were killed, and over 100,000 were incarcerated in re-education camps during the war; in 24THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INTERCULTURAL CONTACT addition, 6–10 million people were resettled prior to 1975 (Wiesner, 1988). More recently in El Salvador there have been an estimated 80,000 deaths; up to 40 per cent of the population have been relocated, and 20 per cent of the 5.2 million population have left the country. While refugees are faced with many of the same issues and concerns of other cross-cultural travellers, they also differ from sojourners and immigrants in several important ways. On the most fundamental level refugees have generally been exposed to premigration trauma including civil war, genocide, famine, imprisonment and torture. Their relocation is involuntary as they are unwillingly displaced from their home countries and ‘pushed’ into alien environments. This process differs significantly from the experiences of sojourners and migrants who voluntarily relocate, either temporarily or more permanently, because they are drawn or ‘pulled’ towards the countries of resettlement. Researchers have been aware of these differences, and the empirical literature has reflected an emphasis on traumatic premigration factors and their subsequent influences on refugee adaptation problems. Much of this research has been conducted by psychiatrists and has a decidedly clinical flavour, describing diagnoses and prognoses in refugee populations. This is not surprising as a significant portion of this research, as well as many intervention projects, have been sponsored by international agencies such as the World Federation of Mental Health (Mollica et al., 1989). National government departments and institutes with interests in health-related matters have also provided support. Examples have included the Canadian Health and Welfare Department (Beiser and Fleming, 1986) and the National Institute of Mental Health in the United States (Rumbaut, 1985). In addition to the negative consequences precipitated by traumatic premigration stressors, researchers have also noted that refugees, compared with immigrants and sojourners, possess more limited resources for cross-cultural transition and adaptation. Not only do they generally lack tangible financial assets but, in many cases, they also have limited educational and linguistic resources that could assist in adapting to new and culturally different environments. This is particularly noticeable in cases