Editorial: Steps towards the Renovation of Acculturation Research Paradigms: What Scientists’ Personal Experiences of Migration Might Tell Science

Abstract

Acculturation refers to cultural learning and adjustment in the context of continuous cross-cultural experience. Plato, in his ‘Laws’, considered cross-cultural imitation to be a risk arising from foreign commerce. In the 19th century, European theorists wrote of the amalgamation processes by which diverse peoples were culturally unified for the purposes of the nation-state. In the 20th century, acculturation research first focused on the cultural changes of conquered and dispossessed native peoples, and later on the cultural adaptation, assimilation, or integration of immigrants and other minorities. Native peoples and immigrants were stereotyped as genetically and culturally inferior and prone to diseases and mental illness. Thus, in most research, improved health became the criterion of successful acculturation, and further confusion came from the good intentions to advise public policy. A century of such research has come to no confident conclusions and has produced little useful information. Acculturation research paradigms need renovation. As one step forward, four acculturation researchers have here reflected on their own research in the light of their own acculturation experiences. Their self-observations and insights point to new questions and constructs, and eventually to new research paradigms.