Perception of cross-cultural adjustment by immigrant professionals from three ethnic groups in one host context

Abstract

Ensuring that immigrant professionals experience cross-cultural adjustment positively is beneficial for both employers and host countries, as well as the immigrants themselves, yet has proven problematic in practice. This study utilises a series of longitudinal interviews to examine the personal narratives of three strategically selected sets of recently arrived professionals from the British Isles, China, and the former Soviet Union who are employed in New Zealand. Immersive research, employing Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), followed the participants over 1 year of their life, illuminating their struggles, wins, and contradictions, endeavouring to develop a deep understanding of what it feels like to be an immigrant professional in a new, often culturally unusual country. This study reports the discovery of divergent sets of characteristics influencing the cross-cultural adjustment perceptions of interview+ees from different ethnic groups within the same host country. It finds that ‘one size does not fit all’.