Understanding the Relation Between Participating in the New Culture and Identification: Two Studies With Latin American Immigrants

Abstract

Participation in a new culture and identification with a new culture are important issues faced by millions of immigrants today. Literature describes three possible relations between participation and identification. First, some researchers postulate that they are part of the basic acculturation phenomenon and hence equivalent (Model 1). Others postulate that either identification with a new culture encourages participation in it (Model 2) or participation helps identification with a new culture (Model 3). The goal of the present article was to determine which model best describes the relation between participating in a new culture and identification with it. In Study 1, Latin American immigrants (N = 146) answered a questionnaire, and the fit of each of the three models was compared using path analyses. Results showed that the best fitting model was one where participation in the new culture positively predicted identification with it. These results were confirmed in Study 2, where semistructured interviews of 15 immigrants were analyzed. The two studies in the present article help us understand the relation between participation in the new culture and identification as well as the scope of the changes brought on by immigration.