Discordance of Acculturation Attitudes of the Host Population and their Dealing with Immigrants

ABSTRACT

We set out to quantitatively evaluate the discordance between perceived and desired acculturation attitudes by immigrants in Russia in the eyes of host group members and consider relationships between this discordance and other intergroup attitudes. We used the coefficient of intrarater agreement as a measure of discordance between acculturation attitudes of the host population. The host population in Russia mostly preferred an assimilation-type of adjustment of immigrants but believed that immigrants prefer separation. Discordance between acculturation attitudes can have consequences for intergroup relations. Further investigation of the discordance can help to better understand the process of mutual accommodation and the evaluation of discordance can help to enhance this accommodation.

KEYWORDS:

• Discordance of acculturation attitudes
• acculturation expectations
• multicultural ideology
• right-wing authoritarianism
• willingness to engage in intergroup contact
• discrimination of immigrants

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The article was prepared within the framework of the Basic Research Program at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE) and supported within the framework of a subsidy by the Russian Academic Excellence Project ‘5–100ʹ.

Notes on contributors

Dmitry Grigoryev

Dmitry Grigoryev is a Research Fellow in the International Laboratory for Socio-Cultural Research at National Research University Higher School of Economics. His primary research interests are intergroup relations, cultural diversity, and acculturation.

Fons van de Vijver

Fons van de Vijver is a Professor of Cross-Cultural Psychology at Tilburg University (the Netherlands) and have extraordinary chairs at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow, Russia), North-West University (Potchefstroom, South Africa), and University of Queensland (Brisbane, Australia). He has published over 400 publications, mainly in the domain of cross-cultural psychology. The main domains in his research are methodological aspects of cross-cultural comparisons (bias and equivalence), acculturation and multiculturalism, personality, and cognitive processes. He is the past editor-in-chief of the Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology. He is Past-President of the European Association of Psychological Assessment and President of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology.

Anastasia Batkhina

Anastasia Batkhina is a Research Fellow in the International Laboratory for Socio-Cultural Research at National Research University Higher School of Economics. Her primary research interests are intergroup relations, interethnic conflicts, and cross-cultural psychology.