Acculturation in Multiple Host Community Settings

This article provides an overview of immigrant/host majority relations from an intergroup perspective using the interactive acculturation model. Whereas previous research assumed that immigrants must adapt to a single dominant host majority, receiving societies are often made up of host communities whose ethnic and linguistic backgrounds vary, thus offering immigrants the option of adapting to one or more host communities. Two such settings are examined in North America: bilingual Montreal made up of French- and English-speaking host communities; and bilingual Los Angeles with its English-speaking European and African American host communities and its Spanish- and Asian-speaking immigrant communities. The Montreal and Los Angeles studies highlight how integration policies adopted at the national and institutional levels are related to the acculturation orientations endorsed by contrasting immigrant and host community undergraduates living in multilingual and multicultural settings.