Biculturalism and Context: What Is Biculturalism, and When Is It Adaptive?

Mistry and Wu this issue introduce the concept of navigating across worlds, and this construct appears to represent a rough approximation of biculturalism. They also discuss conditions that may facilitate biculturalism and under which it might be more versus less adaptive. The most integral aspects of Mistry and Wu's argument, then, center around biculturalism, what it is, how it comes into being, and when it is most adaptive. The present commentary focuses on these three issues. Biculturalism has been defined in a number of ways e.g., Benet-Martinez Berry, 1997; Schwartz Umana-Taylor, in press. The ethnic component of biculturalism is not only a reactive response to discrimination, as Mistry and Wu appear to suggest. It also represents a sense of pride in one's heritage, and a desire to hold on to that heritage Umana-Taylor, Yazedjian, & Bamaca-Gomez, 2004. But what exactly does biculturalism look like? How would we know it if we saw it? What are its functions? And when is it adaptive – and when is it not?