Abstract
While the idea of acculturation (Berry 1997) was originally proposed as the mutual change of both parties (e.g., immigrants and the host society), the change processes of host societies are neglected in research. A grounded theory study explored the efforts of human service organizations to ‘acculturate’ to an increasingly diverse immigrant population, through interviews conducted with service providers serving Mainland Chinese immigrants. Acculturation efforts of human service organizations (mezzo-level acculturation) were often needs-driven and affected by the political will and resultant funding programs (macro-level forces). Even with limitations, human service organizations commonly focused on hiring Mainland Chinese immigrants to reflect the changing demographics of their clientele and creating new programs to meet the language and cultural backgrounds of the clients. To contextualize these organizational efforts, an analysis of how policy changes (macro-level acculturation) interact with organizational practice is presented. Finally, the meaning of acculturation for the host society is discussed.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the special section editors, Drs. Meg A. Bond and Khanh T. Dinh and anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions. The authors would like to also thank those who contributed to the research: Chinese Canadian National Council Toronto Chapter, Jane Ku, Fei Wu, Shenyu Huang, the participants of the research, and Billie Allan. The research presented in this paper was sponsored by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (Multiculturalism Issues in Canada award), the Joint Centre for Excellence in Immigration and Settlement—Toronto (now CERIS—The Ontario Metropolis Centre), and the University of Toronto Connaught Matching Fund.
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Sakamoto, I., Wei, Y. & Truong, L. How Do Organizations and Social Policies ‘Acculturate’ to Immigrants? Accommodating Skilled Immigrants in Canada. Am J Community Psychol 42, 343–354 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-008-9197-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-008-9197-5