Abstract
There has been a vast amount of research on the changes experienced by immigrants, but little is known about the changes experienced by host individuals. This article focuses on the role of host individuals in the networks of relations between immigrant populations and the communities from the dominant culture, as well as the changes experienced by host individuals because of their continuous contact with immigrants. This research applied a network approach to the study of the acculturation of host individuals. Two independent studies were carried out: a systematic analysis of the personal networks of Argentinean (n = 67), Ecuadorian (n = 59), Italian (n = 37) and German (n = 37) residents in Seville and Cadiz (Spain) (Study 1); and an ethnographic study with human service workers for Latin American immigrants in Boston (USA) (Study 2). With two different strategies, the role of host individuals in personal networks of foreigners in the United States and Spain was analyzed. The results show that host individuals tend to have less centrality than compatriots, showing an overall secondary role in the personal networks of immigrants. The lowest average centrality was observed in recent and temporal migrants, whereas the highest corresponded to the individuals with more time of residence in Spain. The personal networks of human service providers in the United States vary in ethnic composition and in their structural properties, and therefore shape different types of integrative bridges for immigrants.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adams, J. Q., & Strother-Adams, P. (2001). Dealing with diversity. Chicago: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company.
Aguirre, A. Jr., & Turner, J. H. (2004). American ethnicity: The dynamics and consequences of discrimination. Boston: McGraw Hill.
Alba, R., & Nee, V. (2003). Remaking the American mainstream: Assimilation and contemporary immigration. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Barrera, M. (1980). A method for the assessment of social support networks in community survey research. Connections, 3, 8–13.
Benjamin, M. (1993). Child and adolescent service system program minority initiative research monograph. Washington, DC: Georgetown University.
Berger, P., & Neuhaus, R. (1977). To empower people. The role of mediating structures in public policy. Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute.
Berry, J. W. (1986). The acculturation process and refugee behavior. In C. I. Williams & J. Westemeyer (Eds.), Refugee mental health in resettlement countries. New York: Hemisphere.
Berry, J. W. (1997). Immigrants, acculturation, and adaptation. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 48, 5–33.
Berry, J. W. (1998). Acculturation and health: Theory and research. In S. S. Kasarian & D. R. Evans (Eds.), Cultural clinical psychology: Theory and research and practice (pp. 39–57). New York: Oxford University Press.
Berry, J. W., & Sam, D. L. (1996). Acculturation and adaptation. In J. W. Berry, A. Segal, & C. Kagitçibasi (Eds.), Handbook of cross-cultural psychology: Social behaviors and application (Vol. 3, pp. 291–326). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Birman, D. (1998). Biculturalism and perceived competence of Latino immigrant adolescents. American Journal of Community Psychology, 26, 335–354.
Birman, D., Trickett, E., & Buchanan, R. (2005). A tale of two cities: Replication of a study on the acculturation and adaptation of immigrant adolescents from the former Soviet Union in a different community context. American Journal of Community Psychology, 35, 83–101.
Birman, D., Trickett, E., & Vinokurov, A. (2002). Acculturation and adaptation of Soviet Jewish refugee adolescents: Predictors of adjustment across life domains. American Journal of Community Psychology, 30, 585–607.
Bochner, S. (1982). The social psychology of cross-cultural relations. In S. Bochner (Ed.), Cultures in contact: Studies in cross-cultural interaction. Oxford: Pergamon Press.
Borgatti, S. P., Everett, M. G., & Freeman, L. C. (2002). Ucinet for windows: Software for Social Network Analysis. Harvard: Analytic Technologies.
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1977). The ecology of human development. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Burawoy, M. (1991). Reconstructing social theories. In M. Burawoy, et al. (Eds.), Ethnography unbound: Power and resistance in the modern metropolis (pp. 8–27). Berkeley: University of California Press.
Cabassa, L. J. (2003). Measuring acculturation: Where we are and where we need to go. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 25, 127–146.
Cea, M. C., Reisen, C. A., Poppen, P. J., Echeverry, J. J., & Bianchi, F. T. (2004). Disclosure of HIV-positive status to Latino gay men’s social networks. American Journal of Community Psychology, 33, 107–116.
Chipuer, H., & Pretty, G. (1999). A review of the sense of community index: Current uses, factor structure, reliability, and further development. Journal of Community Psychology, 27, 643–658.
Domínguez, S. (2005). Latina immigrants in public housing: Race relations, social networks, and access to services. Dissertation unpublished, Boston University.
Domínguez, S. (2008). A tale of two projects: Bridging Latin-American immigrant women in public housing. Journal of City and Community, under revise and resubmit.
Dominguez, S., & Watkins, C. (2003). Creating networks for survival and mobility: Social capital among African-American and Latin-American low-income mothers. Social Problems, 50, 111–135.
Faust, K., & Wasserman, S. (1999). Social Network Analysis: Methods and applications. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Glaser, B. G. (1992). Basics of grounded theory analysis: Emergence vs. forcing. Mill Valley: Sociology Press.
Glaser, B. G., & Strauss, A. L. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.
Korte, C., & Milgram, S. (1970). Acquaintance networks between racial groups: Application of the small world method. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 15, 101–108.
Lin, N., Ensel, W. M., & Vaughn, J. C. (1981). Social resources and strength of ties: Structural factors in occupational status attainment. American Sociological Review, 46, 393–405.
Luke, D. A. (2005). Getting the big picture in community science: Methods that capture context. American Journal of Community Psychology, 35, 185–200.
Maya-Jariego, I. (2003a, February). A general typology of personal networks of immigrants with less than 10 years living in Spain. Paper presented at XXIII International Social Network Conference, México.
Maya-Jariego, I. (2003b). Internet, amigos y bacterias: la alargada sombra de Stanley Milgram. Araucaria. Revista Iberoamericana de Filosofía, Política y Humanidades, 5, 3–14.
Maya-Jariego, I. (2004). Sentido de comunidad y potenciación comunitaria. Apuntes de Psicología, 22, 187–211.
Maya-Jariego, I. (2006). Webs of compatriots: Relationship networks among immigrants. In J. L. Pérez Pont (Ed.), Geografías del desorden. Migración, alteridad y nueva esfera social (pp. 257–276). Valencia: Universidad de Valencia.
Maya-Jariego, I., & Holgado, D. (2005). Lazos fuertes y proveedores múltiples de apoyo: comparación de dos formas de representación gráfica de las redes personales. Empiria. Revista de metodología de ciencias sociales, 10, 107–127.
McCarty, C. (2002). Structure in personal networks. Journal of Social Structure, 3,(1). http://www.cmu.edu/joss/content/articles/volume3/McCarty.html.
McCarty, C., & Govindaramanujam, S. (2005). A modified elicitation of personal networks using dynamic visualization. Connections, 26, 61–69.
McCarty, C. & Molina, J. L. (2003, February). Egocentric network research tool. Paper presented at XXIII International Social Network Conference, México.
McCarty, C., & Wutich, A. (2005). Conceptual and empirical arguments for including or excluding ego from structural analysis of personal networks. Connections, 26, 84–90.
McGoldrick, M., Pearce, J. K., & Giordano, J. (1983). Ethnicity and family therapy. New York: The Guildford Press.
McMillan, D. W., & Chavis, D. M. (1986). Sense of community: A definition and theory. Journal of Community Psychology, 14, 6–23.
Obst, P. L., & White, K. M. (2004). Revisiting the sense of community index: A confirmatory factor analysis. Journal of Community Psychology, 32, 691–705.
Obst, P. L., & White, K. M. (2005). Three-dimensional strength of identification across group memberships: A confirmatory factor analysis. Self and Identity, 4, 69–80.
O'Connor, T. H. (1994). South Boston, My home town: The history of an ethnic neighborhood. Northeastern University Press.
Portes, A. (1995). Economic sociology and the sociology of immigration: A conceptual overview. In A. Portes (Ed.), Economic sociology of immigration: Essays on networks, ethnicity, and entrepreneurship (pp. 1–41). New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Portes, A., & Rumbaut, R. G. (Eds.). (2001). Legacies: The story of the immigrant second generation. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Portes, A., & Sensenbrenner, J. (1993). Embeddedness and immigration: Notes on the social determinants of economic action. American Journal of Sociology, 98, 1320–1350.
Praetorius, R. T., & Machtmes, K. (2005). Volunteer crisis hotline counselors: An expression of spirituality. Social Work and Christianity, 32, 116–132.
Purvin, D. (2007). At the crossroads and in the crosshairs: Social welfare policy and low-income women’s vulnerability to domestic violence. Social Problems, 54, 188–210.
Ramirez, M. (1999). Multicultural psychotherapy: An approach to individual and cultural differences. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Redfield, R., Linton, B., & Herkovits, M. J. (1936). Memorandum on the study of acculturation. American Anthropologist, 28, 149–152.
Saleebey, D. (1992). The strengths perspective in social work practice. White Plaines: Longman.
Samaniego, R. Y., & Gonzales, N. A. (1999). Multiple mediators of the effects of acculturation status on delinquency for Mexican American adolescents. American Journal of Community Psychology, 27, 189–210.
Shen, B. J., & Takeuchi, D. T. (2001). A structural model of acculturation and mental health status among Chinese Americans. American Journal of Community Psychology, 29, 387–418.
Vega, W. A., Gil, A. G., Warheit, G. J., Zimmerman, R. S., & Apospori, E. (1993). Acculturation and delinquent behavior among Cuban American adolescents: Toward an empirical model. American Journal of Community Psychology, 21, 113–125.
Wutich, A. & McCarty, C. (2003, February). A personal network method for measuring race and ethnicity. Paper presented at XXIII International Social Network Conference, México.
Zentella, A. C. (1990). Integrating qualitative and quantitative methods in the study of bilingual code switching. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 583, 75–92.
Zimmerman, M. A. (2000). Empowerment theory: Psychological, organizational, and community level of analysis. In E. J. Rappaport & E. Seidman (Eds.), Handbook of community psychology (pp. 43–63). New York: Kluwer Academic.
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, the Eileen Blackey Fellowship, the American Association of University Women and the Missy Carter Dissertation Fellowship (for the Latina project in USA) and the Consejería de Gobernación de la Junta de Andalucía (for the study of four foreigners groups in Spain). The authors thank the Principal Investigators of the Welfare, Children and Families Three City Study and the array of public and private funding institutions who supported that research. The authors wish to acknowledge the contribution and assistance of Amy Lubitow, Van Tran and the Harvard University Immigration Incorporation Workshop, Daniel Holgado and Raquel Santos (Universidad de Sevilla), and all of the respondents that contributed to both projects.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
An erratum to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10464-009-9259-3
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Domínguez, S., Maya-Jariego, I. Acculturation of Host Individuals: Immigrants and Personal Networks. Am J Community Psychol 42, 309–327 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-008-9209-5
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-008-9209-5