Ankica Kosic

Acculturation Attitudes, Need for Cognitive Closure, and Adaptation of Immigrants

Abstract The author validated Berrys model of acculturation (J. W. Berry, 1990a, 1990b, 1991; J. W. Berry, U. Kim, S. Power, M. Young, & M. Bujaki, 1989) and examined the relation between acculturation attitudes and sociocultural and psychological adaptation among Croatian and Polish immigrants to Italy, 2 groups whose cultures are not very different from the Italian culture. Moreover, the author investigated the relation between the need for cognitive closure (NCC; M. D. Webster & A. W. Kruglanski, 1994) and psychological and sociocultural adaptation. The participants completed a questionnaire including measures of sociocultural adaptation, psychological adaptation, social relationships, acculturation attitudes, and NCC. The results of a multivariate analysis of variance revealed main effects of acculturation strategies for both forms of adaptation and a main effect of NCC for psychological adaptation. The Croatian and Polish immigrants differed in the level of sociocultural adaptation but not in the level of psychological adaptation.

Albanian immigrants in Italy: migration plans, coping strategies and identity issues

This paper studies the adaptation and survival strategies that Albanian immigrants develop from the beginning of their migration project through to their establishment in the host country, Italy. We are particularly interested in how immigrants make sense of the host countrys social and institutional environment and the related immigration policy measures and implementation practices, and their strategies for coping with these. More specifically, the study examines how immigrants organise their migration project upon departure from the country of origin and how they adapt their plans and develop coping strategies in response to the social and institutional environment of the country of destination. We also explore how they experience the daily practices of immigration policy implementation in the Italian administration offices and how they perceive ‘institutional’ or ‘private’ attitudes of discrimination (the presence of prejudice, discrimination and/or hostile treatment or, on the other hand, the presence of flexible and personalised practices of policy implementation in favour of immigrants). We thus show how immigrants act in a context of limitations and opportunities which they actively integrate into their migration experience and their understanding of themselves, their country of origin and the host country. The research is based on 30 interviews conducted with Albanian immigrants (22 men and eight women) between September and December 2001 in the Florence area.

Intended Self-Presentation Tactics in Job Interviews A 10-Country Study

Intended self-presentation in job interviews was examined among university students in 10 countries (N = 3,509). The aim was to assess cross-cultural differences in the endorsement of self-presentation tactics, and whether such differences could be explained by cultural values and socioeconomic variables. The Cultural Impression Management Scale–Applicant Scale (CIM-A) was used that measures assertiveness, individual excellence, accommodation, and pointing out obstacles. Cross-cultural differences were found in endorsement of all tactics, most notably in individual excellence and pointing out obstacles. Importance assigned to self-presentation tactics was larger among individuals from cultures emphasizing embeddedness, mastery, and hierarchy, and with larger income disparities. The exception to this pattern was the American sample. Implications for personnel selection in international contexts are discussed.

Polish and Albanian Workers in Italy: Between Legality and Undocumented Status

This study concentrates on Albanian and Polish immigrants in Italy. We look at both legal and undocumented workers and examine their efforts to acquire or maintain legal work and residence status in the host country, as well as their overall migratory projects and the ways in which these intersect with Italian immigration policy and the authorities which enforce it. We analyse what we have termed the immigrant ‘survival’ strategies concerning entry, stay, employment and socialisation in the host country. Our analysis is based on the immigrants’ own accounts of their experiences, plans, attitudes and opinions as registered in two sets of loosely structured life-story interviews. Our study confronts these accounts with the findings of previous studies on the micro-level of immigration policy implementation in Italy (Triandafyllidou, 2003), and the overall immigration context in this country.

Being prepared for acculturation: On the importance of the first months after immigrants enter a new culture

We hypothesized that perceived communication effectiveness at arrival and initial friendships with members of the receiving society during the first months after arrival in a new country have a long-term effect on the development of acculturation orientations and that this effect is pronounced for individuals with a high need for cognitive closure (NCC). We examined the hypotheses in a study with Spanish-speaking immigrants in Switzerland (n = 146) and in Italy (n = 147). We asked participants to indicate their current attitude to contact with the receiving society and cultural maintenance and report retrospectively their perceived communication effectiveness at arrival and initial friendships. In line with the predictions, the perceptions of high communication effectiveness at arrival and friendships with members of the receiving society during the initial phase in the new culture were positively correlated with the current attitude to contact with the receiving society assessed 7 years after arrival on average. Also, initial friendships with members of the receiving society were negatively correlated with present cultural maintenance. Moreover, with an increase in NCC, these correlations increased.

Promoting Reconciliation Through Youth: Cross-Community Initiatives in Vukovar, Croatia

This article provides a conceptual framework for mapping cross-community work and projects that have been designed in more recent years to assist the process of reconciliation among young people in the city of Vukovar (Croatia), and to analyze underlying socio-psychological assumptions of these interventions. The nature of initiatives is examined through the prism of some socio-psychological theories and, in particular, through Nadler and Shnabels (2008) Need-Based Model, Allports (1954) Contact Hypothesis, and Tajfel and Turners (1986) Social Identity Theory. This study found that there are serious problems with the manner in which reconciliation has been approached by the local communities in Vukovar. This study aims to explore some socio-psychological factors in the process of reconciliation among young people in Vukovar (Croatia), and the role of civic organizations in promoting inter-group contact and dialogue.

The propensity toward reconciliation among young people in Northern Ireland and Croatia: The role of conflict management styles within the family

Two studies, conducted in Northern Ireland (N = 266) and Croatia (N = 261), examined the role of constructive adolescents-parents conflict management style (CAPCMS) in predicting inter-group reconciliation attitudes. We hypothesized that CAPCMS would be a unique and positive predictor of reconciliation attitudes over and above other common predictors of reconciliation attitudes, such as inter-group contact quantity and quality, and the experience of inter-group conflict. Findings from Study 1 supported this hypothesis. Study 2 replicated these findings in a different cultural context and extended them by examining the robustness of the relationship between CAPCMS and reconciliation attitudes in the presence of an individual difference measure (self-confidence in social interactions). Furthermore, both studies revealed that for adolescents with high CAPCMS the relationships between intergroup contact (quantity and quality) and reconciliation attitudes were more accentuated, and their reconciliation attitudes were less affected by their experience of conflict, relative to those with low CAPCMS.

Ethnic Categorization: The Role of Epistemic Motivation, Prejudice, and Perceived Threat

In this study we first examine how host nationals (i.e., Italians) categorize immigrants; second, we look into the roles played by estimation of size and composition of immigrant population, perceived threat, prejudice, and need for cognitive closure in that process. In the first part of the study, participants responded to questionnaires measuring the variables just mentioned, including an estimation of which immigrant group was the largest in Italy. In the second part of the study, 96 photographs of male faces from 16 immigrant groups were shown to participants (N = 195). They were asked to identify the country of origin of each person in the photographs. Results showed that perceived threat enhanced the effect of prejudice and need for cognitive closure in the process of ethnic categorization. Individuals with a high need for cognitive closure and prejudice toward ethnic groups classified more immigrants as members of the group estimated as being the largest in their country when they perceived immigrants as a threat. The implications of outgroup overclassification for prejudice against immigrants are discussed.

Promoting Reconciliation through Community Relations Work

This chapter provides a conceptual framework for mapping cross-community work and projects that have been designed in more recent years to assist the process of reconciliation among young people in Northern Ireland (Belfast) and Croatia (Vukovar), and to analyze underlying sociopsychological assumptions of these interventions. The first part of the chapter briefly describes the historical background of conflicts in Northern Ireland and in Croatia (former Yugoslavia). It is followed by a description of some sociopsychological theories on the process of reconciliation among groups in post-conflict areas. In the last section, the nature of initiatives proposed to promote the reconciliation among youth in the cities of Belfast and Vukovar is examined through the prism of these sociopsychological theories.

Urban Cultural Policy and Immigrants in Rome

By 1980, Italy, just like other countries in Southern Europe, had begun its gradual, almost unacknowledged transformation from being a country of emigration to one of immigration. As of 1 January 2004, immigrants constituted about 4.5 per cent of the total population (Caritas and Migrantes, 2004: 97), many of them people fleeing from political instability and ethnic conflict in their countries, while others have mainly economic motivations. Nevertheless, Italy still lacks clear immigration and settlement policies. Current policies have given very little room for cultural integration of immigrants and their active participation in cultural life. While the rights of autochthonous cultural minorities have been fairly well safeguarded in Italy since the postwar period, and guaranteed by the Constitution (article 6), the issue of developing innovative policies aimed at the protection and promotion of cultural identities among the new immigrant minorities has not yet been seriously tackled at the national level.