Home On the move: social and linguistic acculturation in a small society
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

On the move: social and linguistic acculturation in a small society

  • Fabienne Baider EMAIL logo and Sviatlana Karpava
Published/Copyright: November 11, 2024
Become an author with De Gruyter Brill

Abstract

This study examines the ways in which non-nationals in the Republic of Cyprus perceive the phenomenon of acculturation, and looks at the factors that affect their integration. Our methodology comprised questionnaires and interviews to collect data, which we then interpreted through discourse analysis. Our findings include some expected results; namely, that immigrants’ perception of their status in Cyprus society is largely affected, and mainly negatively, by their degree of fluency in the local language (Greek), as this strongly impacts their social networks and thus opportunities for integration. However, there are other influential factors, such as socioeconomic status, mother tongue (L1) and ethnicity, and a willingness to integrate. Interestingly, the feeling of being integrated is also related to formal procedures, such as having the national citizenship and holding a Cyprus passport.


Corresponding author: Fabienne Baider, Department of French and European Studies, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus, E-mail:

Funding source: University of Cyprus

Award Identifier / Grant number: MIGDISCY

Annex

Table 1:

Participants: L1 country, L1 Continent.

L1 Country N % L1 Continent
Europe Asia Africa North America Australia
EU Non-EU
Russia 65 21.66 % 65
Belarus 21 7 % 21
Ukraine 19 6.33 % 19
Moldova 16 5.33 % 16
Jordan 13 4.33 % 13
Syria 13 4.33 % 13
Iraq 13 4.33 % 13
India 12 4 % 12
Lebanon 11 3.66 % 11
Romania 11 3.66 % 11
Sri Lanka 10 3.33 % 10
UK 10 3.33 % 10
Palestine 9 3 % 9
Germany 8 2.66 % 8
Pakistan 6 2 % 6
Libya 5 1.66 % 5
Philippines 5 1.66 % 5
Poland 5 1.66 % 5
Serbia 5 1.66 % 5
Iran 4 1.33 % 4
Bulgaria 4 1.33 % 4
Georgia 4 1.33 % 4
South Africa 2 0.66 % 2
Israel 2 0.66 % 2
China 2 0.66 % 2
Nepal 2 0.66 % 2
Latvia 2 0.66 % 2
Australia 1 0.33 % 1
Somalia 1 0.33 % 1
Greece 1 0.33 % 1
Slovenia 1 0.33 % 1
Afghanistan 1 0.33 % 1
Austria 1 0.33 % 1
Senegal 1 0.33 % 1
Egypt 1 0.33 % 1
Tunisia 1 0.33 % 1
Croatia 1 0.33 % 1
Armenia 1 0.33 % 1
Morocco 1 0.33 % 1
USA 1 0.33 % 1
Belgium 1 0.33 % 1
Turkey 1 0.33 % 1
France 1 0.33 % 1
Spain 1 0.33 % 1
Montenegro 1 0.33 % 1
China 1 0.33 % 1
Slovakia 1 0.33 % 1
Vietnam 1 0.33 % 1
L1 Country N % Europe 180/60 % Asia Africa North America Australia
EU 38/12.66 % Non-EU 142/47.34 % 106/35.33 % 12/4 % 1/0.33 % 1/0.33 %

References

Agarwal, Sandeep & Nicole Kurtz. 2019. Ethnic spatial segmentation in immigrant destinations – Edmonton and Calgary. International Migration & Integration 20(1). 199–222. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-018-0604-y.Search in Google Scholar

Amit, Karin. 2012. Social integration and identity of immigrants from western countries, the FSU and Ethiopia in Israel. Ethnic and Racial Studies 35(7). 1287–1310. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2011.602091.Search in Google Scholar

Akanle, Olayinka. 2013. Kinship networks and international migration in Nigeria. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Search in Google Scholar

Arribas-Ayllon, Michael & Valerie Walkerdine. 2017. Foucauldian discourse analysis. In Carla Willig & Wendy Stainton Rogers (eds.), The SAGE handbook of qualitative research in psychology, 110–123. London: SAGE.10.4135/9781526405555.n7Search in Google Scholar

Avraamidou, Maria, Irini Kadianaki, Maria Ioannou & Elisavet Panagiotou. 2018. Migration in the Greek-Cypriot press between 2011-2015: Visibility, topics, trends and the debate between pro and antimigrant discourses. Nicosia: University of Cyprus. Available at: http://www.recrire.eu/documents/.Search in Google Scholar

Baider, Fabienne. 2019. Double speech act: Negotiating inter-cultural beliefs and intra-cultural hate speech. Journal of Pragmatics 151. 155–166. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2019.05.006.Search in Google Scholar

Baider, Fabienne & Sviatlana Karpava. 2023. From family to university: Best practices for inclusive tertiary education. Glottodidactica 50(1). 29–53. https://doi.org/10.14746/gl.2023.50.1.3.Search in Google Scholar

Barglowski, Karolina. 2018. Where, what and whom to study? Principles, guidelines and empirical examples of case selection and sampling in migration research. In Ricard Zapata-Barrero & Evren Yalaz (eds.), Qualitative research in European migration studies, 151–171. IMISCOE Research Series. Cham: Springer.10.1007/978-3-319-76861-8_9Search in Google Scholar

Berry, John W. 1980. Acculturation as varieties of adaptation. In Amado M. Padilla (ed.), Acculturation: Theory, models and some new findings, 9–25. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Search in Google Scholar

Berry, John W. 2005. Acculturation: Living successfully in two cultures. International Journal of Intercultural Relations 29(6). 697–712. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2005.07.013.Search in Google Scholar

Berry, John W. 2006. Contexts of acculturation, theories, concepts and methods. In David L. Sam & John W. Berry (eds.), Cambridge handbook of acculturation psychology, 27–42. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511489891.006Search in Google Scholar

Berry, John. 2009. Acculturation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Bourhis, Richard, Lena Moise, Stephane Perreault & Sacha Senecal. 2010. Towards an interactive acculturation model: A social psychological approach. International Journal of Psychology 32(6). 369–386. https://doi.org/10.1080/002075997400629.Search in Google Scholar

Bourhis, Richard. 2001. Acculturation, language maintenance and language loss. In Jetske Klatter-Falmer & Piet van Avermaet (eds.), Language maintenance and language loss, 5–37. Tilburg, The Netherlands: Tilburg University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Brunila, Kristiina, Saara Vainio & Sanna Toiviainen. 2021. The positivity imperative in youth education as a form of cruel optimism. Journal of Applied Youth Studies 4. 313–327. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43151-021-00047-3.Search in Google Scholar

Capstick, Tony. 2021. Language and migration. Oxfordshire, UK: Routledge.10.4324/9781351207713Search in Google Scholar

Chen, Sylvia Xiaohua, Veronica Benet-Martínez & Bond Harris. 2008. Bicultural identity, bilingualism, and psychological adjustment in multicultural societies: Immigration-based and globalization-based acculturation. Journal of Personality 76. 803–838. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2008.00505.x.Search in Google Scholar

Cooper, Robert L. & Joshua A. Fishman. 1977. Study of language attitudes. The Bilingual Review 4. 7–34.Search in Google Scholar

Cyprus Mail. 2022. Over 16,500 Ukrainian refugees now in Cyprus. Available at: https://cyprus-mail.com/2022/05/06/over-16500-ukrainian-refugees-now-in-cyprus/.Search in Google Scholar

CYSTAT. 2021. Cyprus statistical service. Available at: https://www.cystat.gov.cy/en/SubthemeStatistics?id=46.Search in Google Scholar

Darvin, Ron & Bonny Norton. 2014. Social class, identity, and migrant students. Journal of Language, Identity & Education 13. 111–117. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348458.2014.901823.Search in Google Scholar

Doucerain, Marina, Jessica Dere & Andrew G. Ryder. 2013. Travels in hyper-diversity: Multiculturalism and the contextual assessment of acculturation. International Journal of Intercultural Relations 37(6). 686–699. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2013.09.007.Search in Google Scholar

Etchegaray, Nicolle & Teresa Correa. 2015. Media consumption and immigration: Factors related to the perception of stigmatization among immigrants. International Journal of Communication 9. 3601–3620.Search in Google Scholar

Eurostat. 2023. Statistical Service of the European Union. Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat, https://knews.kathimerini.com.cy/en/news/eurostat-cyprus-3rd-highest-percentage-of-foreign-born-citizens.Search in Google Scholar

Ferdous, Mahzabin, Sonya Lee, Suzanne Goopy, Huiming Yang, Nahid Rumana, Tasnima Abedin & Tanvir C. Turin. 2018. Barriers to cervical cancer screening faced by immigrant women in Canada: A systematic scoping review. BMC Women’s Health 18(1). 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12905-018-0654-5.Search in Google Scholar

Gaudet, Sophie & Richard Clément. 2009. Forging an identity as a linguistic minority: Intra- and intergroup aspects of language, communication and identity in Western Canada. International Journal of Intercultural Relations 33(3). 213–227. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2008.08.003.Search in Google Scholar

Gordon, Milton M. 1964. Assimilation in American life. New York: Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Gravani, Maria N., Hatzopoulos Pavlos & Christina Chinas. 2021. Adult education and migration in Cyprus: A critical analysis. Journal of Adult and Continuing Education 27(1). 25–41. https://doi.org/10.1177/1477971419832896.Search in Google Scholar

Guo, Shibao & Yan Guo. 2016. Immigration, integration and welcoming communities: Neighbourhood-based initiative to facilitate the integration of newcomers in Calgary. Canadian Ethnic Studies 48(3). 45–67. https://doi.org/10.1353/ces.2016.0025.Search in Google Scholar

Horenczyk, Gabriel. 2000. Conflicted identities: Acculturation attitudes and immigrants. In Elite Olshtain & Gabriel Horenczyk (eds.), Language, identity and immigration, 13–30. Jerusalem, Israel: Magnes Press.Search in Google Scholar

Hynie, Michaela, Valorie A. Crooks & Jackeline Barragan. 2011. Immigrant and refugee social networks: Determinants and consequences of social support among women newcomers to Canada. Canadian Journal of Nursing Research 43(4). 26–46.Search in Google Scholar

Jansson, Gunilla. 2021. Negotiating belonging in multilingual work environments: Church professionals’ engagement with migrants. Applied Linguistics Review Applied Linguistics Review 14(4). 723–749. https://doi.org/10.1515/applirev-2021-0054.Search in Google Scholar

Korteweg, Anna C. 2017. The failures of ‘immigrant integration’: The gendered racialized production of non-belonging. Migration Studies 5(3). 428–444. https://doi.org/10.1093/migration/mnx025.Search in Google Scholar

Kunst, Jonas R. & David L. Sam. 2013. ‘It is on time that they assimilate.’ – Differential acculturation expectations towards first and second generation immigrants. International Journal of intercultural relations 39. 188–195. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2013.10.007.Search in Google Scholar

Lapresta-Rey, Cecilio, Angel Huguet, Cristina Petreñas & Adelina Petrenas Ianos. 2020. Self-identification of youth in Catalonia: A linguistic acculturation theory approach. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 41. 829–843. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2019.1656219.Search in Google Scholar

Li, Eva Xiaoling & Peter S. Li. 2016. Immigrant enclave thesis reconsidered: Case of Chinese immigrants in the enclave and mainstream economy in Canada. International Migration & Integration 17. 131–151. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-014-0391-z.Search in Google Scholar

Masoud, Ameera, Tuuli Pauliina Kurki & Marjo Kristiina Brunila. 2020. ‘Learn skills and get employed’. Constituting the employable refugee subjectivity through integration policies and training practices. In Kristiina Brunila & Lisbeth Lundahl (eds.), Youth on the move: Tendencies and tensions in youth policies and practices, 101–123. Helsinki: University of Helsinki Press.10.33134/HUP-3-6Search in Google Scholar

Milioni, Dimitra, Lia-Paschalia Spyridou & Konstantinos Vadratsikas. 2015. Framing immigration in online media and television news in crisis-stricken Cyprus. Cyprus Review 27(1). 155–185.Search in Google Scholar

Olshtain, Elite & Bella Kotik. 2000. The development of bilingualism in an immigrant community. In Elite Olshtain & Gabriel Horenczyk (eds.), Language, identity and immigration, 199–219. Jerusalem, Israel: Magnes Press.Search in Google Scholar

Osaghae, Osa-Godwin & Thomas M. Cooney. 2019. Exploring the relationship between immigrant enclave theory and translational diaspora entrepreneurial opportunity formation. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 46(10). 2086–2105. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183x.2018.1560001.Search in Google Scholar

Padilla, Amado M. & William Perez. 2003. Acculturation, social identity, and social cognition: A new perspective. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences 25(1). 35–55. https://doi.org/10.1177/0739986303251694.Search in Google Scholar

Panicacci, Alex. 2019. Do the languages migrants use in private and emotional domains define their cultural belonging more than the passport they have? International Journal of Intercultural Relations 69. 87–101. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2019.01.003.Search in Google Scholar

Panicacci, Alex & Jean-Marc Dewaele. 2017. ‘A voice from elsewhere’: Acculturation, personality and migrants’ self-perceptions across languages and cultures. International Journal of Multilingualism 2(1). 62–86.Search in Google Scholar

Persons, Stow. 1987. Ethnic studies at Chicago: 1905–45. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.Search in Google Scholar

Pham, Thuy & Richard Harris. 2001. Acculturation strategies among Vietnamese-Americans. International Journal of Intercultural Relations 25. 279–300. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0147-1767(01)00004-9.Search in Google Scholar

Raza, Kashif. 2023. Integrating better but multilingually: Language practices of South Asian immigrants for settlement and integration in Canada. Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Studies 10(2). 166–190. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejecs/1626.Search in Google Scholar

Raza, Kashif & Catherine Chua. 2022. Linguistic outcomes of language accountability and points-based system for multilingual skilled immigrants in Canada: A critical language-in-immigration policy analysis. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 45(7). 2605–2619. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2022.2060242.Search in Google Scholar

Redfield, Robert, Ralph Linton & Melville Herskovits. 1936. Memorandum for acculturation. American Anthropologist 38. 149–152. https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1936.38.1.02a00330.Search in Google Scholar

Ryder, Andrew G., Lynn E. Alden & Delroy L. Paulhus. 2000. Is acculturation unidimensional or bidimensional? A head-to-head comparison in the prediction of personality, self-identity, and adjustment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 79(1). 49–65. https://doi.org/10.1037//0022-3514.79.1.49.Search in Google Scholar

Schumann, John. 1976. Social distance as a factor in second language acquisition. Language Learning 26. 135–143. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-1770.1976.tb00265.x.Search in Google Scholar

Severo, Cristin & Edair Görski. 2017. On the relation between the sociology of language and sociolinguistics: Fishman’s legacy in Brazil. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 243. 119–132. https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl-2016-0048.Search in Google Scholar

Vahabi, Mandana & Aisha Lofters. 2016. Muslim immigrant women’s views on cervical cancer screening and HPV self-sampling in Ontario, Canada. BMC Public Health 16. 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-016-3564-1.Search in Google Scholar

Vezina, Mireille & René Houle. 2017. Settlement patterns and social integration of the population with an immigrant background in the Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver metropolitan areas. Available at: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/89-657-x/89-657-x2016002-eng.pdf.Search in Google Scholar

Yağmur, Kutlay & Fons J. R. van de Vijver. 2012. Acculturation and language orientations of Turkish immigrants in Australia, France, Germany, and The Netherlands. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 43(7). 1110–1130. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022111420145.Search in Google Scholar

Received: 2024-06-24
Accepted: 2024-09-13
Published Online: 2024-11-11
Published in Print: 2025-05-26

© 2024 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Research Articles
  3. (Im)mobility infrastructure and the production of the linguistic precariat
  4. Imagination and investment: unraveling academic identity in Chinese doctoral candidates’ publishing journeys in U.S. higher education
  5. As a Muslim…”: on the importance of intercultural responsibility in transnational cultural exchanges
  6. The role of speaker categorization in South Korean attitudes toward North Korean accents
  7. Translanguaging for the construction of instructional immediacy in a Mandarin–Japanese crosslinguistic class
  8. In search of Polish in the multilingual cityscape: analysing the urban spaces of Ealing, London
  9. Precarious privilege: identity (re)construction among international students returning to South Korea
  10. Genre effects on alignment and writing quality in the continuation task by Chinese EFL learners
  11. Study abroad experiences in homestay: where complexity, dynamicity, and individuality stay
  12. Special Issue: Cognitive, Affective and Social Dimensions of Migration; Guest Editors: Fabienne Baider and Sviatlana Karpava
  13. Editorial
  14. Cognitive, affective and social dimensions of migration
  15. Research Articles
  16. On the move: social and linguistic acculturation in a small society
  17. Greek Cypriot and immigrant students’ attitudes and perceptions of acculturation, ethnic identity and self-esteem in the Republic of Cyprus
  18. Russian-speaking immigrants’ adaptation in Canada
  19. First language loss effect on bilingual autobiographical memory: examining memory phenomenology
  20. Interaction of L1 attrition, language attitudes and identity in Lithuanian diaspora
  21. Language teaching in the 21st century: incorporating culturally sustaining pedagogies for social and cognitive justice in education
  22. Conceptualising children’s linguistic rights in formal education in Greece
Downloaded on 8.9.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/applirev-2024-0210/html
Scroll to top button