Exploring the Ethnic Cultural Integration Path of Immigrant Communities Based on Ethnic Inter-Embedding

3.1 Immigrant Cultural Integration and Ethnic Inter-Embedding

The concept of “cultural integration” was first introduced by Robert E. Parker in 1928. The influx of Asian and European immigrants into the United States at that time brought about a series of cultural conflicts between indigenous and foreign immigrants and between foreign peoples and foreign nationalities. In this context, Parker proposed the idea of cultural integration; that is, there is a process of interpenetration and cross-fertilization of cultures from individual to individual or group to group (Alarcón, 2021; Kim & Silverstein, 2021). In 1936, anthropologists Redfield, Ralph Linton, and Herskovitz finally gave a clear definition of the concept of “cultural fusion,” which meant that culturally distinct groups were in continuous and direct contact with each other in their lives, resulting in one or the other group’s culture. This is the process of sustained and direct contact between culturally diverse groups in their lives, leading to a paradigm shift in one or both cultures (Kia-Keating & Juang, 2022; Kisfalusi et al., 2020; Tuaeva & Kobakhidze, 2020). However, Bailey later revised it, stating that cultural integration was not a one-way but a two-way process. It was not a continuum that was simply divided into two stages of maintaining the original culture before immigration and abandoning the home culture after immigration, but a two-way process of absorption of the original culture and the culture of the place of immigration (Chen & Li, 2019).

In the process of integration, Gordon believed that there were inevitably three stages, namely the contact stage, the collision stage, and the integration stage. Parker saw the process as having four stages: competition, conflict, adaptation, and assimilation. The process of cultural integration may be limited by differences in customs and practices, immigration restrictions, and inter-ethnic fences among various ethnic groups. However, the ultimate possibility of multiple cultural exchanges inevitably led to assimilation (Abdou, 2019; Ryou et al., 2019).

Originally as an economic concept, the term “embedding” has taken on a new connotation when applied to Chinese community building. It means that the living environment of different ethnic groups is reconstructed, and each ethnic group moves into a new community as a family unit, this results in cultural exchanges and interactions among ethnic groups (Kiang et al., 2019). Inter-ethnicity refers to the mutual contact and influence of ethnic groups at the natural, social, and psychological levels through the reconfiguration of their living space. The main manifestation of inter-ethnicity is the relocation of citizens of different ethnic groups to cross-pollinate within the same community, instead of the previous practice of having citizens of the same ethnic group living in a fixed area to the exclusion of other ethnic groups (Gurung et al., 2020). Ethnic intermingling is an innovative solution to inter-ethnic problems. Compared to the general inter-ethnic scattered living environment, inter-ethnic communities have closer inter-ethnic communication, a stronger perception of cultural conflicts among residents, and a more urgent need to promote inter-ethnic cultural integration.

In the process of forming an ethnic interlocking pattern, economic embedding, as a rigid embedding, is an important driving force for the formation of ethnic interlocking patterns. In the interaction between ethnic groups, economic life is an important content and driving force of communication between different ethnic groups. The main reason for the economic embeddedness that occurs in ethnic exchanges is the inherent need for economic exchanges in ethnic development. In the Marxist theory of ethnic communication, ethnic communication is closely related to individual self-realization and social progress. Communication is the foundation of production and the fundamental driving force of social development. Human society develops under the premise of active communication (Fuchs, 2019). The logical starting point of ethnic relations is still productivity, and the significant improvement in productivity is conducive to extensive communication among all ethnic groups. The ethnic interlocking structure is actually achieved through the external and internal development and communication of the ethnic group, leading the overall interests of the community to individual interests, and aligning individual interests and development goals with others, the collective, and society. Through communication among different ethnic groups, individual willingness can also be enhanced in cost allocation, making them more focused on public interests and strengthening the trust bond of inter-ethnic cooperation and mutual benefit. Communication theory is beneficial for alleviating the logical dilemma of collective action.

3.2 Overview of Ethnic Embedded Communities – A Community in R City, Guizhou Province as an Example

The study takes community X in city R of Guizhou province as an example to examine specifically the cultural integration status of residents of various ethnic groups under the inter-ethnic nesting pattern. Guizhou province is a large ethnic province in China, and the ethnic structure of the province is complete covering the major 56 ethnic groups in China. Inter-ethnic issues are, therefore, a major topic of social governance in Guizhou. Guizhou province also has rich experience in working on inter-ethnic issues and has carried out the construction of ethnic inter-embedded communities earlier. Since 2016, the Guizhou provincial government has been building several poverty alleviation communities to resettle the poor population, so that the poor people of various ethnic groups are cross-migrated into them (Gurung et al., 2020). The X community is one of them, and its residents come from 15 ethnic groups in the surrounding districts and counties. The residents of the community do not live together as an ethnic group, and neighbors in the same building may be from different ethnic groups. Within the community, residents of various ethnic groups live in mixed groups, and their ethnic composition and age distribution are shown in Table 1. According to IBM SPSS 22.0 statistical analysis, the total number of residents in the community is 7,977, with Han, Buyi, and Miao as the major ethnic groups and Yi, Zhuang, Dong, Bai, Li, Yao, and Hui as the minor ethnic groups. In the educational structure, there is one master’s student, 287 undergraduate students, 347 vocational students, 510 high school students, 2,952 middle school students, 3,265 primary school students, 171 illiterate and semi-illiterate students, and 459 preschool children. Before migration, most marriages were arranged by elders, while after migration, marriages gradually transformed into modern marriage models. The pre-migration livelihood was a “semi-agricultural and semi-industrial” livelihood, while the post-migration livelihood was mainly based on migrant work. The settlement state of livelihood is organized by “village” and “village,” and the entire village belongs to the same ethnic group. The settlement state after migration is a state of ethnic interlocking. The community residents are mainly young and strong, with the most residents aged 19‒40 and the least elderly aged 81‒103.

The residents who moved into community X are mainly from the mountain villages in the surrounding districts and counties. Moving from the rural courtyard to the urban community, the residents have different degrees of discomfort with the urban lifestyle and living environment. Fifty people from the community were randomly invited among the community people to move into the community, and their social adaptation and satisfaction with life after relocation were investigated by questionnaire and form. The ethnic composition of the sample was 15 Buyi, 13 Hmong, 12 Han, five Yi, three Hui, and two Zhuang people. The male-to-female gender ratio of the sample was 3:2. The results of the survey on the life adaptability of the X community residents are shown in Table 2.

Adaptability is the degree of mutual acceptance and good interaction between the subject and others, with society and the surrounding environment. It reflects the comprehensive quality of the subject to identify and respond to the social environment (Zdemir et al., 2021). This adaptation is both an existing relational state and an energetic, changing process. As can be seen in Table 2, the overall subjective adaptation of the respondents was high before relocation. The reconfiguration of living space due to relocation inevitably reduced their adaptability to life. Compared to men, women were less affected and were able to adapt to life on the relocation site more quickly.

Subjective perceptions such as immigrants’ attitudes, perceptions of adaptation, and satisfaction also play an important role in integration into the resettlement community. Therefore, the examination of immigrants’ subjective perceptions can also provide insight into the integration of immigrants of various ethnic groups into the local culture in the relocated community. The satisfaction level of immigrants with their lives before and after relocation is shown in Table 3.

In Table 3, immigrants’ overall satisfaction with their lives after relocation is between average to more satisfied, and the values are more concentrated. After migration, migrants are more satisfied with the hardware conditions such as housing and living environment and relocation policy, the average satisfaction levels of immigrants with housing, living environment, and relocation policy are 2.50, 2.55, and 2.95, respectively. However, their satisfaction levels with income status and neighborhood relationships are relatively low, with an average satisfaction level of 1.20, which is 1.30 lower than that of immigrants with housing, 1.35 lower than that of the living environment, and 1.65 lower than that of relocation policy. Overall, the satisfaction levels after the migration are higher than before. Among them, the average satisfaction of immigrants with their income status before migration is 1.15, which is less than 0.05 after migration. Even though the living environment has been improved, compared to before relocation, the income of immigrants after relocation has not greatly increased, and the psychological needs of immigrants for relocation have not been met.

3.3 Analysis of the Factors of Ethnic Culture Conflict in Immigrant Communities

Although the material conditions of immigrants have been improved after relocation, the discomfort with the new environment and the dissatisfaction with interpersonal interactions and cultural division in the new environment have reflected that the problem of conflict and integration of various ethnic cultures has caused problems for immigrants. To solve this problem, it is necessary to analyze the factors that influence the integration of ethnic cultures. Theoretically, this has a direct impact on interpersonal relations after immigration (Zdemir et al., 2021).

The mixed residential pattern of the various ethnic groups has broken the original circle of acquaintances, and friction due to cultural clashes and differences in living habits is common in the unfamiliar circle of communication. Before the relocation, the living environment of each ethnic group was very different. The Hmong and Buyi, for example, both live in more remote mountain villages, with Hmong villages generally located on the tops or hillsides of high mountains, while Buyi live near water. What they have in common is that rural dwellings are spacious, mostly two-story, and come with courtyards. The community’s resettlement houses are small in living space, with only one floor per household. With no courtyard, the distance between families is greatly reduced, and residents can go out and turn around and be at the door of their neighbor’s house. As the distance between neighbors shortens, conflicts and contradictions no longer have a buffer zone. Even if different ethnic cultures collide in proximity, residents will “cling” to each other because of their sense of ethnic boundaries, maintaining only a nodding acquaintance with the opposite ethnic group. Relocation has to some extent disrupted the existing network of relationships. The transfer from the “acquaintance society” environment to the “stranger society” requires migrants to build new social relationships in the new environment. The logic of migrants’ interactions is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1

Logic of immigration communication.

In Figure 1, the “cross-mixing and fragmentation” approach adopted in the relocation process has mechanically removed the villagers from the original acquaintance society and embedded them in a new society. However, due to ethnic boundaries and cultural differences, immigrants and cultures are relatively independent in terms of social space, and the process of reconstructing immigrants’ social networks is not smooth. Therefore, when immigrants encounter difficulties, they often choose to turn to their old social networks instead of expanding new ones due to the cost of interaction. This reliance on old networks in turn creates a lack of motivation for immigrants to build new networks. Without interpersonal contact with other ethnic groups, there is then also a lack of cultural exchange.

Other factors that may influence cultural integration are cultural belonging, social support, identity, community involvement, and language communication skills (Rauf et al., 2021). Cultural affiliation is the degree of adaptation to the culture of the place of migration and whether to face the local culture with an accepting attitude. It is the psychological prerequisite for cultural integration. The degree of social support is the degree of acceptance of the foreign culture in the place of migration. An open and tolerant cultural atmosphere in the place of migration can make immigrants open their hearts and minds and initiate cultural exchanges. Identity is a response to the problem of belonging to an individual or group in the current social structure. Theoretically, immigrants’ psychology will go through the stage of identity transformation from “self - we – they.” Whether or not immigrants identify themselves with the identity change after relocation affects whether they actively communicate with others. Language communication ability is an objective condition for cultural exchange, because language is the carrier of culture, and language communication is also a necessary condition for cultural exchange. Many older immigrants do not adapt to the culture of the place they moved to to a large extent due to language communication barriers. Community participation, on the other hand, is a behavioral indicator that evaluates whether immigrants are actively integrated into the place they moved to. A high level of community involvement increases the immigrant’s sense of local subjectivity and breaks down identity by ethnicity. Culture is embedded in the social life of individuals and is reflected in the details of their social lives.

The communicative integration of cultures is interfered with by two major factors, external interference, and internal spontaneity. The external objective factors provide the conditions for cultural integration, and the internal psychological factors give impetus to cultural integration, both of which are complementary to each other. To provide an in-depth understanding of the effects of the above factors, this study, based on a questionnaire survey, assumes that cultural affiliation, social support, community participation, and language communication skills have a significant positive impact on ethnic-cultural integration, while existing interpersonal relationships and identity have a significant negative impact on ethnic-cultural integration. Using regression analysis statistical methods, this study analyzes the explanatory power of factors such as interpersonal relationships, cultural belonging, social support, identity recognition, community participation, and language communication skills on cultural integration.

5.1 Construction of a Living Environment with Ethnic Cultural Integration

The first step in promoting ethnic and cultural integration requires blurring the boundaries between the self and the other, between our people and the other. If immigrants are resettled according to their registered residence, they will not only have housing difficulties but also be very likely to lead to “group” behavior, which will lead to mutual confrontation and conflict between cultures and increase instability within the community. Therefore, cultural boundaries formed by ethnic identity and geographical differences should be weakened and eliminated. When clear divisions no longer exist, people will have the possibility to integrate, developing a sense of community and home. A more detailed redistribution of residential patterns can build a residential environment that promotes ethnocultural integration. By breaking down the original settlement pattern based on geography, blood, and ethnicity, the original ethnic villages are broken down into smaller units and buildings within the community, using the family as the unit. In this way, when the need to travel in groups by region and ethnicity is hindered by spatial distance, migrants will increase the frequency of interaction with neighboring residents. This cross-embedded housing pattern can provide space for interactions between immigrants of different ethnic groups.

Communities should enhance immigrants’ sense of cultural belonging by building cultural exchange platforms and creating an equal environment for cultural integration. To address the language communication difficulties of the elderly ethnic minority group, the community can provide bilingual services for this group in the service hall. The construction of cultural facilities such as ethnic culture museums can display the traditional costumes, music, paintings, and other ethnic cultures of the Miao, Buyi, and Yi ethnic groups to enhance the understanding of residents of all ethnic groups about each other while alleviating the nostalgic feelings of ethnic residents. In practical work, communities should be guided by the Party and government. First, ethnic minority immigrants should be guided to continuously adapt to the living conditions of the resettlement community, establish a clear understanding of the internal functions of the houses, standardize the storage of household items, and maintain the cleanliness of the houses. Second, communities should patiently help immigrants change their way of life, handle behaviors such as balcony agriculture and land occupation in a reasonable and gradual manner, improve residential hygiene, cultivate awareness of hygiene protection, and enhance immigrants’ adaptability to housing. Finally, communities should establish a fair and just distribution environment, strictly adhere to relevant policy standards for recognition, and implement the work after the announcement. For misunderstandings and distrust caused by immigrants, the government should promptly answer them and dispel their doubts. For community management work, adopt a grid management approach of “ten linked households”. Unified assessment shall be conducted on hygiene and other conditions, and information bulletin boards shall be set up in prominent locations and roadside areas in the community.

5.2 Increase the Social Dynamics of Ethnic Cultural Integration

Social ties can be a driving force for ethnic interaction. Thus, communities can help immigrants restructure networks of acquaintances so that immigrants increase their willingness to cultural exchange in friendly interpersonal contacts. This can be done through the organization of cultural activities, which promote mutual communication among immigrants in recreational activities, build social trust, and help immigrants expand their social relationships and establish cross-ethnic friendships. This contributes to the establishment of a new acquaintance society, eliminates cultural conflicts, enhances social support in the process of cultural integration, and strengthens the dynamics of cultural integration.

With good social ties, immigrants also need to establish solid economic ties in their new environment. The adaptation of immigrants to new means of livelihood is the material basis for all cultural adaptation, and only with re-employment, stable income, and a material base can immigrants stay and live for a long time. In response to issues such as asymmetric employment positions and employment training content, as well as severe shortage of employment positions, the government can increase the employment training for immigrants, provide precise training according to the strengths of men and women’s labor, conduct matching training for the knowledge structure, improve the knowledge level and skill level of immigrants, and achieve a demand-oriented training and employment. The government should also actively link employment resources, encourage immigrants to go out to the southeast coast for work, provide corresponding employment insurance, eliminate the worries of migrant workers, and promote the reproduction of immigrants within the space. For families with disabilities and elderly labor, the government should further develop community public welfare positions and use employment subsidies and other means to solve living difficulties. The government should also promote diversified employment, encourage entrepreneurship, organize skilled ethnic minority women, develop, and produce products with ethnic minority characteristics, and use various platforms for promotion and sales.

5.3 Stimulating the Psychological Identity of National Cultural Integration

Psychological identity is the intrinsic basis of cultural integration. To realize immigrants’ comfortable living and working in the new environment, it is necessary to develop immigrants’ psychological identity of multi-ethnic cultural integration. Migrants’ relocation is not only physical relocation but also a deeper level of integration is to make migrants psychologically change their identity from “guest” to “master” and be rooted in the resettlement community in terms of psychological and ideological perception. Communities can strengthen propaganda to eliminate the resistance of immigrants and guide them to change their mindset and accelerate their identification with the new citizenship. Establishing the immigrants’ sense of subjectivity within the community is the key to increasing the psychological identity of citizenship. The voice of immigrants in community management can be increased, so that they can shift from passively receiving services in community life to actively participating in community management.

5.4 By Improving Economic Development Policies, Strengthening Economic Exchanges and Mutual Benefits Between Ethnic Groups, and Promoting Economic Integration

Economic interdependence is an important driving force for the formation of a pattern of ethnic interdependence: strengthening the “business relationship” among residents, establishing a market management model for common labor and prosperity among all ethnic groups, and continuously providing economic resources and injecting economic power into the development of ethnic interlocking communities. First, the authors plan the development strategy of ethnic economy reasonably. Then, they optimize the structure of community ethnic industries, promote the overall improvement of community ethnic economy through industrial structure adjustment, and provide an effective industrial structure guarantee for the mutual embedding of community economy. Second, they highlight the public service responsibility of enterprises. Then, they gradually promote the “prosperity, providing, and power (PPP)” model in policy support, enhance the social responsibility of enterprises to absorb ethnic minority employment, and provide training subsidies to enterprises that absorb local ethnic minority labor for pre-employment training. Third, they encourage the public to start businesses and provide policy support, providing certain entrepreneurial subsidies to entrepreneurs. Fourth, they improve the information resource-sharing system. One is to adhere to the sharing of important information among all ethnic groups in the management of enterprises, so as to achieve value-added information resources. The second is to improve market competition strategies, set reasonable economic division of labor policies, and try to avoid vicious competition among each other, forming a benign market competition.

5.5 Comparative Analysis of Different Immigrant Communities

In addition, by comparing and analyzing the policy recommendations of B immigrant community in C city, Guangxi province, the community is divided into 50 grid management areas with six village groups. It is a multi-ethnic integrated community consisting of government agencies, commercial and residential communities, and villagers’ residences. It has 32 ethnic groups, including Zhuang, Yao, Dong, Miao, Mulao, Maonan, etc. The floating population of ethnic minorities is about 280,000 people. From the perspective of population distribution and other factors, both the research community and the comparison community have a larger number of people, and both have a larger ethnic group. In terms of management, there is a certain similarity between the grid management method adopted by the comparative community and the grid management method adopted by the research community, which is “ten linked households.” In terms of language communication, the comparative community adopts language training courses to solve language communication barriers, while the measures adopted by the bilingual service and cultural exchange platform in the research community can also achieve the same effect. Both communities have provided targeted vocational training. From various policy comparisons, the policies of the two communities have commonalities. The policy recommendations provided by the study have a certain degree of universality.