This model as well as its implications is the conclusion of 2000’s doctoral dissertation of Gelasia Marquez, PhD.
Sluzki in 1979 developed a model for understanding immigrants before and after migration. According to Sluzki, the continuum of the process of migration can be broken down into discrete steps. Similarly, despite the culture and the circumstances of each family, “The process of migration, both across cultures and across regions within cultures, presents outstanding regularities” (p. 380). He differentiated five stages in the process: preparatory stage, act of migration, period of overcompensation, period of compensation, and transgenerational phenomena.
Gonzalves (1992), using primarily Latin American refugees, summarized the Grove and Torbion model as a theoretical basis for understanding the psychological stages through which refugees pass as they establish links to the new culture. He provided a practical application of the three psychological constructs that Grove and Torbion applied to individuals functioning successfully in their homeland. Both Gonzalves and Grove and Torbion postulate the existence of four resettlement stages that may be applied to understand the experiences of refugee families. These two models relied solely upon the author’s experience working with immigrant and refugee families.
Using both the qualitative data derived from the 35 interviews done on Marquez (2000)’s study and some descriptions and features of the transitional models mentioned before, the researcher designed a model where each of the migratory-acculturative processes described by the families interviewed has its own space. The placement of the parents along the continuum after migration was not based on their length of time in the United States but on the full appraisal done by the researcher of the feelings and attitudes reflected by the parents during the process of interviewing. In an attempt to represent graphically the continuum between both processes using a 180-degree semicircle curve, it is divided into two major halves to encompass (a) the stages developed in the native socio-cultural environment, and (b) stages developed in the host socio-cultural environment.
Although the very fact of migration constituted a brief transition from one airport to another for 22 parents of the sample, for 13 other parents the act proper took a considerable time, risks, and emotional as well as economic effort. Those parents who migrated legally always had access to institutions in the country of adoption, whereas the others who migrated illegally experienced mistrust and alienation from mainstream institutions until their situation became level. The majority of these immigrant families managed to establish and maintain a relative moratorium on the process of acculturation and accommodation for months.
The process of acculturation experienced by immigrant Hispanics has been the topic of interest to a great number of investigators in recent years, especially in the states of California, Florida, and New York, ports of entry for a large number of immigrants. In these states during the last 2 decades there has been a steady influx of Hispanic, Haitian, South Asian, and other ethnoculturally diverse families. It is very probable that the social institutions most affected by these changing demographics are the private and public schools that have received and continue to receive the children of those immigrant families. For these families, the school has had to perform an extraordinarily difficult role, that of serving as “an intersection between the home culture and the mainstream American culture” (Provenzo, 1985, p. iii).
Esquivel (1985) recommends that practitioners serving children whose culture the school psychologist does not know perform a careful evaluation of the child and the family. Consequently, professionals in the educational field should be aware of the consequences that the migratory and the acculturative processes have on these families. This is especially true for those immigrant families from countries that have undergone social and economic outbursts. As the review of literature and this study illustrated, both processes can produce family disorganization and the likelihood of persistent handicaps in its members due to language barriers, lack of knowledge of rules and regulations, limited financial means, and lack of adequate reference groups.
One of the two end products of the present study is a qualitative semistructured bilingual questionnaire. The content validity of the questions was initially examined by two independent bilingual professionals in the social studies field. The Immigrant Family Acculturative Interview (IFAI) can be used in the future as an instrument not only to assess the acculturative process of immigrant Hispanic families within its own particular context and circumstances, but to tailor the possible responses to help them in their specific circumstances. Future research can also find the psychometric characteristics instrument so it can be used not only for qualitative, but for quantitative, studies.
Based on Marquez’s study (2000) study it appears that the possible responses to immigrant families in cultural transitions may range from a combination of information, education, opportunities for emotional ventilation and support, contact with other families who have similar difficulties, professional availability during times of crisis to the creation of intermediary structures that mediate between the individual family and the new culture.
Education is an important step in regaining the sense of belonging. When a person enters a new or strange society with its own ready-made rules for behavior, new and more appropriate behaviors must be learned to fit into the new group. By encouraging a family educative environment the confusing ambiguity of its members is probed rather than avoided, and both parents and children not only maintain a sense of self-meaning and worth but also learn to cope step by step with the challenges of the new and different environment. Finally, the provision of factual information helps the different generations gain an understanding of what is expected within each other’s worlds, and the rules and norms by which each group behaves.
As this study found, intermediate structures like schools and churches are very important in the first years after migration. The review of the literature stated that the interaction with those social structures are dropped as the family is less in need of structural support and is more able to profit from direct exposure to the new environment. However, the continual interaction that immigrant families have with both environments within those structures, and the short- and long-term consequences of such interactions pose a challenge to research the nature of these dialectic and transactional influences.
The second end product of the present study is a comprehensive model applicable to immigrant Hispanic families in cultural transition and interacting with a multiethnic society. The purpose for developing this model is to provide the opportunity to study the different stages that precede and follow migration and, based on parents’ responses, to describe some of the features that appear to be related to each one of those stages. Future studies could address the aforementioned model, its stages, and characteristics and factors that intervene in favor or against the acculturative process of the ethnic families. Consequently, the current study is a step forward in providing a framework that can be tested by both qualitative and quantitative studies, but it can also guide the development of more effective interventions for immigrant Hispanic families in cultural transition.
This study has contributed to illustrate a new perspective on the process of acculturation when it describes how the interaction between Hispanic parents and both sociocultural environments, the host and the native, have influenced their process of adjustment after migration. Second, the sample presented the viewpoints of immigrant parents from eight Latin American countries. The specific length of time in the United States selected for the sample of this study (from 2.8 years to 25 years) provides comprehensive information about what happens during the first years after migration. The sample also had a significant number of parents (13 out of 35) who entered the United States illegally and who are currently, at least, legal residents with stable jobs--some of them are owners of their own small businesses--and who presented themselves as responsible members in the community where they currently live.
As was stated before, qualitative research offers no opportunity for replication as is possible with quantitative research. However, the data obtained from this study will remain as a rich source of evidence that can be used again, even as part of another study. The close-up description of immigrant Hispanic parents in their real-life context can be useful as a framework for generating and testing hypotheses. In addition, the review of the findings offers a full range of opportunities and perspectives to uncover new meanings and relationships to both processes, migration and acculturation.
The researcher agrees with Vega (1990) who recommended systematic ethnographic studies regarding language and the role it plays in preserving family practices and ethnic identity. Similarly, complementary studies using a common theoretical framework would show how the historic and economic circumstances of different ethnic Hispanic groups determine the characteristics of their migration and, furthermore, influence their disposition to follow through the process of acculturation.
Finally, further research is needed on the construct and theories of the process of acculturation of immigrants when the host American reality is no longer monocultural but multicultural. Similarly, this study postulates that the influence that the so-called Hispanic culture has as a major contributor to the cultural life of the community is an important factor to be considered in further research on the acculturation of Hispanics in certain areas of the United States.
Finally, the results of Marquez’s study (2000) offer preliminary support to the utility of qualitative research in studying processes that occur over a period of time and where more than one factor has an influence on it.