Cultural Enculturation

Kim also has his own model of “cross-cultural adaptation”, and he (2001) defined adaptation as “the dynamic process by which individuals, upon relocating to new, unfamiliar, or changed environments, establish (or reestablish) and maintain relatively stable, reciprocal, and functional relationships with those environments” (p. 31) This process involves three different steps: “enculturation” (gaining aspects of a culture), “deculturation” (losing aspects of your own culture in the sense that one is using new habits instead of old ones in a particular situation) and acculturation. The ultimate goal is here to perfectly assimilate in the new culture. (Kim, 2001) Before reaching this assimilation, one has to develop bonds with other groups within

It is not a gradual process, but a deliberate and brusque one. Unlike assimilation, you do not lose to gain but every part of one's identity is preserved. It does not dissolve into a new homogeneous whole but rather mixes every aspect of the personality into something completely new. (Avrami, Mason, Torre 2000) To be able to implement the theory, we anteriorly have to specify its borders, within which it is possible to study a situation/context. (Dubin, 1978). Cultural fusion theory has three essential boundary conditions: Newcomers are primarily socialized in one culture and then move to a new culture; they are to some extent dependent on the dominant culture/environment and finally they communicate with members of the dominant culture. (Croucher and Kramer, 2016) Following these conditions, Croucher and Kramer supposed that communication was both the result and the mean of establishing a cultural fusion, and that this fusion was a dynamic system influencing at the same time the individual and the

As the granddaughter of Slovenian immigrants, I know that I would have liked to keep my Slovenian roots, to be able to speak and to know the Slovenian culture better. My grandparents kept in touch with the family back “home” but they chose to not to talk about it, or just a few times. Even when the adaptation allows the immigrant to maintain some elements of their culture in the new country while adjusting and learning the language and how to behave, I believe that the link with the forthcoming generation is sometimes lost. It can be even sadder when the children are resisting their parents' culture, by deliberately not wanting to learn about the culture for instance. Therefore I estimate that the impact(s) of the migrant's choices are not discussed enough and should also take a more important place in these