Acculturation in a Transcultural World

Abstract

From a nationalist perspective, each nation possesses a distinct culture which is said to be homogeneous and separate from the cultures of all other nations. Accordingly, acculturation of migrants and their descendants occurs when they gradually move away from the country of origin's culture and assimilate to the culture of the country of immigration. This perspective, however, is empirically inaccurate: With regard to languages, religions, and ethical values, there are not only differences between nations, but also differences within them and cross-country cultural commonalities. Thus, as Wolfgang Welsch argues, we live in a transcultural world, and acculturation is problematized in two ways: Migrants do not need to be culturally different from the people in the country of immigration, and that country does not need to possess a common, homogeneous national culture. Yet both problems can be overcome if the idea of distinct national cultures is replaced by the concept of national, cultural mainstreams which, following Alba and Nee and the ethnic boundary making approach, are socially constructed and characterized by intersubjective associations between nations and cultural elements. Such mainstreams do not need to be separate and homogeneous and are thus compatible with transculturality. Acculturation can then be reconceptualized as one of three possible pathways of integration into the cultural mainstream of the country of immigration.