Adjustment of Immigrants in Canada: Methodological Possibilities and its Implications*
| Author | M. MICHALOWSKI |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2435.1987.tb00123.x |
| Date | 01 March 1987 |
| Published date | 01 March 1987 |
Adjustment
of
Immigrants in Canada:
Methodological Possibilities and its Implications"
M. MICHALOWSKI**
INTRODUCTION
People move from one place to another for different reasons, but the decisions to move
can be divided into two main categories: those which are imposed by exogenous condi-
tions, and those which are the result of personal preference. However, whatever the
motives for a move and its geographical scope, the problem of an immigrant's adjustment
to a new environment remains. This problem is of interest to governments, to researchers
and to the general public, because of the importance of immigration flows, especially for
those countries where immigrant numbers are significant in relation to the size of the
general population. Progress in research dealing with the adaptation process of immi-
grants depends on the resolution of both its methodological and empirical aspects.
It is important to formulate pertinent hypotheses which could, after verification,
advance our knowledge of the conditions of the adaptation process. It seems that those
hypotheses which have served as a starting point for several studies do not adequately
reflect either changes in the environmental conditions of the adaptation process, or
changes in the composition of the immigrant population. In this paper we present a new
working hypothesis for immigrant adaptation based on the analysis of explanatory
models. We begin with a discussion of the concept of adaptation.
THE CONCEPT
OF
ADAPTATION
It has long been taken for granted that different groups of immigrants adapt to their host
society at differing rates and with varying degrees of cultural conflict. However, the
concept of adaptation is itself not without problems. It is a multidimensional phenome-
non which embraces such factors as satisfaction, identification, cognitive, linguistic and
behavioural acculturation, economic performance and social integration. Adaptation, in
*Demography Division, Statistics Canada, Ottawa, Ontario
**The study described in this article was conducted under contract for Statistics Canada
21
this context, can be defined in operational terms as ‘partaking in the life of the country
productively (economically and socially) and to one’s advantage (making use of the
country’s opportunities for advancement, its culture, social services and related features)’
(Grygier and Ribordy, 1973: p. 87). The reasons for the varying speeds and degrees of
success with which this process is accomplished have never been fully understood, though
the multiplicity of characteristics which affect the adaptation of immigrants in a receiving
country has been extensively examined (Michalowski, 1985).
Adaptation to a culture should not be understood as a complete conformity to its norms,
nor lack of it merely as a deviation from them. The adaptation of an individual to a host
society involves both social and emotional adjustment, as well as acceptance of and
conformity
to
social norms. The key concept is ‘ability to cooperate’ with the demands of
society (Taft, 1973). However, society should be viewed as fluid, changing and quasi-open,
rather than as stable and highly structured.
The society to which immigrants need to adapt is usually highly developed (i.e., Ame-
rican or Western European societies), and satisfactory adaptation to its ambiguous set of
norms and complex, evolving structures puts considerable strain
on
the immigrant’s
ability to cooperate. Passive conformity is not sufficient. What adaptation requires is a
compromise or fit between the needs of the individual and the demands of the society. In
most cases such a fit is possible
-
to a certain level at least. In other cases, however, either
the demands of the society cannot be met by the individual, or the needs of the individual
cannot be met by the society.
Human behaviour is influenced by various factors (Bogue, 1985; Kritz et al., 1981).
Immigrant behaviour is a particular type of human behaviour, related to a given human
population defined by participation in a highly selective geographical mobility process.
One can distinguish several factors influencing the adjustment process of immigrants. In
general, it is possible to divide these factors into those related to an immigrant’s personal
characteristics and those specific to the country of origin and the receiving society. The
analysis of all these factors should
be
related to occurrences ‘before’ and ‘after’ the period
of immigration.
The following categories of factors influencing immigrants adaptation can be distin-
guished: demographic factors, economic factors and social factors. Each category has its
roots
in
a political, economic or social sphere of human activity. According to several
studies (Richmond and Kalbach,
1980;
George, 1978; Fullum and Gomez, 1978; Ander-
son and Holmberg, 1977), the most important elements in each of these categories are as
follows:
-
demographic factors: sex, age, marital status, family status, place of birth, place of
residence, admission category;
-
economic factors
:
labour force participation, occupation, class of worker, income, hou-
sing and amenities;
-
social factors: education, vocational training, ethnic origin, knowledge of official lan-
guages, membership in organizations, religion.
These three categories do not include,
of
course, all the possible factors related to the
adjustment process of immigrants. An additional factor is the immigration policy of the
country of destination (Taylor, 1983; United Nations, 1982; Krotki and Matejko, 1977).
It seems that another important factor of the adaptation process, omitted from the above
enumeration, is related to the motives of immigration combined with information on the
country of destination (Sell and DeJong, 1983
;
DeJong and Gardner, 198 1).
To perform a complex analysis of the adjustment process one would need to take into
account as many factors as possible concerning immigrants, their countries of origin and
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