Transcript Revisiting models of acculturation

Navigating Cultural Spaces:
Revisiting models of acculturation
BRCSS Conference 2009
25 March 2016
Shoba Nayar
Overview of Presentation
• Setting the scene
– Models of acculturation
• Overview of study
• Revising models of acculturation
– Navigating Cultural Spaces
• Advantages
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Models of Acculturation
• Do not easily account for interaction between
more than two cultures
• Categorises migrants into particular modes of
acculturation
– Loses dynamic nature of the settlement process
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The Research
• The research question: “How do Indian migrant
women engage in occupations when settling in
New Zealand?”
• Meaning of occupation
• Participants
• Grounded theory methodology
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Navigating Cultural Spaces
NAVIGATING
CULTURAL
SPACES
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The Perspectives
• Working with Indian Ways
• Working with New Zealand Ways
• Working with the Best of Both Worlds
• Provide a stability to the process of
Navigating Cultural Spaces
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Case Study
It’s easier to mix with the Māoris and Samoans
and Tongans and Cook Islands then mixing
with the Kiwis and the Britishers and the white
people. I think it is cultural because they have
the same cultural and traditional values as we
have….
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Cont…
I had some close friends, Kiwi friends, and I just
came and we were not used to this thing about
partners and flatting at the age of 15, 16. And I
remember these Kiwi friends, ladies working
with me at the supermarket saying, ‘My god,
I’m just waiting for my daughter to turn 18.’ I
said, ‘Why?’ ‘So she can leave and go.’ I said,
‘My god, we don’t want our daughters to leave,
even after they’re married.’ (Jean)
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Key Ideas
• Cultural differences
– Western/Eastern perspectives
• Ability to experience 2+ modes of
acculturation
• 3+ cultures
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Case Study
It’s balancing that Indianness now, where you want to push
your child and you feel that okay I don’t want my child, like
no matter how balanced I try to be I’m still a mum who’ll
absolutely whip my daughter if she’s going to be with a
partner, who is not married to him and living with him under
one roof. I mean I don’t care if any Kiwi or any Indian Kiwi
or any Fijian Kiwi tells me that I’m being a conservative
bitch, but I just do not believe my daughter’s body is a
commodity for any guy who she perceives as fit at that point
in time, to be played with. So that’s how I feel at this
stage….
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Cont…
I don’t know how I’m going to feel at, when she’s 20 or
30…, but this is the way I feel, it’s the one thing that
has stayed intact with me. I’ve changed everything
about myself, to some extent. I’ve changed the way I
dressed, I’ve changed the way I speak, my accent has
changed, the words and the content of what I speak has
changed, my outlook has changed, my skills have
changed, everything has changed. But the core of what
I am when I came here, the values that are what’s
brought in the Catholic environment are still there.
(Nina)
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Key Ideas
• Visibility/Invisibility
– Public/Private spaces
• Time
– Immediacy vs. Long Term
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Advantages of Revisiting Models of
Acculturation
• Allows for the constant change and
development that occurs in both people and
places and associated meanings
• Prospect of reducing some of the ‘negative
connotations’ or criticisms that go along with
categorising migrants into one particular mode
of acculturation
• Acknowledges the act of settling in a new
country as an ongoing process
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Acknowledgements
• BRCSS
– Doctoral Completion Award
• AUT University
– Faculty of Health and Environmental
Sciences Doctoral Scholarship
• Supervisors
– Associate Professors Clare Hocking and
Lynne Giddings
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Contact Details
• Shoba Nayar, Doctoral Candidate
Department of Occupational Science and Therapy
School Of Rehabilitation & Occupation Studies
Faculty of Health & Environmental Science
Auckland University of Technology
Private Bag 92006, Auckland 1020
Phone: 09 921 9999 ext. 7304
Email: [email protected]
25 March 2016
Shoba Nayar