In Chapter 2 we introduced the topic of intercultural contact and briefly listed the main groups which featured in the empirical and theoretical literature. These include tourists, international students, international business persons, immigrants, and refugees. In this section we will review the literature in more detail and interpret and present the main findings in terms of the ABC model of acculturation. We will also draw attention to contemporary developments by contrasting current approaches with those that informed the first edition of this book, in turn, linking these to the sociopolitical changes that have occurred in the last two decades.
Throughout this book we have maintained a distinction between two categories of culture contact: contact which occurs between societies, or more precisely, between members of different societies, and contact between ethnically different individuals or groups which occurs within culturally heterogeneous societies. Tourists, international students, and expatriate business persons are examples of contact which is predominantly of the between-society kind. Immigrants and refugees, in their interaction with established ethnocultural groups in the recipient nation, provide examples of within-society culture contact.
We have also found it useful to classify culture-in-contact persons in terms of several key categories, in particular, the purpose of the contact and its intended duration. Thus, tourists, international students and expatriate executives embark on their culture travels primarily in order to play, study, and work, respectively, although in practice most such individuals will pursue a mixture of these goals.
The primary intention of immigrants and refugees is to achieve a better life for themselves and their families.
The distinction between short and long term time frames is also important because it has implications for the acculturation process. Tourists are an example of short term second-culture exposure. Students and business people usually, although not necessarily, experience medium length culture contact. For immigrants and refugees, culture contact is a life long experience.
An associated issue is the extent to which culture travellers make a commitment to their new society. This is often expressed in terms of whether there is an explicit intention to return to the culture of origin after the purpose of
the visit has been achieved. In the literature, the term ‘sojourner’ has been used to describe culture travellers who regard their stay as temporary and intend to return home in due course. Tourists, students, and business people are usually referred to as sojourners, and immigrants and refugees tend to be classified as permanent settlers. Empirically, many students remain in the country where they were educated, tourists become illegal immigrants, and expatriates ‘go native’.
Similarly, immigrants and refugees may return to their countries of origin if circumstances change. But by and large, the distinction between sojourners and permanent settlers is a good approximation of real life events, and we have used it to organise our review of the literature.
In this book we have described the outcomes of culture contact with reference to the acculturation framework described in detail in Chapter 2. Specific effects have been classified in terms of their ABC characteristics (Affect, Behaviour, Cognitions) with cognitions also covering self-construals. For instance, we have assumed that the acculturation of an overseas student will involve feelings and emotions which may be positive or negative; that it will include the acquisition of culturally relevant skills and habits; and that it may result in changes in self and other perceptions, ethnic identification, and values. In the first edition of this book, these separate outcome categories were not explicitly distinguished although they were implied in much of the treatment. Thus Oberg’s description of culture shock as ‘buzzing confusion’ emphasised some of the affective consequences of contact, as did the large section on mental health and migration;
the culture learning extension of Argyle’s social skills model clearly referred to behavioural changes that successful acculturation requires; and the assimilation/
integration analysis in terms of a progression from a monocultural self to a bicultural and ultimately mediating identity is a precursor of the cognitive, social categorisation strand made explicit in the ABC model. In the following chapters we will interpret the literature more deliberately in terms of the ABC conceptual framework.
Much has changed in the world since the appearance of the first edition of this book. In particular, international education, business, and leisure travel now have different functions and structures than they did 20 or 30 years ago. Likewise, the movement of immigrants and refugees and their impact on receiving societies are substantially different from those that were evident during the immediate post- war period. These changes are reflected in the way in which the topics have been studied.
During the post-war period and virtually up to the time when Furnham and Bochner were reviewing the overseas student literature for their 1986 edition of Culture Shock, study abroad was still primarily a form of aid or technology transfer from developed to developing countries. It should be remembered that this period also coincided with the Cold War. In practice this meant that students from Asian and African countries, many emerging from Western colonial influence, undertook higher education in the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia, and later in European countries such as France and Germany. Students
from China, Cuba, and other communist countries went to universities in Russia.
Cold War rivalries also provided the political justification for allocating public funds to support the various programmes. The best known Western schemes were the Fulbright programme in the United States, the East-West Centre in Hawaii, and the Colombo Plan funded by Australia. British and Canadian governments also funded what were basically programmes with foreign-policy objectives. Western countries openly acknowledged that the aims were to boost the economies of the recipient countries, create markets for their own export industries, stem the tide of communism by improving the standard of living in Third World regions, win the hearts and minds of future leaders, and make influential friends who would support the donor countries in world forums such as the United Nations (Furnham and Bochner, 1986).
The world today at the beginning of the new century presents a different picture. Most of the countries that were the recipients of technical and educational aid are now highly industrialised and have thriving economies. They are also developing an indigenous tertiary system that is increasingly capable of providing high quality education for many of its citizens. Nevertheless, there is still a large demand for overseas education in non-Western countries. This is in part due to a growing middle class resulting in demand for higher education exceeding the local supply of places. As well, there are several countries that still practise discrimination against particular ethnic groups by restricting their entry to university. Such students are then forced to go abroad to pursue higher education. There is also a certain amount of prestige attached to being a graduate of one of the better known overseas universities.
The upshot of all of these changes is that the psychological status of overseas students has undergone a radical transformation from that of a ‘grantee’ to that of a customer. The other significant change is in the economics of international education. Whereas in the past the sojourn of most overseas students was being subsidised financially by the taxpayers of the host countries, the situation is now almost completely reversed. The majority of overseas students are charged fees that are usually higher than those paid by local students. International students also have to support themselves, further boosting local economic activity.
Cross-cultural goodwill and mutual understanding are no longer the primary aims of either the programmes or the research that they stimulate. These objectives have been largely replaced by identifying and capturing the international market and improving customer service. International education is now a major export industry, and many institutions have become highly dependent on the income so derived. Current contact research reflects this change in the status of the international student, and some of this will be reviewed in this section of the book.
Major changes have also occurred in the tourist industry In the 1970s and 1980s many of the studies were concerned with assessing the effects of tourist presence on poorer, less complex societies, and the extent to which their cultures would suffer tourist-related adverse consequences. That is a much less visible
area of research nowadays, mainly because there exist very few tourist destinations in the world which have not been irrevocably altered by the uncontrolled influx of relatively wealthy and often insensitive visitors. Tourism also has become a major industry with the economic viability of many places, even entire countries, being dependent on short-term visitors. Research has followed suit, and there is an increasing number of studies which concentrate on training host nationals in tourist-related customer-service skills. Other studies look at the stresses associated with being a tourist and how these might be reduced, again with a view to maximising economic returns.
There have also been changes in the structure and function of international business. In the post-war period most business sojourners were expatriates managing the local branches of their firms on behalf of head offices in London, New York, Sydney, or Zurich. Gradually, with the growth in indigenous wealth and a corresponding move towards independence and self-determination, the emphasis has shifted toward joint ventures. Persons managing these types of organisations need different skills and encounter different problems from those experienced by the earlier breed of neocolonial executives.
In the field of immigration and refugee movement there have also been some major, significant developments in the last 20 or 30 years. The main changes have occurred in the receiving societies. Until around the 1970s, most receiving countries maintained fairly tight control over the number and type of persons admitted as immigrants. Many countries supported restrictive immigration policies that were highly discriminatory with respect to the ethnicity of the prospective settlers. Australia had an overt White-Australia policy that was not dismantled until the early 1970s, which effectively prevented Asian immigration.
Britain, Canada, and the United States also made it difficult for certain ethnic groups to enter as permanent settlers.
All that has now changed, with significant implications for the ethnic mix of what were once relatively homogeneous societies. There are cities in the United States and Canada where the original ‘charter’ groups are rapidly becoming minorities, and the same applies to specific suburbs in cosmopolitan cities such as Sydney. Once again, research has followed suit, moving away from such topics as the mental health of migrants and refugees to issues of multicultural living.
In the chapters to follow we will describe each of the major categories of culture travellers (tourists, international students, international business persons, immigrants, and refugees). We will briefly review the pertinent literature in historical context and then move on to consider the current approaches, issues and findings using the ABC model as a means of organising this material.