OUR RESEARCH

International migration has often been referred to as one of the major challenges of the 21st century. Numbers of immigrants have been increasing, but social integration of migrants and their children is lagging at the detriment of immigrant minorities themselves and often resulting in conflict within receiving societies.

EmotionAcculturation investigates the role of emotions, as key processes of interaction, for immigrant minorities’ social inclusion, and their wellbeing. It builds on research showing that, in each culture, emotions are socialized to fit the most valued kinds of relationships, and that the prevalent emotions, therefore, vary across different cultures.  

We pose that a misfit of the emotions of immigrant minorities with the typical majority emotions compromises interactions, and that this will hamper their social integration, and therefore their opportunities in the larger society.

We study how and when emotional acculturation forms an important gateway to the social inclusion and wellbeing of immigrant minority individuals.

The project is organized around three objectives: 

1) the nature of emotional acculturation,

2) its conditions

3) its outcomes.   

In order to answer these questions, we collect new and innovative data through several studies.