Self-reported integration as a proxy for acculturation: a qualitative study.
BACKGROUND
It is essential to account for acculturation in any research conducted in multicultural populations. Both unidimensional and bidimensional approaches are used to measure the extent of acculturation; however, neither one of them is optimal.


OBJECTIVE
To explore the immigrants' rating of the extent of their acculturation (self-reported integration) in contrast to an external (researchers') measurement.


METHODS
Fifteen in-depth interviews with strategically sampled Russian-speaking men and women aged 25-70 years, with varying marital and employment status and living permanently in Stockholm, Sweden, were analyzed using a content analysis technique. The results were validated by means of a series of additional mini-interviews by telephone.


RESULTS
The immigrants' self-reported integration corresponded with the researchers' bidimensional measurement of the extent of acculturation of these immigrants. Self-reported integration accounted for the mastering of the formal criteria of integration, resolving of grief concerning the homeland, and fulfilling the internal criteria of integration.


CONCLUSIONS
Self-reported integration may be used as a proxy for acculturation but its application should be tested primarily in other settings and in a quantitative analysis.
Blomstedt
Yulia
Y
Center for Family and Community Medicine, MigraMed, Karolinska Institute, Huddinge, Sweden. Yulia.Blomstedt@ki.se
Hylander
Ingrid
I
Sundquist
Jan
J
D000069:Acculturation; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004641:Emigration and Immigration; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012426:Russia / Q000208:ethnology; D012647:Self-Assessment; D012933:Social Identification; D013548:Sweden