Cultural diversity in unequal societies sustained through cross-cultural competence and identity valuation

In much contemporary political discourse, valued cultural characteristics are threatened by interaction with culturally distinct others, such as immigrants or a hegemonic majority. Such interaction often fosters cross-cultural competence (CCC), the ability to interact successfully across cultural boundaries. However, most theories of cultural dynamics ignore CCC, making cultural diversity incompatible with mutually beneficial inter-group interaction, and contributing to fears of cultural loss. Here, interview-based field methods at an Amazonian ethnic boundary demonstrate the prevalence of CCC. These data motivate a new theoretical mathematical model, incorporating competing developmental paths to CCC and group identity valuation, that illuminates how a common strategy of disempowered minorities can counter-intuitively sustain cultural diversity within a single generation: Given strong group identity, minorities in a structurally unequal, integrative society can maintain their distinctive cultural norms by learning those of the majority. Furthermore, rather than a rejection of, or threat to, majority culture, the valuation of a distinctive minority identity can characterize CCC individuals committed to extensive, mutually beneficial engagement with the majority as members of an integrative, multi-cultural society.

Ethnic Minority and Majority Social Workers Working with Ethnic Minority Clients: Culture-Bound Professional Interventions and Burnout among Arab and Jewish Israeli Social Workers

Purpose This study tests a new bicultural model of social work with ethnic minority clients. We examined how often social workers applied professional interventions rooted in the minority and majority cultures and how the choice of interventions affected the social workers' burnout. Methods: The study was conducted in Israel, and the research samples included Arab ( n = 300) and Jewish ( n = 210) social workers. Results: We found that Arab and Jewish social workers more often used interventions rooted in the minority than in the majority culture. More frequent application of both types of interventions was associated with a higher level of personal accomplishment in both groups of social workers. However, the connection between interventions rooted in the majority culture and burnout was positive among Jewish and negative among Arab social workers. Discussion: The implementation of the obtained results in social work practice with ethnic minorities is discussed.

Complicating Genocide: Missing Indigenous Women’s Stories

Having existed for centuries, genocide is a criminal practice that aims to destroy in whole or in part a population from a particular ethnic, racial, and religious background. The study of genocide is one that builds on historic cases of genocidal violence. Specifically, it takes on various approaches to examine genocidal crime, the intent of genocide, and how the motivation to cause physical pain and harm is knowingly implemented as a strategy of war, a tool of colonization, and a government policy of progress and modernization. Predominantly the scholarship on genocide can be summarized into three methodological approaches: (a) the theoretical that emphasizes the historic context of the crime; (b) the legal that draws from the United Nations Genocide Convention; and (c) the applied perspective that focuses on specific cases of genocide using the theoretical and legal lens. Recently, in the 21st century, genocide studies involving Indigenous populations has gained more traction as governments have been forced to recognize their own involvement in genocide, such as the forced removal of children in Canada and Australia from Indigenous families in efforts to assimilate them to the majority culture. Among this group, however, the Indigenous populations of the Americas, specifically the Indigenous women, have been further targeted for genocide more than other communities of color due to their historic relations with settler-colonial and postconquest emerging societies. The experiences of Indigenous women and their genocides involving sexual violence and coercive sterilization practices are the missing story in the genocide literature.

Urgensi Organisasi Mahasiswa Gayo Perantauan Sebagai Wahana Akulturasi Budaya: Sebuah Tinjauan Teori Identitas Sosial

Migrating is defined as a person's journey to another area to achieve the desired goal and stay, In the realm of education, many youths decide to go to other areas to get a good education and under expectations for the next life. The sophistication of today's technology makes migrating not a complicated thing to be doing in the community, especially the youth in taking education in place of choice. Based on the phenomena that occur to the lives of teenagers to study, the formulation of the research problem is planned, how students are social relations with the people of Jogja while in overseas land within the scope of the organization, this aims to find the strategy of student organizations of social life in Jogja. The research method is qualitative with a descriptive approach, data sources are Gayo students who are active in ethnic-based student organization activities in Jogja, data collection techniques are interview, observation, and documentation methods. The research results show that ethnic-based student organizations, IMAGAYO and IPEMAHLUTYO, carry out various activities such as the Saman and Guel dance as a form of interaction with the people of Jogja and adapt themselves by following the habits, behaviour patterns and Javanese culture as the majority culture in Jogja.-------AbstrakMerantau diartikan sebagai perjalanan seseorang ke daerah lain guna mencapai tujuan yang diinginkan dan menetap sementara, dalam ranah pendidikan banyak pemuda yang memutuskan untuk pergi ke daerah lain guna mendapatkan pendidikan yang baik dan sesuai dengan harapan untuk kehidupan selanjutnya. Kecanggihan teknologi saat ini menjadikan merantau bukan hal yang rumit untuk dilakukan oleh masyarakat khususnya kaum pemuda dalam menempuh pendidikan di tempat-tempat pilihan. Berdasarkan fenomena yang terjadi dalam kehidupan para remaja untuk menempuh studi, maka disusun rumusan masalah penelitian yaitu bagaimana hubungan sosial mahasiswa dengan masyarakat Jogja selama berada di tanah rantau dalam lingkup organisasi, hal ini bertujuan untuk menemukan strategi organisasi mahasiswa dalam kehidupan sosial di Jogja. Metode penelitian yaitu kualitatif dengan pendekatan deskriptif, sumber data adalah para mahasiswa Gayo yang aktif dalam kegiatan organisasi kemahasiswaan berbasis etnik di Jogja, teknik pengumpulan data yaitu metode wawancara, observasi, dan dokumentasi. Secara keseluruhan hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa organisasi mahasiswa berbasis etnik yaitu IMAGAYO dan IPEMAHLUTYO melakukan berbagai kegiatan seperti tari Saman dan Guel sebagai salah satu bentuk interaksi terhadap masyarakat Jogja dan menyesuaikan diri dengan cara mengikuti kebiasaan, pola tingkah laku dan budaya Jawa sebagai budaya mayoritas di Jogja.

Multiculturalism, Culture Mixing, and Prejudice: Effects of Priming Chinese Diversity Models Among Hong Kong University Students

In two studies, we investigated how Hong Kong university students reacted to descriptions of China as multicultural vs. assimilatory, examining effects on emotions, prejudice toward Mainland Chinese, attitudes toward Hong Kong/China culture mixing, and cultural identities. Study 1 compared a multicultural priming condition to a control condition and found that the multiculturalism prime significantly reduced desire to socially distance from Mainland Chinese. Study 2 compared multiculturalism, assimilation, or control primes’ effects, and found that the multiculturalism prime, through increased positive emotions, indirectly reduced social distancing from Mainland Chinese and disgust toward culture mixing, and increased Chinese ethnic identity and multicultural identity styles; the assimilation prime had the opposite indirect effects through increasing negative emotions. Results show new evidence of the importance of emotion in how non-immigrant regional groups, who are both minority and majority culture members, react to different diversity models. Multicultural frames increased positive emotions, with downstream positive effects on both intergroup attitudes and integrated identities.

Muslims by Ascription: On Post-Lutheran Secularity and Muslim Immigrants

This article empirically explores the interplay between the secular, post-Lutheran majority culture and Muslim immigrants in Sweden. It presents the ambiguous role of religion in the country’s mainstream discourse, the othering of religion that is characteristic to this, and the expectations of Muslims to be strongly religious that follows as its consequence. Four results of a web-panel survey with Swedes of Muslim and Christian family background are then presented: (1) Both groups largely distance themselves from their own religious heritage – the Muslims do this in a more definite way; (2) the Muslim respondents have more secular values and identities than the Christians; (3) contrary expectations, Christian respondents show more affinity to their religious heritage than the Muslims do to theirs; and (4) the fusion between the groups is prominent. The article concludes that equating religious family heritage with religious identity is precipitous in the case of Swedish Muslims.

“Perhaps we see it in negative terms, but, ultimately, it is positive”

This article investigates how prominent preachers within Sweden’s most active puritan Salafi group, Islam.nu, relate to COVID-19. The article analyzes material published online between March 1, 2020, and July 31, 2020, which is herein divided into three categories: rhetorical responses, social responses, and theological responses. Salafism is often presented in academic literature and by the media as a current that is at odds with the majority society. The material analyzed shows that the Salafi group upon which this article focuses can rhetorically criticize certain expressions in the majority culture while simultaneously emphasizing the importance of heeding the recommendations of the Swedish authorities. Islam is presented both as an alternative and as a complement. The material also shows how the strong emphasis on proselytizing that is typical for Islam.nu is also apparent in relation to COVID-19.

Literary Application for the Cultural Heritage

This article explores the mechanism by which the literary endeavours of the numerically small communities in Eastern Sri Lanka operate as the cultural heritage of those communities. Cultural heritage refers to the behaviours, activities, materials, and traditions maintained to identify the identity and continuity of a community or race. In an environment where cultural oppression is being shaped as a political practice, it is felt necessary for a society to retain its lifestyle and identity rights. It is both essential and at the same time challenging for a small community to learn its cultural traditions in a multicultural environment. The majority culture is being generalized and the cultures of minority communities are being transformed and disappeared. In this situation, a community has to keep its heritage domains in practice to sustain its existence. Language and its art - literature, are paramount in these domains. This is because the identity and organization of a community are primarily based on the language of that community. The numerically small communities of Eastern Sri Lanka, such as the Vedar, Kuravar, Burgher and Kaffir communities, have distinctive language practices and literary works. However, in the context of the majority of Sinhala and Tamil communities of Sri Lanka, the learning of a small community remains in crisis. In this case, the article outlines how the literature of these communities is used as part of maintaining these identities. This article also highlights the use of cultural legacy for the existence of such communities.

Neuro-Culture Interaction in Specific Brain Region of Immigrants: The Effect of Historical and Current Exposure from the Majority Culture

Ethnic majority culture (i.e. Malay) has given much influence on the biological and psychosocial aspect of immigrants in Malaysia. This study aims to examine the neuro-culture interaction among immigrants (historical and current immigrant) with regards to their emotional response towards Malay cultural heritage visualization. The Event Related Potential technique was used to explore the neural activity of the mental and emotional processes in response to specific culture-related stimuli. A modified oddball paradigm was applied in the presentation of the visual stimulus that was set-up in the e-prime program. Significant neuro-culture interaction was observed in the temporal area (T6) of the brain which was consistent in P300 and N200 amplitude. Current immigrants indicated significant lower P300 and N200 amplitudes, as compared to majority ethnicity (i.e. Malay). Long- and short-term exposure to cultural environment has an important consequence in the psycho-biological system.

Segregation, fertility, and son preference: the case of the Roma in Serbia

We study the link between residential segregation and fertility for the socially excluded and marginalized Roma ethnic minority. Using original survey data we collected in Serbia, we investigate whether fertility differs between ethnically homogeneous and mixed neighborhoods. Our results show that Roma in less-segregated areas tend to have significantly fewer children (around 0.8). Most of the difference arises from Roma in less-segregated areas waiting substantially more after having a boy than their counterparts in more-segregated areas. We exploit variation in the share of Serbian sounding first names to provide evidence that a mechanism at play is a shift in preferences toward lower fertility and sons rather than daughters induced by a higher exposure to the Serbian majority culture.