In this article, we review the limited but growing body of research on international skilled migrants and examine to what extent knowledge generated in adjacent research streams-specifically, work on assigned and self-initiated expatriates-can be meaningfully applied to aid our under- standing of the challenges, coping strategies, and acculturation dynamics of skilled migrants. We develop a framework that explains how variables and processes at multiple levels (individual, organisational, and societal) influence migrant acculturation and coping and result in integration-related outcomes in the domains of personal/family life and workplace/career. We discuss directions for future research and implications for practice.

An efficacious treatment is diminished in value if clients will not seek it out and adhere to it (Kazdin, 1978). Thus, the acceptability of a treatment to consumers is an important indicator of the quality/effectiveness of the treatment (APA, 2002). The purpose of this study was to examine acceptability of treatments for depression to adolescent females and to explore factors that might be associated with acceptability. Sixty-seven high school students (36 Hispanic and 31 non-Hispanic White) were recruited from communities in New Jersey and Florida, and interviewed by telephone. Participants were presented with a vignette describing a depressed adolescent and asked to use the Abbreviated Acceptability Rating Profile to indicate their opinion of four single treatments (cognitive-behavioral therapy, interpersonal therapy, family therapy, and pharmacotherapy) for depression and three treatment combinations. Consistent with hypotheses, psychotherapy approaches were generally more acceptable to adolescents than combinations of psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy. Pharmacotherapy used alone was not acceptable, on average. There was preliminary evidence to support the hypotheses that treatment acceptability is related to ethnicity, acculturation, and perceived causes of depression; however, contrary to expectations, treatment acceptability was not associated with symptom severity in this study. Implications for increasing the utilization of mental health services in this population are discussed and directions for future research are offered.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the significance of a Tiwi community's history in order to better understand the work of Aboriginal Community Police Officers (ACPO).The situation under study is a workplace on Bathurst Island in the Northern Territory. The literature on workplace education offers the proposition that an understanding of the socio-cultural and historical context of workplaces is fundamental to thinking about workplace education.It is hypothesised that ACPOs have a dual consciousness of their profession and their workplace, and this consciousness has been informed and shaped by their common history.It is argued that this history is characterised by syncretism. The process of acculturation is researched, where police officers draw on experiences with, and knowledge of, both Tiwi and murrintawi societies.An historical account of the Tiwi society is given.A literary device of vignettes is used, followed by a descriptive-analytical interpretation in which historical events and various social-cultural aspects are described, analysed and interpreted / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This thesis explores place-based experiences of non-Indigenous persons in Australia. It examines the extent to which it is possible for non-Indigenous persons to enter deeply into Indigenous ways of seeing and/or knowing place and what the implications of this may be in terms of personal identity and belonging in Australia today. The thesis draws upon the emerging cross-disciplinary field of place studies and is embedded in the discursive space of the encounter between Western and Indigenous knowledge systems. The Indigenous concept of ganma, meaning ‘meeting place’, the meeting of saltwater and freshwater bodies, is the organising principle by which the encounter is examined. Because place-based experiences are the central focus of this study, phenomenology has been chosen as the methodological framework that can hold the complexity, multilayered meaning and ambiguity characteristic of the human experience. What informs this research is a hermeneutic phenomenological inquiry. The specific methods used to carry through such an approach involve three aspects: observations of and conversations with Aboriginal Yuin Elder Uncle Max Harrison in order to shed light on the cross cultural experience; open-ended phenomenological interviews with four participants who received land-based teachings with the Elder aimed at bringing forth the quality of their experiences; and first person phenomenological research through different forms of textual production that reflect the nature of deep engagement and dialogue with place. The discussion chapters confirm the complexities of the encounter between two cultures yet demand a rethink of the intercultural space, the ganma. A new notion of ganma is proposed where a shared sense of place between Indigenous and non-Indigenous persons is Participants in the research had a powerful and profound embodied experience of Aboriginal culture, of Aboriginal place or country. These outcomes derive not through borrowing from or wholesale appropriation of another culture, but from direct experiencing and through direct dialogue. The nexus of the interchange is revealed to be an exceedingly complex structure. First, place is no blank space - it is inscribed and saturated with meaning. Country continues to exert its influence, inform, evolve and reveal itself. The potency of country is particularly strong when that site is a sacred site. Second, the influence of the Aboriginal Elder, as mediator of the teaching sites, has considerable impact. Third, the individual’s own psychic contents are brought to bear in any relationship with place. It is posited that an unhinging takes place that allows the shift from one mode of experiencing reality, a Western way of inhabiting the world, to another mode, an Indigenous way of being in the world. The venturer into the new ganma straddles both worlds, is able to adjust to the transfer of knowledge from one cultural context to another and adopts aspects of both cultures into their new conceptual framework. This new merging of the ancient and the modern incorporates place as inscribed with ancient meanings and place with new meanings and new inscriptions. Narratives of place embody the evolving notion of switching modes of reality to switching modes of being as new ongoing forms that challenge existing cultural explanations. The integration of an Aboriginal worldview in non-Indigenous persons may be leading towards the development of a new sensitivity that connects us with place, more informed by Indigenous ways of being. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

In 1975 Indonesian forces invaded Dili, the capital of East Timor. The invasion and ensuing occupation forced thousands of East Timorese to leave their homes and seek refuge in Australia and other countries. This study considers the situation of a particular group of East Timorese refugees: those who fled to Australia during the 1990s and who were children or young adolescents at the time of their flight. Founded upon an understanding of social identity as being constantly transformed though a dialectic relation between the individual and his or her sociocultural surroundings, this dissertation considers the consequences of refugee experiences on individual identity and belonging, as well as the processes of conceptualising self and negotiating identity within changing social and cultural structures. The relationship between conflict and flight, resettlement, acculturation, identity and attachment is explored, and particular attention is given to issues of socialisation and categorisation, age and agency, hybridity, and ambiguity. Through a qualitative anthropological methodology informed by theories of cultural identity, adolescence and cross-cultural socialisation, the thesis seeks to shed light on the various dynamics that have influenced the young East Timorese people’s identity and sense of belonging, and considers the impact of acculturation and socialisation into a new culture at a critical period of the young people’s lives. / Masters Thesis

Australia is a culturally diverse country with many migrant and refugee families in need of mental health services. Yet, surveys indicate that many culturally diverse community members do not feel comfortable in accessing mental health services, often due to a limited understanding of current western practices and the lack of practitioner cultural sensitivity. Despite the apparent need, few investigations have been conducted with migrant families to understand their different values and needs, and identify how they adjust to a new culture. The paucity of empirical research is largely due to the number of variables associated with the process of cultural change, and the fact that culture itself may lend different meaning to symptom experience, and the expression thereof. Moreover, because migrant adaptation is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon, it is often rendered difficult to investigate. Cultural groups have been observed to exhibit differences in the pathogenesis and expressions of psychological adjustment, thus making culturally sensitive assessment a particularly arduous yet important task. Although the number of studies conducted on cultural adaptation trends of adult migrants is growing, few investigations have examined the acculturation experiences of children and adolescents. Moreover, the link between acculturation and mental health has confounded researchers and practitioners alike. Considering assessment procedures largely influence therapeutic strategies, it is deemed essential that Australian health care professionals understand language, behavioural, and motivational differences between ethnic groups. In response to appeals for empirical data on culture-specific differences and developmental pathways of emotional resiliency and psychopathology, the present research program examines the complex interplay between situational factors and internal processes that contribute to mental health among young migrants and refugees. The research focuses particularly on anxiety, which is not only the most common form of childhood psychopathology but also frequently coincides with stressful life events such as cultural relocation. Two hundred and seventy-three primary and high school students (comprised of former-Yugoslavian and Chinese cultural groups) participated in this research program. Primary (n=131) and high school (n=142) students completed self-report measures of acculturation, internalising symptoms, social support, self-concept/esteem, ethnic identity, and future outlook, and were compared by cultural group, heterogenic ethnicity, school level, gender, and residential duration variables. Specifically, Study 1 aimed to map the cultural adjustment patterns of migrant youth so as to determine both situational and internal process risk and protective factors of emotional distress. The main findings from Study 1 indicate: (1) patterns of cultural adjustment differ for children and adolescents according to cultural background, gender, age, and length of stay in the host culture; (2) former-Yugoslavian migrants generally report greater identification and involvement with Australian cultural norms than Chinese migrant youth; and (3) the divergent variables social support and bicultural adjustment are not universally paired with acculturative stress, as previously indicated in other adult migrant and acculturation studies. These outcomes highlight the importance of addressing the emotional and psychological needs of young migrants from unique age-relevant cultural perspectives. Building on these outcomes, the aim of Study 2 was to propose an organisational structure for a number of single risk factors that have been linked to acculturative stress in young migrants. In recognising that divergent situational characteristics (e.g., school level, gender, residential duration in Australia, social support, and cultural predisposition) are selectively paired with internal processing characteristics (e.g., emotional stability, self-worth/acceptance, acculturation/identity, and future outlook), a top-down path model of acculturative stress for children and adolescents of Chinese and former-Yugoslavian backgrounds was proposed and tested. To determine goodness of model fit, path analysis was employed. Specific cross-cultural profiles, application for the proposed age and culture sensitive models, and research considerations are discussed.

This study investigated the influence of cultural change and acculturation on health-related help seeking behaviour of Vietnamese-Australians. Using convenience sampling, 94 Vietnamese-Australians, 106 Anglo-Australians, and 49 Vietnamese in Vietnam participated in the study. Beliefs about health and health-related help-seeking behaviours were assessed through measures of common mental health symptoms, illness expression (somatisation, psychologisation), symptom causal attributions (environmental, psychological, biological), and choice of help seeking (self-help, family/friends, spiritual, mental health, Western medicine, Eastern medicine).Vietnamese-Australian data was compared with that of the Anglo-Australian and Vietnamese-in Vietnam. Results revealed that the help seeking behaviours and health related cognitions of Vietnamese-Australians, while significantly different from those of Anglo-Australians, were similar to those of Vietnamese in Vietnam. Specifically, both Vietnamese groups were less likely than Anglo-Australians to somatise and psychologise or attribute the cause of symptoms to environmental, psychological or biological causes. However, the two Vietnamese groups were not different from each other in their style of illness expression or in their symptom causal attributions. The Vietnamese-Australians reported experiencing more mental health symptoms than the Vietnamese in Vietnam but fewer than the Anglo-Australians. In relation to help seeking, the Anglo-Australians chose self-help more than the Vietnamese, but there were few other differences between the cultural groups. To investigate the influence of acculturation on health-related beliefs and help seeking behaviour, Vietnamese-Australians were compared according to their modes of acculturation (integration, assimilation, separation, and marginalisation). Generally, results showed a distinct pattern of response. Those with high levels of acculturation towards the Australian culture (the integration and the assimilation) were found to be most similar (in that they scored the highest in most areas measured) to the Anglo-Australians, while few differences were found between the separated and the marginalised groups. Further, cultural orientation was a powerful predictor of help seeking. In that, original cultural orientation predicted selection of help seeking from Western and Eastern medicine, whereas, the host cultural orientation was a more robust predictor of the other variables. However, neither cultural orientation predicted preference for mental health help. Finally, the study found that, although the combination of symptom score, modes of illness expression, and symptom causal attribution were strong predictors of choice of help seeking of Vietnamese-Australians, acculturation scores further improved predictive power. The results were discussed in terms of the various limitations and constraints on interpretation of this complex data set.

Summary: European colonial expansion during the past five centuries has had serious repercussions for many indigenous populations. Responses to intrusive European culture have varied. Aboriginal Tasmanian culture was extinguised (Plomley 1966). The Cheyenne (Höebel 1964) and the Mapuche Indians (Faron 1968) have struggled to retain their identity and their compromises with European culture have been grudging. Many indigenous societies have been ravaged by disease and warfare and others have been transformed into a culture with both European and indigenous elements. Then there are the Swazi (Kuper 1964), who are continuing, at the present time to adjust to colonialist regimes. The New Zealand Maori have adopted elements of European culture without losing a distinctive cultural identity (Metge 1968). Details of events following initial contact between indigenous societies and Europeans are obscure, usually because of poor documentation. Yet it is precisely this initial period of culture contact that is often of particular interest to anthropologists. Until recently, accounts of culture contact have been left to historians, political scientists, ethnographers and social anthropologists. Archaeologists have tended to overlook this area of research, probably on the assumption that it is already well documented. However, the study of recent culture-contact situations is clearly the provenance of archaeology as well as other disciplines (Sturtevant 1966 : 41). Indeed, one of the major attractions of post-contact archaeology is the very fact that there are usually some relevant data from non-archaeological disciplines (op.cit.: 42-3). There are several self-evident areas of potential research in post-contact archaeology. Historical documentation may be used to locate archaeological sites (Pilling 1968; Trigger 1969); ethnic groups may be traced back into the late prehistoric period from the ethnographic present by using the "direct historical approach" (see Sturtevant 1966: 9; Hall 1969; Stewart 1942; Stewart 1969; Wright 1968); the effects of culture contact (Oswalt and van Stone 1967) or the expansion of the colonial settlements (Allen 1967; Nöel Hume 1963) may be the principal foci; and there is also the possibility of projecting cultural adaptations back into the late prehistoric part (Fitting and Cleland 1969) in order to discover the corresponding cultural patterns. The present study will consider culture change induced by contact with an intrusive culture. The indigenous culture is New Zealand Maori, the intrusive culture, European.

Etude 1- Objectif: Explorer les contributions relatives des facteurs socioculturels et psychopathologiques aux idéations suicidaires dans un échantillon d'adolescents issus de l'immigration (N=292). Bien que les événements de vie négatifs, les symptômes dépressifs, et l'individualisme sont des facteurs de risque, et l'attachement aux parents un facteur de protection chez les garçons et les filles, des différences de genre sont observées. Les traits limites (facteur de risque), l'assimilation et la marginalisation (les deux facteurs de protection) étaient des prédicteurs significatifs de l'idéation suicidaire chez les filles uniquement.Etude 2- Objectif: Explorer les différences ethniques (717 Français vs. 251 issus de l'immigration) concernant les facteurs de risques et de protection associés à l'idéation suicidaire dans une population d'adolescents. Les garçons issus de l'immigration rapportaient une sévérité d'idéation suicidaire plus importante que les garçons Français alors que les filles issues de l'immigration rapportaient une moyenne plus élevée à l'échelle de l'idéation suicidaire que leurs pairs Françaises. Des différences ethniques sont apparus significatives pour l'âge chez les garçons et pour les cognitions délinquantogènes, les traits limites et l'anxiété sociale chez les filles. Etude 3- Objectif : Explorer l'idéation suicidaire et les symptômes dépressifs en France par des analyses centrées sur les variables et sur les personnes dans un échantillon d'adolescents issus de l'immigration. La marginalisation prédisait significativement les idéations suicidaires alors que la discrimination perçue prédisait les symptômes dépressifs. Quatre classes latentes ont émergés de l'analyse : " Séparés-Intégrés ", " Intégrés ", " Indifférenciés " et " Individualisés ". Des différences significatives sont apparues entre les quatre profils culturels pour l'identité ethnique, la discrimination perçue et le stress acculturatif. En revanche, bien que la prévalence de l'idéation suicidaire et des symptômes dépressifs était élevée dans l'échantillon total et dans les profils culturels, aucune différence significative n'est apparue. Etude 4- Objectif : Identifier les aspects cognitifs et comportementaux qui sous-tendent les conduites suicidaires de 15 jeunes issus de l'immigration. Le suicide représente " un moyen de se libérer de la contrainte à simuler une identité " et " une reprise du contrôle ". Les dissonances culturelles, les distorsions cognitives, les cognitions identitaires favorisent l'émergence de comportements autodestructeurs et de stratégies de coping. Les aspects cognitifs et comportementaux, sous-tendus par des éléments culturels contradictoires, amènent ces adolescents à anticiper un possible rejet, qui susciterait une angoisse d'abandon.

Notre thèse est structurée en trois parties : Le concept d'identité et l'identité narrative, Le contact des cultures et l'identité culturelle, Devenir écrivain français et nous nous sommes proposée d'y répondre à la problématique énoncée dès le titre, à savoir comment un écrivain qui n'est pas né en France peut arriver au statut d'écrivain français. Nous avons examiné le problème de l'identité, ses différentes composantes (personnelle / sociale / culturelle), analysé comment ce concept est illustré dans l'œuvre des quatre auteurs qui nous intéressent aussi bien au niveau thématique que de point de vue narratologique. Nous avons essayé de présenter la problématique assez complexe du contact culturel, quelles en sont les étapes (déculturation, acculturation, ré-cultururation, transculturation), les conséquences, comment ces quatre écrivains ont vécu ce contact culturel et comment ils en témoignent dans leurs romans ou textes autobiographiques. La troisième partie illustre la problématique de l'identité littéraire d'un autre point de vue. Il est certain que les auteurs que nous étudions ont perdu une patrie (ils ne sont pas retournés vivre dans leur pays natal - sauf Alexakis, qui a opté pour un va et vient permanent entre les deux contrées - même si les facteurs qui les ont déterminés à le quitter ont disparu) mais ils ont acquis une nouvelle langue (une langue de lumière et de bonheur qui leur a également ouvert la grande porte d'entrée de la Littérature Française) et une nouvelle nationalité. C'est le cas d'Andreï Makine et de Milan Kundera. Amin Maalouf a opté pour la double nationalité, franco-libanaise, alors que Vassilis Alexakis a refusé d'acquérir la nationalité française. Les quatre auteurs ont atteint le niveau de transculturation, dans le sens défini par Todorov, c'est à dire celui d'acquisition d'un nouveau code culturel sans que l'antérieur soit complètement effacé, et nous le remarquons bien dans leurs écrits. Le changement de langue a déterminé des variations esthétiques et génériques (Kundera, Maalouf), formelles (Kundera : les différences entre le cycle tchèque et le cycle français, Makine : les différences entre les premiers écrits et les derniers) et le problème de l'autotraduction dans le cas d'Alexakis mais de Kundera aussi. Nous nous sommes également intéressée à leur activité professionnelle en France (professeur, journaliste, etc.), aux distinctions et aux prix littéraires reçus et le rôle de ceux-ci dans leur naturalisation. Ils sont tous quatre lauréats de prix les plus prestigieux (Goncourt, Médicis, Prix de l'Académie Française, pour n'en citer que quelques uns), ce qui a déterminé des changements importants dans leur vie et dans la réception de leur œuvre.