<p>The aim of this paper was to examine the specific experience of being bicultural, what ackulturation strategy the person utilized and what influenced the use of this strategy. The findings were analyzed with the help of Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus and cultural capital. The empirical data was collected through qualitative interviews with four women of Chilean background, who either were born in or had been living in Sweden since childhood. The results of the interviews showed that all the respondents predominantly utilized the integration strategy, meaning that they participated in and felt a connection to both the Swedish and Chilean culture. However three of them had elements of the separation strategy and one had elements of the assimilation strategy. The respondent’s stories revealed that factors like parent’s encouragement and expectations, the Swedish society’s inaccessibility, type of residential area and knowing the Swedish language, had all influenced the use of a specific strategy. By being bicultural, the respondents had experienced the feeling of being an outsider and a pressure to assimilate, but still valued the access to two different cultures as a resource. The results can be interpreted as there being a reciprocal and significant influence between ackulturation strategy and cultural capital/habitus.</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA/oai:DiVA.org:su-7013 |
| Date | January 2007 |
| Creators | Forseth Åhman, Lisa |
| Publisher | Stockholm University, Department of Social Work |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, text |
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