How Migration
Affects the Dialogical Self Mariel Sanchez-Rockliffe Swinburne University (Melbourne, Australia) James Symons
University College London
pp.
5-34
ABSTRACT: We
considered a sample of 38 migrants to Australia. We used Hermans’s
self-confrontation method to score the themes of their “valuations”
relating to
country of origin and to Australia along the standard dimensions: the
self-enhancement
motive (S), the motive of contact and union with
the
other (O) and positive
(P) and negative (N) feelings. We found that there was
considerable thematic stability between locations but that the average
values
of S and P for Australian valuations
were significantly higher (though not
greatly so) than those for country-of-origin valuations. There was
little
evidence that average O and N differ
between locations. We did find,
however, that about a fifth of the sample showed markedly different
themes
between country of origin and Australia, suggesting that in some cases
the new
Australian I-positions had importantly different themes. We found in
general
that changed valuation themes were associated with social conditions in
the
country of origin: migrants from countries with low levels of political
rights
and civil liberties, and migrants from countries with high levels of
violence
showed gains in S, O and P,
and falls in N. The
observed high level of thematic stability is consistent with a relative
invariance of “basic motives” (S and O),
but the observed stability of
“affects” (P and N) suggests that the
opportunity for gratification of basic motives
is similar at country of origin and Australia for most people in this
sample.