Enculturation, Assimilation and Acculturation

By Maria Fernanda Bayona Arevalo / Florida State University

Without a doubt, the Hispanic population is the largest emerging minority in the United States. Its exponential growth has increased the interest of the marketers in this segment. When trying to target Hispanics, it is common to divide them only in terms of country origin. However, facts such as time living in the U.S, immigration features, cultural tension and cultural values, sometimes are ignored by this classification. As Dr. Felipe Korzenny mentioned, it is important for marketers to understand and tap into culturally related values, tastes, and behaviors stemming from emerging cultural influences affecting the nation (Korzenny, F., & Korzenny, B., 2012).

Regardless of the country of precedence, all immigrants to the United States go through a process of acculturation and assimilation. Changes generated in the process of acculturation are important in order to understand the profound differences in the subgroups that make up the Hispanic population. While many aspects of culture are subject to changes as part of the acculturation process, the deep structure of a culture is much more resistant to change.

According to Kim Sheehan,  assimilation is the action of making or becoming like something else; acculturation is the adoption of an alien culture. Both terms present the same phenomenon from different points of view (assimilation from the point of view of the dominant culture and acculturation from the point of view of the minority culture (Sheehan, 2005).

At this point it is important to highlight that in the acculturation process two parties are involved. One is the contingent of Hispanics adapting as they become part of the host culture. The other is the host culture also adapting to a large and powerful incoming group (Korzenny, F., & Korzenny, B., 2012). As a result of this interaction there are three ways that a society reacts. If it accepts those who are different, then it is considered as a multicultural society. If it respects the culture of the immigrant and does not wish for them to mix the result is segregation. Finally, when society finds no value in the culture of the immigrant and does not wish to have them integrated the result is exclusion (Korzenny, F., & Korzenny, B., 2012).

In addition to the interaction between the cultures, the length of time that members of a co-culture have spent in the country influences how they identity themselves. In order to classify the Hispanic population within its time spent in the U.S, many approaches have been created.

For example, according to Barbara Muller, immigration populations are divided into three basic groups: mostly acculturated, partially acculturated, and relatively unacculturated (Mueller, 2008). Following her theory, there are 6 subgroups in Hispanic population. The first one “Unacculturated traditionals” are foreign-born Hispanics with intermediate and high levels of culture tension. They have been in the the United States for the shortest amount of time and tend to live in key entry points. The second segment is “Unacculturated stable” which is composed of foreign-born Hispanics with low levels of cultural tension. People in this segment have no need or motivation to acculturate further. The third segments or “Tradicionals” are the oldest group of partially acculturated Hispanic Americans. Most are foreign born, but they have been living in the United States for the longest period of time conserving Hispanic values and feeling uncomfortable with the American way of life. The fourth segment called “New latinos” are relatively young and have lived in the United States a significant amount of time. They are partially acculturated with intermediate levels of cultural tension. The fifth segment or “American Latinos” are very comfortable living in both worlds, the latin culture and the american culture, and they are partially acculturated with low levels of cultural tension. Finally, the “mostly acculturated” segment of Hispanics are mostly acculturated but Spanish is still spoken in many of these homes, and there is some spanish language media consumption (Mueller, 2008).

On the other hand, Felipe Korzenny criticized those segmentation efforts that have labeled Latinos who are Spanish or Hispanic dominant as being “Unacculturated”, considering that label as problematic. This is due to his theory of enculturation in which an individual that lives in any society has a process of learning their own culture (Korzenny, F., & Korzenny, B., 2012). Being unacculturated suggest that there are Latinos in the U.S. than have not been acculturated at all. The description of someone being more or less acculturated seems more accurate than labeling all those who are Hispanic dominant as unacculturated (Korzenny, F., & Korzenny, B., 2012).

In order to solve that problem, he proposes different subgroup classifications of Hispanics depending not only on their time spent in the U.S., but including degrees of cultural orientation between Hispanic culture and Anglo culture (Korzenny, F., & Korzenny, B., 2012). According to his theory, there are 4 subgroups. “Hispanic dominant” are those who are culturally and linguistically defined by their Hispanic origin. Their attitudes are strongly aligned with the values of their countries of origin. They tend to be heavily dependent on Spanish-language information to make a consumer decision. Secondly, “Bi-cultural” individuals are the second group with those who combine their cultural repertoires to different degrees. These are people who can feel comfortable between the Hispanic and Anglo culture. They don’t give up their Hispanic culture but they learn how to navigate the mainstream culture. They tend to make consumer decision based on the relevance of cultural cues of the situation and their reference group when making choices. The third group or “Anglo dominant” are individuals that have largely adopted Anglo behaviors and orientation. They may still have some emotional relationship with Hispanic cultural manifestation but generally identify themselves “americans”. A process of retro acculturation (period of “root” searching as they realized that their Hispanic background is now desirable and valuable) is likely to take increasing importance among these individuals. Finally, the “New identity” individuals are those who have not aligned themselves with the US Anglo-dominant culture, and have not preserved to any large extent the culture of their parents because they do not identify with it. For example those who have identified themselves as Chicanos, Nuyoricans or Raza. They feel pride in their identity and either reject or are unable to identify with their culture of origin or the dominant culture of the U.S (Korzenny, F., & Korzenny, B., 2012).

Although Korzenny’s and Muller’s theories have different approaches to the Hispanic acculturation process, both are valid to emphasize the importance of cultural changes. The process of cultural changes introduced by immigration and acculturation presents important opportunities for marketers. Acculturating individuals are open to new inputs and influences. However, they also want to maintain their own identity formed in the early years of enculturation in their countries of origin (Korzenny, F., & Korzenny, B., 2012). A deep understanding of these subgroups and individuals may help marketers to move from less etheoritpies-based strategies to more realistic and effective ones.

References:

Hispanic Fact Pack (2005). Advertising Age.

Korzenny, F., & Korzenny, B. (2012). Hispanic marketing connecting with the new Latino consumer (2nd ed.). Amsterdam: Butterworth-Heinemann/Elsevier.

Mueller, B. (2008). Communicating with the multicultural consumer: Theoretical and practical perspectives.

Padilla A. (1980). Acculturation: Theory, models, and some new findings. Boulder, CO: Westview.

Sheehan, K. (2005). Controversies in contemporary advertising. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publication.