Explaining the ‘immigration advantage’ and the ‘biculturalism paradox’: An application of the theory of demoralization

John M de Figueiredo

International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 2014, vol. 60, issue 2, 175-177

Abstract: Background: Recent immigrants have better mental health than the natives (‘immigration advantage’). Biculturals have better mental health than the monoculturals (‘biculturalism paradox’). Material: Mexican immigrants have lower rates of psychopathology than the US population. This is less true for Cubans and not true for Puerto Ricans. The ‘advantage’ also occurs in other groups. Biculturals have better mental health and endorse both cultures. Discussion: The theory of demoralization predicts that borrowing values from both cultures and applying them judiciously are more conducive to mental health than indiscriminately subscribing to either culture. Conclusion: The findings are consistent with the theory of demoralization.

Keywords: Immigration advantage; biculturalism paradox; acculturative stress; demoralization; cultural minorities; mental health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0020764013477018 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:socpsy:v:60:y:2014:i:2:p:175-177

DOI: 10.1177/0020764013477018

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Social Psychiatry
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().