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Chapter 2 includes an assessment of the analytical usefulness of three acculturation models and encapsulates immigrant scholars’ experiences within the broad range of the three models—namely, the cultural-mosaic model, the melting-pot model, and the culture-shock-versus-culture-adaptation model. The author proffers suggestions on how a sojourner might be able to more effectively navigate the challenges of interculturation. All the other chapters highlight challenges in the areas of socialization, role expectations, and intercultural exchanges produced by a diverse host/immigrant community.
Chapters 3 through 5 demonstrate that the self-identity of the immigrant professor, researcher, or, indeed, student is easily put on the line when, upon arriving at his or her host society, the prevalent cultural mooring that gives character and form to the institutions, ideologies, and activities within which the immigrant must operate are not only different, but also perceived to be deleterious to the immigrant’s previous sense of being. The transition process from old to new home might be fast, but the process of becoming an adapted resident and the transformation of self to accommodate new cultural imperatives and to relegate some cultural element from previous experiences and locations can be slow and often painful.
Chapter 3 includes the first example of how culture-based divergent expectations for the process of integration between host populations and immigrant scholars can produce uncomfortable experiences for the immigrant academic. What will be seen in this chapter is that an immigrant scholar’s lack of local cultural resources seems to be enough to render the otherwise excellent qualifications of that scholar—in the case of this chapter, a scientist—apparently valueless and insufficient to secure employment in the immigrant scholar’s field of interest and expertise. The specific Calabrian (southern Italian) situation described in this chapter is one in which an immigrant scholar was required to have acquired the social and cultural capital within which, in that part of Italy, a job applicant’s qualifications (high or low) were validated. Also in this chapter is a description of a European teacher of English as a foreign language (EFL) in Cambodia who, on the other hand, discovered that the