An exploration of flexibility/rigidity as relational quality of African migrants in South Africa as new cultural and social environment
Abstract
This article attempts to draw attention to the interpersonal interactions of African migrants and to how
the relational quality, namely, flexibility/rigidity, could potentially facilitate or limit their acculturation in
South Africa. The study on which the article is based is part of a larger international research project
on the commonalities and differences in the way that intergenerational relations, citizenship and
belonging play out in three countries: the United Kingdom, France and South Africa. Ten families and
24 individual participants (men and women in the age range 18-59) from different African countries
who had migrated to South Africa were selected through purposive sampling. The data were obtained
through in-depth personal interviews that were thematically analysed using a secondary data analysis
approach. Although more relational qualities would provide a comprehensive description of migrants'
interpersonal styles, the relational quality of flexibility/rigidity of migrants who participated in this research,
ranged on a continuum from being too flexible to being too close and some were in between.
Migrants who were flexible could associate themselves with the new cultural and social environment
and expand their behavioural repertoire. The migrants in the study, who were too flexible and too
close, experienced discomfort. The study findings can be used as baseline for further research to
support the adjustment of migrants in South Africa
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10394/17481http://sap.sagepub.com/content/42/4/576.full.pdf+html
https://doi.org/10.1177%2F008124631204200411
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- Faculty of Health Sciences [2385]