Acculturation and adaptation experiences of third generation adolescent migrants of andaman and nicobar islands

Title

Acculturation and adaptation experiences of third generation adolescent migrants of andaman and nicobar islands

Creator

Joy Bency

Contributor

Gopal, Baiju

Description

Andaman and Nicobar Islands saw movement from 1857 amid the reformatory settlement design of the British Government followed by Independent relocation after 1947. The relocation makes a heritage of acculturation and adaptation experiences of the migrants and their descendants. The administration stretched out certain facilities to the migrants like job reservation, simple access to government jobs in the Islands, reservation for higher education and so forth amid the 50's, 60's and 70's. The number of inhabitants in the Islands has now come to a disturbing level and the facilities and opportunities have contracted down, yet individuals have not changed their outlook rather and for them, everything stays in and around the Islands. This study aims to understand the acculturation and adaptation experiences of the third generation adolescent migrants of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The study proposes to follow the methodology based on grounded theory. Using Theoretical sampling method, third generation adolescent migrants of the Islands were recruited for the study. The average age of the participants recruited for this study is 18.6 years with 83% of them are male and the remaining 17% are female. Individual interview sessions, lasting approximately 45 to 90 minutes were conducted with the participants to know how their acculturation and adaptation experiences. The transcripts of the interviews were thematically analyzed with the help of Nvivo 10. The transcripts were dissected and 1950 codes from 7903 text segments which became the main foundation for the analysis of data. The codes were further reduced into 54 basic themes, again into 21 organizing themes and finally into 05 global themes. The process of acculturation, psychological adaptation, socio-cultural adaptation, influencing factors and academic aspiration were the global themes which became the building block for five thematic networks addressing the main and specific objectives of the study. The findings showed that the adolescent migrants of the islands settled in the islands by adopting the integration or assimilation technique. The migrants who initially opted for the integration strategy later moved to the assimilation strategy in the adaptation process. The migrants through social incorporation look for a social identity in the islands and furthermore mirrors a feeling of confidence in the islands setting making them all the more psychologically adjusted contrasted with sociocultural adjustment. Parental impact and the acquisition of the dialect Hindustani encourage their expectation to remain in the islands itself for higher education and job. The findings on the relationship between acculturation and adaptation, academic aspiration and career self-efficacy reveal that lack of educational facilities and the incompetence in the existing educational facilities takes the migrants in a state of confusion. The expectations of the migrants are seen to be in conflict, which makes them hesitant to leave the islands for higher education or employment. The interconnectedness between all these leads the adolescent migrants to assert their identity in relation with their attachment to the islands and prefers to be confined to the islands. Findings highlight the pattern and influencing factors of acculturation and adaptation experiences of the third generation adolescent migrants of Andaman and Nicobar Islands and its impact on their academic aspiration and career self-efficacy. The findings have implications for professionals and scholars who work with migrant adolescents, stakeholders of the islands for framing policies benefitting the adolescent migrants, especially in higher education policy. Suggestions for future research are also included.

Source

Author's Submission

Date

2018-01-01

Publisher

Christ(Deemed to be University)

Subject

Psychology

Rights

Open Access

Relation

61000102

Format

PDF

Language

English

Type

PhD

Identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/10603/394296