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2 Int'l Migration Rev. 3 (1968)

handle is hein.journals/imgratv2 and id is 1 raw text is: A Theory and a Method for the Psychological Study of Assimilation by Alan Richardson* A theory of assimilation is presented which specifies the characteristic sequence of psycho- logical changes through which an immigrant may pass. It is asserted that a minimal level of satisfaction with his new life constitutes the necessary prerequsite for the development of an identification or feeling of attachment to the new community. In its turn, a minimal level of identification is the typical prerequisite for a high level of acculturation to occur, in which the immigrant actually becomes more like rel- evant members of the host group. Support for this theory has been obtained from studies em- ploying cumulative scaling methods and from the finding that predictable relationships exist between each level of assimilation and variables selected on the basis of the theory. Dr. Richardson's theory is a very valuable tool of socio-psychological analysis, almost an indispensable step to be taken before any study of structural assimilation and it shows the need of approaching the problems of immigrants from their individual perspective as well as from the perspective of the societies of de- parture and arrival.** Interest in migratory behaviour, in its causes and consequences, in its effects on the individual and on the group, is as old as any topic in the social sciences. Within the past hundred years it has * Dr. Alan Richardson is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Western Australia. He is author of several studies in the field of immigration and an Advisory Editor to The International Migration Review. ** The discussion on the problems of assimilation and the methods of studying itA will be carried on in our next issues with articles by Charles Price of the National Australian University and R. Bar-Yosef Weiss of the Hebrew Univer- sity in Jerusalem.

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