Two British scholars -- Yasmin K. Sekhon and Isabelle Szmigin – have just completed a preliminary study of acculturation amongst second-generation young people in the British Punjabi community.

The study claims to provide a key to "developing our understanding of second-generation Asian Indians living in Britain today" while at the same time developing a ‘model of acculturation.’

The authors consider the variables that affect the behavior of second generation immigrants, whose parents were born in India but have settled in the UK, and whose cultural background could be described as a mixture of the home and host country.

They consider questions such as: How does the mixture of cultural influences affect their behavioral? Also, how do they respond to different contexts and situations? Do their behavioral patterns reflect an ease of switching from one culture to another or do they highlight the stresses and strains these individuals face on a day-to-day basis?

The authors say that the second generation cannot be neatly categorized, but falls into different categories dependent on situation, behavior, education, family status, class, and caste.

And they conclude: As individuals or groups of individuals move from one country to another and re-settle, ethnicity is being re-created, re-defined and re-invented over time. Thus, as the second generation faces differing values and cultures, they are indeed adapting, accommodating and continually changing behavioral patterns to be part of and integrated into both cultures. [Link]