Is Immigrants' Social Integration Influenced by Source Country? Examining the Relationship Between Social Integration and Individualism-Collectivism in Canada


Harkiran Singh, York University

The social integration of immigrants in Canada has been debated by researchers; few studies, however, have looked at the implications of cultural orientation backgrounds of immigrants’ source countries on social integration outcomes. Frideres (2008) and Wu, Hou, Schimmele (2010) describe social integration as “the participation of immigrants in the institutions of the host country”, leading to their adaptation to the norms and social practices of Canadian society. Reitz et al. (2009) have explored some variety of immigrants’ various source country attributes, like religious background or ethnic identities, that may influence immigrants’ social integration and social connectedness. Few studies, however, have looked at the influence of cultural orientation backgrounds to the process of social integration. Okeke-Ihejrika and Salami’s (2018) analysis provides insight into the importance of cultural orientation of immigrants, showing that immigrants are experiencing lower levels of social cohesion and trust with the host society because of both a lack of ‘cultural’ connectedness and a clash in values orientation with Canadian society. Thus, immigrants in Canada may be experiencing barriers in their social integration beyond their religious and ethnic backgrounds, such that their trust building with the host society, and therefore participation in social institutions, may be influenced by the differences in cultural or values orientation with Canadian society. By acknowledging these cultural differences in attitudes and values that diverse groups of immigrants have, Canadian society can work towards immigrants’ social integration and provide a better life for immigrants. This paper proposes the influence of cultural orientation as a new element to expand the understanding of social integration of immigrants originating from diverse backgrounds. Analyzing the data from the Ethnic Diversity Survey (2002), combined with the information on cultural orientation from the GLOBE project (2004), this analysis seeks to understand the effect of immigrants’ values orientation (individualist/collectivist) on their general trust of Canadian society. Results show that immigrants originating from highly collectivist backgrounds have lower odds of trusting native-born Canadians as compared to immigrants originating from low collectivist backgrounds. Insight into the influence of cultural orientation of immigrants improves the understanding of social integration, one that extends beyond factors such as ethnicity and religion that have been examined in previous research.

Non-presenting author: Yoko Yoshida, Western University

This paper will be presented at the following session: