3.3.1—Acculturation
- Syllabus
- First assessment 2027
- Objective
- 3.3.1
- Level
- HL
Acculturation changes identity as people navigate a new cultural setting
Acculturation is adaptation after contact with a culture different from the one in which a person was raised. It can involve maintaining an original identity, participating in the new culture, or negotiating both.
Language, social support, discrimination, policy and media shape the process. Integration, assimilation, separation and marginalisation are strategy labels, not fixed stages or guaranteed outcomes.
A migrant may use a social-media group for trusted information while learning local services and routines. The same platform can support connection or circulate misinformation, so technology is a context, not the mechanism by itself.
Acculturation is not one-way cultural replacement and it is not identical to enculturation. Separate personal choice, structural constraint and the receiving culture's response.