Liu Shuang, Gallois Cindy
School of Communication and Arts, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia.
School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Brisbane, QLD , 4072, Australia.
Integr Psychol Behav Sci. 2022 Jun;56(2):459-471. doi: 10.1007/s12124-021-09664-2. Epub 2021 Nov 3.
The concept of home encompasses relationships people develop with the physical, familial, social, and cultural environments in which they are embedded. It is through navigating these relationships that immigrants negotiate their identity and belonging in the settlement country. Yet, a significant gap exists in the current knowledge of the process through which a sense of home is created and experienced by immigrants as they undergo acculturation. This conceptual paper addresses this knowledge gap by elucidating the process through which they develop identity and belonging in a foreign land through constructing a sense of home. Drawing on environmental gerontology as a primary framework and incorporating acculturation theories as well as evidence from previous research, this paper shows how older Chinese immigrants build a sense of home through decorating their houses with culturally meaningful objects, growing culturally reminiscent plants, and maintaining intergenerational relations and social networks in Australia. This paper argues that immigrants' sense of home is always in-between cultures, regardless of how long they have lived outside their homeland, because home is where the heart is. Building a sense of home in a foreign land therefore involves continuing reintegration of people and place in both the old country of origin and the new country of settlement.
家的概念涵盖了人们与他们所处的物质、家庭、社会和文化环境所建立的关系。正是通过在这些关系中周旋，移民们在定居国协商他们的身份认同和归属感。然而，在当前关于移民在经历文化适应过程中如何创造和体验家的感觉这一过程的认知方面，存在着显著差距。这篇概念性论文通过阐明移民如何通过构建家的感觉在异国他乡发展身份认同和归属感的过程，来弥补这一知识差距。本文以环境老年学作为主要框架，纳入文化适应理论以及先前研究的证据，展示了年长的中国移民如何通过用具有文化意义的物品装饰房屋、种植具有文化记忆的植物以及在澳大利亚维持代际关系和社会网络来构建家的感觉。本文认为，移民的家的感觉总是处于两种文化之间，无论他们在离开祖国后生活了多久，因为心之所向即为家。因此，在异国他乡构建家的感觉涉及到人们在原祖国和新定居国对人与地方的持续重新融合。
