U.S. Immigrants' Multicultural Identities: Implications of Immigration Policy, State Immigrant Concentration, and Public Perceptions

Abstract

U.S. immigrant-origin emerging adults must negotiate their cultural identities—ethnic (EI) and American national identities—as part of acculturation to ensure optimal adaptation in the receiving context. Contextual factors, like immigration policy, state immigrant concentration, and public perceptions of immigrants, may affect identity negotiation. Person-centred approaches show that immigrants have varying approaches to negotiating their cultural identities, but contextual explanations of these patterns have yet to be explored. Using latent profile analyses, we explored profiles of multicultural identity among U.S. immigrant-origin emerging adults (N = 253; 35.4% first generation; 53.1% female; ages 18–29) and examined how multiple levels of the social context contributed to their multicultural identity styles. We identified four multicultural identity styles that varied in their approach to ethnic identity, American identity and cultural identity strategies: EI Oriented Bicultural (39.68%), Balanced Bicultural (29.15%), EI Oriented Separated (18.22%) and Low EI Diffused (12.95%). Next, we examined how contextual factors were associated with profile membership. We found that inclusivity of state immigration policy, living in a traditional immigrant destination state, and perceptions of the public's views of immigrants were associated with multicultural identity styles. These results have implications for fostering welcoming contexts of reception for immigrants in the United States.