Cultural orientation, social support, and discrimination in regard to adjustment among foreign workers in Denmark

With contemporary acceleration of globalization, both majority and minority groups are experiencing increased intercultural contact. Globalization has motivated an expanding number of foreign workers, who are psychologically and socioculturally adjusting to new cultural contexts. Such adjustment, which represents a component of acculturation, centers on heritage cultural maintenance and destination cultural acquisition. During acculturation, foreign workers' cultural orientation is modified through interaction with others and through the extent to which one feels included and supported within the local and national contexts of reception. In the present study, experiences of social support and discrimination were examined as mediating the associations of cultural orientation with both psychological and sociocultural adjustment difficulties among foreign workers in Denmark (N = 259). Results indicate that heritage cultural orientation was positively, and Danish cultural orientation negatively, associated with sociocultural difficulties. Furthermore, perceived discrimination was positively associated with perceived stress and with sociocultural difficulties. Danish cultural orientation was indirectly linked with lower levels of stress and sociocultural difficulties through social support from friends. The present study contributes to our understanding of the dynamic and complex interplay among individual and contextual factors shaping foreign workers' intercultural adjustment. Results highlight how interpersonal conditions, in the form of social support and discrimination, can affect psychosocial adjustment and, consequently, the retention of foreign workers within a given country.