Acculturation strategies & ethnic identity: a southsouth immigrants study in the north of Chile

Under a not experimental, analytical cross-sectional desing, this study describes the relation between the acculturation strategies introduced by Berry, integration, assimilation, separation and marginalization, with the ethnic identity. Data was collected from 431 peruvians and colombians immigrants in the city of Antofagasta, Chile, using the acculturation scale developed by Basabe, Zlobina and Paez, (2004) and the spanish version of the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM). The results concludes that biculturality was the most used acculturation strategy for both groups although differences were found for sex. For ethnic identity, differences were statistically significant for both groups only between nationalities. Analysing the existent relation between the variables, the tests concludes in favor for theoretical assumptions that people who choose for a loyalty to ingroup acculturation strategy (biculturals and separated) has a higher positive orientation to his/her own ethnic group, instead people who use a individualistic strategy (assimilated and marginated).