Music-making facilitates acculturation and reduces acculturative stress: Evidence from a survey of migrants living in Germany

Abstract

Beneficial effects of music on wellbeing and group cohesion are well established. Furthermore, participation in music groups has been shown to be associated with increased orientation to the host culture, while orientation to culture of origin appears to remain unaffected. In order to gain insight into the effects of music activities on acculturative stress in adult migrants, a group of musically active migrants to Germany (n = 80) was compared with migrants who had never played a musical instrument (n = 86). We saw that music group members (n = 42) reported lower levels of acculturative stress and a stronger orientation to mainstream culture compared to participants who are not actively making music. The association between music group membership and acculturative stress was mediated by orientation to host culture. Solo-musicians (n = 38) did not differ from group-musicians and musically non-active subjects. We found no differences in orientation to the culture of origin between the study groups. The findings suggest that (group) music making can support acculturation processes in migrants.