Personality Factors of Choosing Adaptation Strategies in a Different Cultural Environment by Labor Migrants from Ukraine

Abstract

The paper presents empirical research on personality factors of choosing adaptation strategies in a different cultural environment by labor migrants. The study determines three major adaptation strategies: integration, assimilation and marginalization. It establishes that integration and assimilation are means of solving the crisis of social identity. Personal identity acquires features of mature positive identity, when labor migrants integrate into a different cultural environment of a country of their employment. If a migrant chooses the strategy of assimilation, then personal identity has a tendency to approach to diffusive, “fuzzy” identity with indefinite life cycles, a decreased level of self-respect, a lack of internal integrity and uniformity. A marginal status of labor migrants in a country of employment causes an intensification of the crisis of personal identity, when migrants are not satisfied with the situation of employment abroad, but they do not see opportunities for self-realization in Ukraine. Factor analysis made it possible to establish an adaptation structure of labor migrants consisting of five major factors (72.43%).