Sense of belonging: Predictors for host country attachment among emigrants

Abstract

German citizens usually leave their home country voluntarily and face fewer barriers, e.g. in terms of freedom of travel or labour market integration. However, when arriving in their host country, they are confronted with the need to adapt to life in a new society. Analysing data from the German Emigration and Remigration Panel Study, we found that half of the emigrants developed a sense of belonging to their new host society. Moreover, we set out to examine this development of host country attachment. Guided by findings from acculturation and expatriate attachment research, we identified factors potentially contributing to host country attachment and tested these in a series of regression models. Permanence of the intended stay is the strongest predictor, and social integration also plays an important role. Host country language competence is also important for the identification processes. Regarding cultural distance, our findings suggest an inverted U-shaped relationship with certain cultural novelty facilitating the development of host country belonging. Moreover, the data point to a complex relationship between cultural characteristics of the target country and factors related to an emotional settlement.