The Greek Conference - Kos, September 2007 Papers

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INTERCULTURAL SKILLS
Enhancing Social Integration

PROFESSOR MICHELLE C. BARKER *
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR ANITA S. MAK **

As part of the cultural program, this presentation prepared by Professor Barker and Associate Professor Mak was delivered by Professor Barker and addressed issues of intercultural skills and their experiences in the introduction of the EXCELL™ (Excellence in Cultural Experiential Learning and Leadership) Program.

Introduction

Skilled immigrants represent an important part of Australia’s workforce, and ongoing skills shortages continue to significantly contribute to immigration policy. In order to have positive outcomes for the individual, the workplace and broader society, it is important that further attention be given to factors that contribute to the successful adjustment of skilled immigrants to work.

Skilled migrants, along with other recent migrants and refugees, are often hard working and eager to contribute to their adopted countries’ productivity and economic prosperity. However, coming from a culturally and linguistically different background may impact on the migrants’ successful settlement in workplaces, and educational and community settings.

In this paper, we offer the EXCELL™ Program as a tool for increasing migrants’ cultural awareness of the different social rules governing behaviour in social situations in their adopted countries.

Migration and the Internationalisation of the Australian workforce Since the early 1970’s, migration and the internationalisation of the Australian workforce have become areas of increased research and media interest as well as political debate (Ho & Alco rso, 2004; O’Loughlin & Watsin, 1997; Collins, 1991; Castles et al., 1986;).

Almost one quarter of Australia’s resident population (4.8 million people or 24%) were born overseas (ABS, 2005). While there is an overall trend of increasing immigration levels, there is also a change in the composition of immigrant groups.

Prior to 1971, the UK, Ireland and parts of Europe, such as Italy and Greece predominated (Barker & Rugimbana, 2005; Miller & Neo, 2003). The 1970s and 1980s saw an increase in immigrants from oriental nations, such as Vietnam, Hong Kong, China and Japan. Recently, African and Middle Eastern countries have been increasingly represented.

Federal immigration policy is generally concerned with firsy, the appropriate level of immigration and secondly, the criteria by which potential immigrants are selected (Cobb-Clark, 2000).

Currently, there are four major categories applied to potential new permanent residents (Barker & Rugimbana, 2005). These comprise the

  1. skilled immigrant category (the largest at approximately 46% of the total);
  2. family stream (approximately 16%);
  3. humanitarian program (approximately 9%); and,
  4. non-program immigrants (mostly New Zealand citizens; approximately 18%) (ABS, 2005).

Indeed, Australia is known as one of the three classic immigration countries (along with Canada and the USA; van Tubergen & Maas, 2004) whose skill shortages in a broad range of sectors are linked with requirements for greater numbers of welleducated and skilled workers (Mirchandani, 2004).

This requirement for skills largely drives immigration policy and simultaneously leads to discouragement of other categories (e.g. more rigourous English language test requirements for family stream applicants). In addition, some immigrants who possess skills may belong to other categories (e.g. the humanitarian program), potentially increasing available skills.

The actual pool of skilled immigrants available is also dependent upon the immigration policies of other “competing” countries such as Canada and the US and the assessments made by people with “marketable skills” about “Australia’s relative attractiveness as a destination” (Cobb-Clark & Connelly, 1997, p. 671). Although skilled immigrants tend to have relatively greater control over their circumstances and Australia’s immigration program largely rests on the possession of required job skills that are transferable to the local work environment, immigrants are very likely to have culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, which are dissimilar to mainstream Australian Anglo-Celtic culture and can contribute to adjustment issues.

Similarly, while a good working knowledge of English is essential, it may not be their first language (Barker & Rugimbana, 2005). Moreover, perceived discrimination based on ethnicity and foreign accent can act as important stressors with negative outcomes (e.g. for job satisfaction and commitment) that can impact on individual well-being and the organisation (Wated & Sanchez, 2006).

Research has shown that many Asian migrants, for example have encountered language and especially cultural barriers in transferring their skills to mainstream workplaces. Ironically, their lack of local work experience further confers a substantial disadvantage in job search (e.g., Fletcher, 1999; Mak, 2001). As such, there are many factors to consider in accessing employment and the adjustment of new immigrants to the Australian work environment. Targeted intervention programs that teach intercultural skills for success in the new culture are needed to assist them.

Over the last 4 years we have undertaken an innovative implementation of the EXCELL™ (Excellence in Cultural Experiential Learning and Leadership) Program with migrant jobseekers in a job placement program offered by Bridgeworks Personnel Pty Ltd, a specialist job placement organisation for skilled migrants within the business community and amongst immigrant communities in South East Queensland.

Our experience of offering the program to skilled migrants has taught us that migrants may find themselves in a range of challenging scenarios involving participation in team and other workplace and community-based meetings. For example, some migrant jobseekers were exasperated that they could not find a way to contribute to lunch room conversations between colleagues, or interject in a weekly cross-functional team meeting in headquarters,

These migrants expressed their fears that colleagues would perceive them as people who had nothing to contribute, were overly shy or worse yet, snobs. While migrants were often clear about what they wanted to say, they simply did not know how to break into the conversations.

The next section addresses the EXCELL™ Program an innovative approach for learning new cultural rules for effective participation in the host society. The EXCELL™ Program was initially offered to international students in Canada, Australia, and the UK (Mak, Westwood, Barker, and Ishiyama 1998). Ideally co-facilitated by a leader from the host culture and another leader originally from a culturally different background, the group program has since been introduced to The Netherlands and New Zealand. It has also been used with migrant students and workers originally from various Asian countries or other non-English-speaking backgrounds, as well as mixed groups of locals and ethnic minority members. What is the EXCELL™ Program?

EXCELL™ is an experiential and practice-focussed social learning program aiming to develop people’s intercultural social competence and facilitate intercultural relations without compromising minority members’ original cultural identity (Mak & Barker, 2004).

Key socio-cultural competencies taught in the Program include culture access (e.g., participation in a group, seeking help) and culture negotiation competencies (e.g., refusing a request, giving feedback). The full program is offered over four to six weekly sessions of two to three hours duration. EXCELL™’s conceptual framework is described by its developers in Mak, Westwood, Ishiyama, and Barker (1999). Summaries of the program’s application and efficacy of its use in multicultural educational environments are documented in Mak (2000), Ho, Holmes, and Cooper (2004), and Mak and Buckingham (in press). Suitable Participants

EXCELL™ is designed to be offered, ideally by two trainers (co-facilitators), to groups of between 8 and 20 participants, all or many of them:

EXCELL™ trainers who deliver the program must have successfully completed a three-day EXCELL™ Trainer Course. The intensive course is suitable for counsellors, and academic and international office staff members who work with immigrants, expatriates, or international students, or other “transition” or special needs students, or locals who want to increase their cross-cultural awareness and/or their social effectiveness.

Candidates for the trainer course will have group facilitation skills and have experience in the field of cross-cultural service delivery. At the time of writing this article, delegates from over 60 educational institutions have completed the trainer course in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the UK, and the Netherlands. Theoretical Basis for the EXCELL™ Learning Process

EXCELL™ focuses on behavioural competence training derived from the following established learning paradigms (Mak, Westwood, et al., 1999).

  1. Operant conditioning: Early attempts are shaped towards the desired behaviours by rewarding successful trials.
  2. Classical conditioning: Social anxiety is reduced by pairing successful performance of the behaviours in a non-threatening environment.
  3. Social cognitive learning: Participants watch credible models perform desired behaviours, and develop social-efficacy beliefs that they too can take specific actions to bring about a positive social environment;
  4. Role-based group learning: Participants observe others’ behaviours and perfect skills in a supportive environment with like people.

Group Procedures Incorporating Cultural Mapping

Below is a summary of the group procedures in teaching each sociocultural competency (Westwood et al., 2000). Being part of a training group confers additional benefits. Listening to other participants’ experiences and observations is often affirming.

The emotional and practical social support generated in a learning community can alleviate acculturative stress and enhance recent migrants’ wellbeing.

  1. Alliance building and assessment: The trainers create an environment in which the unique cultural backgrounds of participants are acknowledged and validated, making it safe to share personal experiences with challenging intercultural social encounters (e.g., in having to interrupt to participate in a group discussion, or in putting a request to an authority figure).
  2. Cultural mapping: Explanations of what behaviours will be appropriate in certain types of social encounters and why things tend to be done the way they are. The emphasis on cultural observations in the mapping process encourages participants to practise observations of how host members behave in various group situations in everyday interactions. This can enhance participants’ capacity to identify verbal and non-verbal triggers of participating in different types of groups (e.g., formal and informal, small and large, same gender and mixed gender, as a supervisor and as a subordinate).
  3. Modelling of a practice scenario to replicate the social situation by the trainer then follows, with the participants observing the interaction and commenting on it.
  4. Participants are then invited to practise the same exchange in pairs with a third person as an observer, with the trainer coaching and giving feedback and mini-demonstrations of how to change the approach if required. This process is repeated if necessary until participants master specific micro-skills.
  5. Goal-setting and contracting to apply learning in a real situation. Participants are helped to create realistic and specific action plans, and write them down as a homework activity in the relevant section in their individual copies of the EXCELL™ Participant’s Manual. Participants are encouraged to report back to the group the outcomes of their actions in the following session.

This paper has outlined the EXCELL™ method and process, and how it may enhance migrants’ social integration and wellbeing.

_________

* Professor Michelle Barker, Centre for Work, Leisure and Community Research, Griffith University;

** Associate Professor Anita S Mak, Centre for Applied Psychology, School of Health Sciences, University of Canberra.

REFERENCES

Fletcher, M. (1999). Migrant settlement: A review of the literature and its relevance to New Zealand. New Zealand Immigration Service.

Gudykunst, W. B. (1994). Bridging differences: Effective intergroup communication (2nd ed.). Thousand Oak, CA: Sage.

Ho, E. (2002). Doing business in New Zealand: The experiences of Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs. Proceedings of an International Conference on Middle-Class Chinese Migrants in Australia: Settlement, Needs and Dilemmas, Brisbane, 15 –16 February, 2002.

Ho, E., Holmes, P., & Cooper, J. (2004). Review and evaluation of international literature on managing cultural diversity in the classroom. New Zealand: Ministry of Education and Education New Zealand.

Ho, C., & Alcorso, C. (2004). Migrants and employment. Journal of Sociology, 40(3), 237-259.

Hofstede, G. (1991). Cultures and organizations: software of the mind. London: McGraw Hill.

Hofstede, G. (2001). Culture’s consequences: international differences in work-related values (2nd ed.). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

Ip, D. F., Kawakami, I., Duivenvoorden, K., & Tye, L. C. (1994). Images of Asians in Multicultural Australia. Sydney: Multicultural Centre, University of Sydney.

Mak, A. S. (2000, June). Extending social skills for success in international students: The EXCELL Program. International Eduction – ej (On-line Serial), 4 (2). Available www.canberra.edu.au/education/crie/2000-2001.

Mak, A. S. (2001). Relocating careers: Hong Kong professionals and managers in Australia. Hong Kong: Centre of Asian Studies Press, University of Hong Kong.

Mak, A. S. (in press). Career relocation and repatriation dilemma: Skilled Hong Kong immigrants to Australia. In Ip, D., Hibbins, R., & Chui, W. H. (Eds), Experiences of Transnational Chinese migrants in the Asia-Pacific. New York: Nova Publishers.

Mak, A. S. & Barker, M. (2004). A social cognitive learning program for facilitating intercultural relations. In Kashima, Y., Endo, Y., Kashima, E. S., Leung, C., & McClure, J. (Eds), Progress in Asian Social Psychology, (Vol. 4, pp. 157-179). Seoul: Kyoyook-Kwahak-Sa Publishing Co.

Mak, A. S., & Buckingham, K. (in press). Beyond communication courses: Are there benefits in adding skills-based EXCELL™ sociocultural training? International Journal of Intercultural Relations.

Mak, A. S., & Chan, H. (1995). Chinese family values. In Hartley, R. (Ed.). Families and cultural diversity in Australia (pp.70-95). St. Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin.

Mak, A. S., Westwood, M. J., Barker, M., & Ishiyama, F. I. (1998). Developing sociocultural competencies for success among international students: The EXCELL Programme. Journal of International Education, 9, 33-38.

Mak, A. S., Westwood, M. J., Ishiyama, F. I., & Barker, M. (1999). Optimising conditions for learning sociocultural competencies for success. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 23, 77- 90.

Mead, R. (1998). International management (2nd ed.). UK: Blackwell Business.

Noels, K.A., Giles, H., & LePoire, B. (2003). Language and communication processes. In M.A. Hogg & J. Cooper (Eds.). The Sage Handbook of Social Psychology. (pp. 232-257). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Noels, K.A., Pon, G., & Clément, R. (1996). Language, identity and adjustment: The role of linguistic self-confidence in the acculturation process. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 15, 246-264.

O’Loughlin, T., & Watsin, I. (1997). Loyalty is a one-way street – NESB immigrants and long-term unemployment. Sydney: ACIRRT, University of Sydney.

Paulus, T. M., Bichelmeyer, B., Malopinsky, L., Pereira M., & Rastogi, P. (2005). Power distance and group dynamics of an international project team: a case study. Teaching in Higher Education, 10, 43-55.

Pettigrew, T. F. (1998). Intergroup contact theory. Annual Review of Psychology, 49, 65-85.

Tannen, D. (1995). The power of talk: Who gets heard and why. Harvard Business Review (Sept./Oct).

Reprinted by permission in C. Harvey &. M. Allard. (Eds). (2005). Understanding and managing diversity. 3rd edition. New Jersey: Pearson Education International.

Westwood, M. J., Mak, A. S., Barker, M. C., & Ishiyama, F. I. (2000a). Group procedures and applications for developing sociocultural competencies among immigrants. International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling, 22, 317-330.

Westwood, M. J., Mak, A. S., Barker, M. C., & Ishiyama, F. I. (2000b). The EXCELL™ Program: Developing Sociocultural Competencies for Success Trainer’s Manual.

Further Information about EXCELL™ For further information visit www.excellinterculturalskillsprogram.com.

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Copyright 2007. Greek Legal and Medical Conference