Language Use, Choice and Acculturation Orientations among Dutch Expats

The policy of the host society towards immigrant groups has been taken as an important indicator either supporting or discouraging language maintenance in the literature on language maintenance/shift and acculturation studies (Bourhis et al. 1997). Most of the acculturation studies are conducted on well-known immigrant groups coming from developing countries. There is much less work on immigrants and expats from industrialized countries. Dutch immigrants in English speaking immigration contexts are frequently presented as fast language shifters (e.g. Klatter-Folmer & Kroon, 1997). However, there is not extensive research on acculturation orientations of Dutch speakers in non-English speaking countries. By using the conceptual framework of Berry (1997) and Bourhis et al. (1997), we will discuss acculturation orientations and language use-choice of Dutch expat parents in multiple countries. A large-scale survey was conducted among 561 Dutch parents in 73 different countries. In order to test the differences between acculturation orientations of Dutch speakers in English speaking (N=160) and non-English speaking countries (N=401), an ANOVA test was made. The results show that Dutch parents in English speaking countries have higher preference for the societal language compared to parents in non-English speaking countries. On the basis of acculturation orientations analyses, both groups emerge as own-group oriented. Our presentation will enable a deeper discussion of the role of ethnicity, national context and host society policies on expat integration patterns. The issue of ‘cultural distance’ will be critically evaluated on the basis of our comparative findings.