Table of Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Preface ix
Introduction 1
1 Russian immigration: The third wave 4
Introduction 4
1.1 Who were they? 6
1.2 Why did they leave? 7
1.3 How did they leave? 9
1.4 Israel 12
1.5 United States 15
1.6 Germany 17
2 Theoretical framework and methodology 20
Introduction 20
2.1 Acculturation Theory 21
2.1.1 Acculturation framework (Berry 1990) 22
2.1.2 Acculturation framework: Adapted 25
2.1.4 Antecedents 26
2.1.5 Psychological acculturation 27
2.1.6 Acculturation consequences 28
2.1.7 Variables 29
2.2 Methodology 30
3 "Prodigal children" of Mother Russia 32
3.1 US 32
3.2 Israel 33
3.3 Germany 33
3.4 Socio-demographic background of the participants 33
3.4.1 Age 34
3.4.2 Sex 35
3.4.3 Nationality 35
3.4.4 Marital status 36
3.4.5 Place of origin 36
3.4.6 Education 37
3.5 Reasons for emigration 39
3.5.1 Economic and political crash of the 1990s 40
3.5.2 Political system 40
3.5.3 Anti-Semitism 41
3.5.4 Ethnic conflicts and saving sons from army service 41
3.5.5 For the sake of a better future for the children 42
3.5.6 "Mass madness" 42
3.6 Reasons for choosing their host country 42
3.7 Length of immigration 46
3.8 Employment 46
3.9 Hardships in immigration 48
3.9.1 Language 48
3.9.2 Finding and/or not losing a job 49
3.9.3 Adaptation to the new country 49
3.9.4 Loss of familiar networks 50
3.9.5 Making the decision to leave 51
3.9.6 Nostalgia 51
3.10 Success in immigration 52
3.11 Integration into the host society 53
3.12 Looking back at the decision to emigrate 53
Conclusion 54
4 Culture: Change of the cultural perception 56
Introduction 56
4.1 Culture as an interdisciplinary project 56
4.2 Acculturation Framework: Culture 58
4.2.1 Internal antecedents: Russian culture 59
4.2.2 External antecedents 61
4.2.3 Traditional antecedents 63
4.2.4 Acculturation process and consequences 63
4.3 Initial perception of the host culture/society 64
4.3.1 US 64
4.3.2 Israel 67
4.3.3 Germany 69
4.4 Change in the perception of host culture 71
4.4.1 US 72
4.4.2 Israel 73
4.4.3 Germany 76
4.5 Host cultures/societies: Collective portraits of the cultural other" 78
4.5.1 US: Societal level 79
4.5.2 US: Interpersonal level 81
4.5.3 Israel: Societal level 82
4.5.4 Israel: Interpersonal level 85
4.5.5 Germany: Societal level 87
4.5.6 Germany: Interpersonal level 88
4.5.7 Summary 89
4.6 Nostalgia 91
4.7 Socio-linguistic factors and comfort in the new country 93
4.8 Russian community 95
4.9 Discussion 101
5 Culture: Individualism versus collectivism 103
Introduction 103
5.1 Friendship in Russian culture 103
5.2 Collectivism versus individualism 105
5.3 Linguistic relativity and individualism versus collectivism 107
5.4 Study 110
5.4.1 Objective 110
5.4.2 Participants 111
5.4.3 Procedure 114
5.4.4 Research hypothesis 115
5.4.5 Data analysis 116
5.5 Results 117
5.5.1 Pronoun use across groups 117
5.5.2 Pro-drop analysis 121
5.5.3 Lexical analysis 122
5.6 Discussion 123
Conclusion 126
6 In search of "self": Self-identification and identity transformation among Russian immigrants 129
Introduction 129
6.1 Theoretical approaches to the study of identity 130
6.2 Acculturation Framework: The study of identity 132
6.3 Traditional antecedents: "Official" identity 134
6.4 Internal antecedents: Ethnic discrimination and social stigma 135
6.5 Identity transformation: Process and consequences of acculturation 139
6.5.1 Discrimination and identity shift 141
6.5.2 Religion and identity shift 142
6.5.3 Partners and identity shift 142
6.5.4 Place of identification 143
6.6 Identity transformation: Analysis of narratives 144
6.6.1 US: Identity transformation. Jewish immigrants 145
6.6.2 US: Identity transformation. Russian immigrants 146
6.6.3 Israel: Identity transformation. Jewish immigrants 147
6.6.4 Israel: Identity transformation. Russian immigrants 150
6.6.5 Germany: Identity transformation. Jewish immigrants 151
6.6.6 Germany: Identity transformation. Russian immigrants 155
6.7 Summary 155
6.8 Russian immigration and the perception of the term "Russian" among immigrants 157
6.8.1 US 157
6.8.2 Israel 158
6.8.3 Germany 159
6.9 External antecedents: What did we learn about the host countries? 160
6.9.1 US 160
6.9.2 Israel 161
6.9.3 Germany 161
6.10 Discussion 162
7 Sense of belonging 168
Introduction 168
7.1 Home 169
7.2 Findings: Surveys 172
7.2.1 Citizenship vs. visits to Russia 172
7.2.2 Citizenship vs. sense of home 175
7.2.3 Linguistic measure of "belonging" 177
7.2.4 Sense of home vs. age at immigration, length of immigration, and ethnicity 179
7.2.5 Summary 182
7.3 Findings: Interview narratives 183
7.3.1 Feeling like an outsider in the host country 184
7.3.2 Sense of belonging in the host country 184
7.3.3 Sense of non-belonging in the host country 185
7.3.4 Summary 188
7.4 Discussion 189
7.5 Feeling like an outsider during visits to Russia 191
7.5.1 Sense of belonging on visits to Russia 192
7.5.2 Sense of non-belonging on visits to Russia 193
7.5.3 Summary 195
7.6 Hurt feelings towards Russia 196
7.6.1 Summary 199
7.7 General discussion 200
8 Language change and language maintenance 204
Introduction 204
8.1 First language maintenance/attrition 205
8.1.1 Socio-linguistic factors in L1 attrition 206
8.2 Acculturation Framework: Language maintenance/attrition 207
8.3 Research question and data analysis 209
8.4 Findings 209
8.4.1 L2 acquisition 209
8.4.2 First language attrition 211
8.4.3 Metalinguistic awareness 213
8.4.4 First Language maintenance: Generational view 215
8.5 Discussion 218
Conclusion 223
References 225
Index 231
