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Abstract: The purpose of this work was to study acculturation of the African immigrant and host populations in an area in the southeast of Spain (Almería), characterized by a high rate of immigration. A new acculturation model, the Relative Acculturation Extended Model, RAEM [Navas, M., Pumares, P., Sánchez, J., García, M. C., Rojas, A. J., Cuadrado, I., & Asensio, M. (2004). Estrategias y actitudes de aculturación: la perspectiva de los inmigrantes y de los autóctonos en Almería. Sevilla: Dirección General de Coordinación de Políticas Migratorias. Consejería de Gobernación. Junta de Andalucía; Navas, M., García, M. C., Sánchez, J., Rojas, A. J., Pumares, P., & Fernández, J. S. (2005). Relative Acculturation Extended Model: New contributions with regard to the study of acculturation. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 29, 21–37], is used for this. This model differentiates between the real and ideal planes of acculturation, that is, between the strategies that are actually put into practice and attitudes that are preferred. Moreover, the model distinguishes seven spheres, or domains, of acculturation (political, work, economic, social, family, religious and ways of thinking), in which persons (immigrants and natives) adopt and prefer different acculturation options (strategies and attitudes). About 1523 persons (397 Maghrebis, 434 Sub-Saharans, 398 Spaniards who evaluated the Maghreb exogroup and 385 Spaniards who evaluated the Sub-Saharan exogroup), answered a questionnaire made expressly for the study. According to our predictions, immigrants and natives coincide in their choices for acculturation (“assimilation”) in the peripheral domains of the RAEM (work, economic); they also coincide in their acculturation attitudes in the social domain (“integration”); however, they differ enormously in the options preferred for the central spheres, or hard core, of the culture (e.g., family, religious, ways of thinking): While immigrants prefer “separation”, natives continue to prefer “assimilation”. Advantages of the RAEM division into domains of acculturation are discussed with regard to previous models, as well as the implications for predicting inter-group conflict. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The worldwide volume and social relevance of migratory processes justify the need to study the psychological acculturation of the host and immigrant populations through a model adapted to the social context in which they develop. Therefore, the main objective of this article is to carry out a review of some of the existing acculturation models (e.g., Berry, Kim, Power, Young, & Bujaki. (1989). Applied Psychology, 38, 185–206; Bourhis, Moïse, Perreault, & Senécal. (1997). International Journal of Psychology, 32(6), 269–386; Piontkowski, Florack, Hoelker, & Obdrzálek. (2000). International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 24, 1–26), ending up with a proposal for a Relative Acculturation Extended Model (RAEM). This theoretical framework gathers some elements from previous models and adds some new ones in order to offer new explanations for the acculturation strategies and attitudes preferred by both the native and immigrant populations. The most relevant contributions of the RAEM can be summarised as, on the one hand, the consideration of different acculturation domains (political, work, economic, family, social, religion and ways of thinking) and on the other, the differentiation between the acculturation strategies adopted in reality and the acculturation attitudes ideally preferred by the groups in contact. This model also takes into account the ethnocultural origin of immigrants and some variables predicting and modulating their acculturation strategies and attitudes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]