Conditions for majority acculturation

• Department of Political and Social Sciences

This session of the Political Behaviour Colloquium features a presentation by EUI Researcher Nemanja Kidžin.

Research on acculturation overwhelmingly focuses on how minorities adapt to majority cultures, while the reverse process of majority acculturation remains theoretically underdeveloped. The event discusses that majority acculturation depends on two conditions: (1) cultural proximity between minority and majority groups and (2) the relative socioeconomic power of immigrants. These dimensions form a 2×2 framework predicting when minority-to-majority cultural transmission is likely to occur. It tested this framework using Montenegro, which has recently received two high-SES immigrant groups, Russians and Turks, that differ in cultural proximity to the local population. Drawing on administrative panel data on residence permits (2011–2024), census data from 2011 and 2023, and municipality-level indicators of gender norms and language use, the author examines whether immigrant exposure has influenced majority cultural behavior through two DiD approaches. Findings reveal that the majority of acculturation occurs under conditions that are not predicted. Language acquisition and the female–male unemployment ratio shift significantly in municipalities where cultural proximity is high, demonstrating the importance of symbolic affinity for cultural diffusion. Other outcomes, such as female representation in municipal councils and computer literacy, show no detectable immigrant effect, which is consistent with expectations, as these institutional domains offer fewer SES asymmetries and less direct interaction. Overall, the findings confirm that majority acculturation is produced by the interaction of cultural similarity and immigrant socioeconomic advantage.

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