Belonging as a Key Outcome of Interactive Acculturation in Multicultural Societies

Multiculturalism has long served as a standard for intercultural tolerance, yet it is increasingly viewed controversially. I demonstrate that liberal multiculturalism is sustainable as a means of promoting a sense of belonging experienced by both minority and majority groups. Moreover, given recent challenges to the integration hypothesis and the case for acculturation as a mutual process between majority and minority groups, I recommend that interactive models of acculturation strategies be used to identify characteristics of adaptive acculturation, with a sense of belonging among both majority and minority groups being an essential acculturation outcome. I then describe two frameworks for conceiving and assessing belonging: social markers of acceptance and my framework of workplace belonging in intercultural contexts. I further detail how such approaches may be used to clarify degrees of belonging for immigrants in their receiving societies, the extent of openness to such belonging among receiving society members, and the senses of belonging of both majority and minority cultural group members in their workplaces. Future research avenues are proposed, primarily in the form of studies that clarify the relationship between mutual, interactive acculturation and belonging.