Karen Roberts

The Common Good research programme, funded by COI Communications, looks at hard-to-reach audiences that are relevant to all government departments and public bodies and provides insights to improve communications planning across government – hence the name 'Common Good'. In 2003, Common Good research was undertaken among a range of ethnic minority communities, including people from Black, South Asian, Chinese and Mixed backgrounds.

Some of the main findings were:

• Hybrid identities were common among ethnic minority young people, who often described themselves as British Asian, British-born Chinese or Black British

• However, some groups of young people, who felt particularly discriminated against or marginalised, tended to reject their British identity altogether; this was particularly the case among young Muslim people and young black men

• The older generation did not feel culturally British, even if they had lived in the UK for many years

• Mainstream media remains central to communicating with young people from ethnic minorities, although they may consume some specialist media

• Chinese people and Black Africans felt slightly distanced from British society and young people noted the absence of Chinese and Black African characters from almost the whole of media and public life

• For the older generation Asians and Chinese, particularly women, specialist language TV and radio were important

• Black Caribbean respondents felt that theirs was the predominant youth culture in urban Britain, influencing the clothes, tastes and language of other young people, although they felt this was not always acknowledged by the mainstream

When communicating with ethnic minority audiences, the top recommendations coming from the research were:

• Use relevant images: ethnic minority people want to be included in advertising campaigns on mainstream media and they notice and approve when this is done well, such as the young Asian mum who featured in a recent ASDA ad

• Use positive role models: executions placed in mainstream media can command attention by including aspirational ethnic minority figures

• Don't assume you have to use only specialist media: mainstream media can provide access to Indian communities, black communities and the younger generation within all communities

• Use specialist ethnic media to reach niche audiences: such as older generations and those who speak little or no English

• Use multicultural images when communicating with young people: for young people, multi-cultural executions reflected how they wanted the world to be and these were more in keeping with the types of programmes they watched on specialist channels such as Trouble and B4U

• Use local and regional media: in areas with a high ethnic minority population as ethnic minority residents in these areas often have a strong sense of community

• Use partnerships: make creative use of local shops or services for distribution and publicity

• Use face to face communications: consider outreach and sustained community development projects, especially for elders and non-English speakers, as media alone may have limited impact

The research used a range of qualitative methods including workshops, focus groups, paired depths, individual depths and ethnography, and was carried out by Connect Research and Turnstone Research.

Aisha King

The Experiences of Jamaican Postgraduate Students in Britain: Cultural Adaptation, Homesickness and Resilience
Author: Aisha King, Ipsos

The main objectives of the study were as follows:

1. To identify the main coping mechanisms used by Jamaicans to help them bounce back from adversity
   
   
2. To determine the extent to which these culturally defined resilient coping mechanisms are utilised in the context of homesickness among Jamaican postgraduate students in Britain
   
   
3. To determine whether coping mechanisms differ between those who are able to 'bounce back' from their homesickness and those who are chronically homesick
   
   
4. To explore to what extent homesickness and resilience impact on the adaptation of the students to the British culture

The research employed a mixed-method qualitative approach and was undertaken in two phases. The first phase involved two group interviews with Jamaicans residing in Britain, the aim of which was to generate resilient coping mechanisms that may be specific to the Jamaican culture. The findings from the first phase informed the second phase of research, semi-structured individual interviews with 28 Jamaican postgraduate students studying in Britain.

Findings

A. Group interviews with Jamaicans residing in Britain:

• The coping mechanisms used by respondents to help them bounce back from adversity were social support/affiliation, religion, positive thinking/outlook and in some cases drugs.
  
  
• In addition to the more commonly used coping mechanisms identified above, the Jamaicans in this study also considered quiet/personal time as an integral component that should be used in combination with social support.
  
  
• Equally important was a connection with the past experiences of their ancestors in slavery, which was used to positively appraise adverse situations.
  
  
• Despite identifying effective ways that they were able to cope with adversity, resilience - the ability to bounce back from adversity - was considered secondary to perseverance - the willingness or the drive to keep on trying and not giving up in the face of extreme challenges.

B. Interviews with Jamaicans postgraduate students in Britain:

• Homesickness was found to be common, affecting all 28 Jamaican postgraduate students at some point during their residency in Britain, but had only a mild to moderate effect on most.
  
  
• Slightly more females reported severe homesickness but there was no gender difference among those who suffered chronic (severe and prolonged) homesickness.
  
  
• In addition to the weather, job strain and the composition of local social network, this study identified that personal problems back home as well as victimisation and perceived discrimination can also contribute to being homesick.
  
  
• However, job strain, extreme guilt about leaving home and having no Jamaican social network in Britain were the main stressors that contributed to severe homesickness.
  
  
• The students coped with their homesickness in a variety of ways, using a combination of some the coping mechanisms identified earlier – social support/affiliation, religion, positive thinking/outlook and connection with history, as well as other methods such as distraction, crying, venting, re-framing time and avoidance. Drugs and quiet time were not mentioned by the students.
  
  
• The effectiveness of any one coping mechanism over another was blurred by the fact that the students were often faced with multiple stressors, and employed a combination of strategies to deal with their homesickness.
  
  
• No single coping mechanism or combination thereof could be distinguished between those who were able to bounce back from the severity of their homesickness and those who were chronically homesick. The distinction between the two groups appears to include a hybrid of factors: coping goal, coping method used and perceived level of control over the situation.
  
  
• Resilient coping mechanisms were therefore not related to the cultural adaptation process but chronic homesickness, gender, pervious contact with other cultures and interaction with British nationals were.
  
  
• Chronic homesickness was the contributing factor for those students who were unable to move beyond the Minimization stage (see figure 1) and start accepting the cultural differences that existed between the Jamaican and the British culture.
  
  
• This research, to the author's best knowledge, is the first time that homesickness has been examined as a contributing factor to the progressive movement through the DMIS stages.
  
  
• Other factors such as gender, interaction with British nationals and previous contact with other cultures where the main determinants of progression along the Ethnorelative stages and ultimately full integration into the British culture.

Figure 1 Bennett's, 1986, 1993 stages of the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS)

In examining the relationship among the three main factors explored in this study: cultural adaptation, homesickness and resilient coping mechanism, from the findings the researcher concludes that resilient coping mechanisms could not unequivocally be linked to the ability 'bounce back' from severe homesickness and was neither integral to the cultural adaptation process. Chronic homesickness on the other hand had clearly impacted on the students’ ability to adapt to the British culture.