ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on immigration to Germany and Israel. It also takes a perspective on the acculturation of diaspora immigrants by comparing empirical results concerning the psychological and socio-cultural adaptation of Diaspora immigrants with those yielded by research on other immigrant groups. Theoretically, acculturative stress is assumed to be detrimental as it represents challenges that individuals experience in addition to stress resulting from normative developmental tasks across the life span. Socio-cultural adaptation is defined as the acquisition of culture-specific skills and knowledge, which facilitates interactions with members and institutions of the receiving country. Normative increases in depressive symptoms during adolescence were found among natives and experienced immigrants, but not among newcomers. Ignoring normative development and its interplay with acculturation-related changes in immigration research can yield highly misleading results and may be erroneously interpreted as an indication for unsuccessful adaptation.
