ABSTRACT
The focus of this chapter is on how migrants’ cultural orientation shifts with their language use in emotional and cognitive domains and personality profile. In this analytical framework, migrants’ levels of acculturation to the heritage and the host cultures were the dependent variables. Participants’ sense of belonging to the heritage culture was related to their heritage linguistic practices, namely their levels of first-language affective socialisation and perceived dominance. Likewise, participants’ sense of belonging to the host culture was related to their levels of affective socialisation in the language of the host society and its perceived dominance. Reinforcing previous results, Flexibility and Emotional Stability showed negative correlations with the heritage dimension, while Cultural Empathy, Social Initiative, and Emotional Stability showed a positive correlation with the host dimension. The regression models indicated that the effects of linguistic practices and personality characteristics on migrants’ cultural orientations ranged between 10% and 16%. These findings evidenced that multiple linguistic and cultural dimensions overlap in migrants’ minds, making them linguistically and culturally hybrid. Migrants’ narratives vividly depicted how the space between the heritage and the host cultures is the limbo where their identities are anchored.
