Identity, Gender and Acculturation gap; the struggle of young Iranian immigrant women in the Netherlands

Because of the increasing numbers of immigrants worldwide, research on acculturation process has important practical implications for the adaptation of immigrants and for the ways societies might work to improve adaptation. The purpose of this study was to examine the acculturation experiences of young women who emigrated from Iran to the Netherlands. The emphasis was on understanding the process of negotiating a changed sense of identity following immigration from Iran to the Netherlands. A qualitative analysis of six in-depth interviews of young women who immigrated to the Netherlands between ages of 10 to 13 years led to emergence of three themes including identity confusion, acculturation of women; double standards, and the challenge of acculturation gap. Different dimensions of these themes reflected the participants’ experiences of ongoing transformations in their identity, gender-based restrictions and expectations and different acculturative trajectories and gaps which were induced by shifting cultural contexts. These findings and the implications of the study are discussed in relation to the existing literature on acculturation.