When Nowhere Feels Like Home - Understanding Expat Challenges Through Berry’s Acculturation Model
- Katie Grigoratou
- Sep 1
- 3 min read
Updated: Dec 5
Relocating to a new country is an exciting adventure, but it also comes with real challenges. Expats, refugees, and immigrants must navigate unfamiliar social norms, language barriers, cultural differences, and isolation - all of which affect their mental well-being. Viewing these challenges through Berry’s Acculturation Model can shed light on how living abroad may quietly undermine happiness and overall well-being.
What is Berry’s Acculturation Model?
John W. Berry’s Acculturation Model (1990) is one of the most influential frameworks in cultural psychology for understanding how people adapt when moving to a new culture. Berry argued that expats and migrants are faced with two key questions:
Do I want to maintain my original cultural identity?
Do I want to engage with and participate in the new culture?
Depending on how these two questions are answered, individuals typically adopt one of four acculturation strategies:
Integration – Balancing both worlds: maintaining one’s cultural roots while actively engaging with the host culture. Research shows this approach is often linked to the best mental health outcomes, as it allows people to preserve identity while building supportive social networks.
Assimilation – Letting go of one’s heritage and fully adopting the new culture. While this may ease social acceptance, it can also create internal identity struggles.
Separation – Holding on tightly to one’s original culture and avoiding interaction with the host society. This protects identity but can lead to isolation and stress.
Marginalization – Losing connection to both the home and host cultures. This strategy is most strongly associated with psychological difficulties such as depression, anxiety, and alienation.
It’s worth noting that these strategies are not equally available everywhere. Successful integration, for example, is only possible in societies that value cultural diversity, have low levels of prejudice, and foster a sense of belonging for all groups. While many factors influence how acculturation unfolds, Berry’s model offers a useful starting point for understanding the psychological challenges faced when adjusting to life abroad.
How Acculturation Strategies Affect Mental Health
Each strategy has implications for mental health:
Integration: Often associated with higher life satisfaction, lower stress, and resilience. Expats can maintain their sense of self while successfully navigating the new cultural context.
Assimilation: May reduce social friction, but suppressing one’s original identity can lead to identity confusion, low self-esteem, and internal conflict.
Separation: Protects cultural identity, but limited engagement with the host society can result in loneliness, social isolation, and adjustment difficulties.
Marginalization: Poses the greatest risk for mental health problems, as individuals feel disconnected from both cultures. This can manifest as depression, anxiety, and identity loss.
The interesting thing is that the changes in identity it implies can be long-lasting. People who eventually move back home can begin to feel alienated from their roots because they have adopted elements of the other culture. This can make some people feel like they cannot truly identify with any culture.
Ways to Improve Your Well-being as an Expat
Berry’s Acculturation Model can be a useful framework for understanding some of the challenges of undergoing a cultural transition. Some useful strategies to adopt while living abroad are:
Find balance through integration: Keeping your cultural identity while also getting involved in local life often brings the most stability and well-being.
Nurture your support system: Whether it’s friendships with locals, connections with fellow expats, or both, a strong social network can protect against loneliness and stress.
Work through identity conflicts: Feeling caught between two cultures is tough. Therapy can help you untangle these conflicts and ease the pressure of competing expectations.
While the model has its limitations, it provides valuable insight into how different adaptation strategies affect mental health. By encouraging integration and addressing the potential challenges of assimilation, separation, or marginalization, expats can enhance their well-being, build resilience, and adjust more successfully to life abroad.
If you’re feeling lonely in a foreign country, this article looks at some of the main causes and offers tips on how to overcome it.
