A transnational bicultural place model of cultural selves and psychological citizenship: the case of Chinese immigrants in Britain

Abstract

The transnational bicultural place of Hong Kong (HK) Chinese immigrants in United Kingdom (UK) comprises bicultural social networks of UK British and UK Chinese connected transnationally by a third network of home compatriots (HK Chinese). Through demonstration that these networks supported immigrants' dual (British and Chinese) cultural selves along ethnic lines (UK British network supported British cultural self, and Chinese networks supported Chinese cultural self), the present survey (N = 272) contributes to research on migration and transcultural identities. Further it confirmed as predicted that dual cultural selves formed the mental basis of psychological citizenship that was affected by (1) the transnational HK Chinese network mediated via Chinese cultural self and (2) the UK British network mediated via British cultural self. The predicted effect of UK Chinese network was non-significant. Unexpectedly Chinese cultural self decreased with the UK British network, possibly because immigrants did not feel fully accepted in UK.