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High-Skilled South Asian Immigrants to the USA: Integration Through Spiritual Training Lessons and Story Writing Workshops

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  • Samta P. Pandya

    (Tata Institute of Social Sciences)

Abstract

South Asians comprise a significant proportion of high-skilled immigrants to the United States (US) who often face issues in their transition and settling-in process. There is a need to examine what works to enable mitigation of their acculturative stress, and improve quality of life and wellbeing in the destination land. This article reports a study on the impact of spiritual training lessons compared to story writing sessions for a cohort of high-skilled South Asian immigrants to the USA. Participants of the spiritual training lessons reported lower acculturative stress, better quality of life and wellbeing post-test compared to story writing sessions. However, those who did the story writing sessions also reported lower acculturative stress post-test. In the impact of spiritual training lessons, gender and intervention compliance (lessons attended, homework fidelity) were the strongest predictors. Additionally, religion, educational qualifications, occupation sector, marital status, and living arrangement were significant predictors. Latent class analysis indicated eight classes/subgroups of participants reporting maximum post-test gains: high-skilled immigrant men, Hindu immigrants, with technical postgraduate degrees, working in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector, ever-single, living alone, and who attended and did > 50% spiritual training lessons and homework assignments. Certain modifications in the spiritual training lessons would be needed for high-skilled immigrant women, Christians and Muslims, doctoral degree holders, working in academia or consultancy services, currently married or widowed/divorced, and, cohabiting with family. Story writing sessions are also effective in acculturative stress reduction but may need further upscaling/intensification to impact quality of life and wellbeing outcomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Samta P. Pandya, 2023. "High-Skilled South Asian Immigrants to the USA: Integration Through Spiritual Training Lessons and Story Writing Workshops," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 313-347, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:joimai:v:24:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1007_s12134-022-00947-0
    DOI: 10.1007/s12134-022-00947-0
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    References listed on IDEAS

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