Years since migration and wellbeing among Indian and Sri Lankan skilled migrants in Australia: Mediating effects of acculturation

The present study investigated language, identity and behavioral acculturation experiences and personal wellbeing among 306 Sri Lankan and Indian skilled migrant employees using a cross-sectional survey. The results indicated that participants were more acculturated to their heritage culture compared to the host culture. The majority of Sri Lankan and Indian skilled migrants were moderately acculturated into Australian society, and were most acculturated in the language dimension, followed by the behavior and identity dimensions respectively. Years since migration predicted overall host acculturation but not overall heritage acculturation. While overall heritage acculturation predicted personal wellbeing, overall host acculturation was a stronger predictor. Testing of a mediation model demonstrated that overall host acculturation fully mediated the relationship between years since migration and wellbeing. Further analysis showed that only host identity and language acculturation, and not host behavior acculturation, mediated the relationship between years since migration and wellbeing. Implications of these findings are discussed.