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Exploring the Ambivalence of Liquid Racism: In between antiracist and racist discourse
Edited by Argiris Archakis and Villy Tsakona
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 341] 2024
► pp. 93–117

Chapter 4
What culture?

Supranational cultural norms in the construction of the cultural adaptation of refugee children by employees in an NGO for unaccompanied refugee children

| Democritus University of Thrace
| Democritus University of Thrace

Acculturation theory and research has examined the changes in cultural patterns that people undergo when they enter a new cultural milieu. Berry’s (2001, 2005) seminal model has been a very influential theoretical framework but several criticisms have been yielded over the years, one of which argues that the notion of culture within acculturation research is undertheorized. In our chapter, we examine how people who work for an NGO that looks after unescorted refugee children talk about the acculturation of refugee children. Participants often argued that refugee children should not adopt Greek cultural elements but supranational cultural norms and values. It is argued that this may be a form of liquid racism (Weaver 2011a), an ambivalent form of racism which on the one hand denies its racist undertones, while on the other hand may covertly promote assimilation. In our data, participants often argued for the maintenance of children’s culture, while on the other hand they constructed it as deficient, failing to match western European standards or not respecting women rights.

Keywords: acculturation, liquid racism, refugees, Critical Discursive Social Psychology, ideological dilemmas
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Berry’s model of acculturation: Critical advances and its relation to culture
  • 3.Liquid racism and ambivalence
  • 4.Method
    • 4.1The context of the study
    • 4.2Participants and interviewing
    • 4.3Coding and analytical method
  • 5.Analysis
    • 5.1Greece as an exemplar country of law and order
    • 5.2Adaptation to the European culture
    • 5.3Creating cultural distance through the role of women in Muslim societies
    • 5.4Banal culture and cultural adaptation
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 15 February 2024
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.341.04sap
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