An exploration of flexibility/rigidity as relational quality of African migrants in South Africa as new cultural and social environment

Abstract

This article attempts to draw attention to the interpersonal interactions of African migrants and to how the relational quality, namely, flexibility/rigidity, could potentially facilitate or limit their acculturation in South Africa. The study on which the article is based is part of a larger international research project on the commonalities and differences in the way that intergenerational relations, citizenship and belonging play out in three countries: the United Kingdom, France and South Africa. Ten families and 24 individual participants (men and women in the age range 18-59) from different African countries who had migrated to South Africa were selected through purposive sampling. The data were obtained through in-depth personal interviews that were thematically analysed using a secondary data analysis approach. Although more relational qualities would provide a comprehensive description of migrants' interpersonal styles, the relational quality of flexibility/rigidity of migrants who participated in this research, ranged on a continuum from being too flexible to being too close and some were in between. Migrants who were flexible could associate themselves with the new cultural and social environment and expand their behavioural repertoire. The migrants in the study, who were too flexible and too close, experienced discomfort. The study findings can be used as baseline for further research to support the adjustment of migrants in South Africa