< Return to index
INTERCULTURAL SKILLS
Enhancing Social Integration
PROFESSOR MICHELLE C. BARKER
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR ANITA S. MAK *
As part of the cultural program, this presentation prepared by Professor Barker and
Associate Professor Mak was delivered by Professor Barker and addressed issues
of intercultural skills and their experiences in the introduction of the EXCELL��
(Excellence in Cultural Experiential Learning and Leadership) Program.
Introduction
Skilled immigrants represent an important part of Australia’s workforce, and ongoing
skills shortages continue to significantly contribute to immigration policy. In order to
have positive outcomes for the individual, the workplace and broader society, it is
important that further attention be given to factors that contribute to the successful
adjustment of skilled immigrants to work.
Skilled migrants, along with other recent migrants and refugees, are often hard
working and eager to contribute to their adopted countries’ productivity and economic
prosperity. However, coming from a culturally and linguistically different background
may impact on the migrants’ successful settlement in workplaces, and educational
and community settings.
In this paper, we offer the EXCELLTM Program as a tool for increasing migrants’
cultural awareness of the different social rules governing behaviour in social
situations in their adopted countries.
Migration and the Internationalisation of the Australian workforce
Since the early 1970’s, migration and the internationalisation of the Australian
workforce have become areas of increased research and media interest as well as
political debate (Ho & Alco
rso, 2004; O’Loughlin & Watsin, 1997; Collins, 1991;
Castles et al., 1986;).
Almost one quarter of Australia’s resident population (4.8 million people or 24%)
were born overseas (ABS, 2005). While there is an overall trend of increasing
immigration levels, there is also a change in the composition of immigrant groups.
Prior to 1971, the UK, Ireland and parts of Europe, such as Italy and Greece
predominated (Barker & Rugimbana, 2005; Miller & Neo, 2003). The 1970s and
1980s saw an increase in immigrants from oriental nations, such as Vietnam, Hong
Kong, China and Japan. Recently, African and Middle Eastern countries have been
increasingly represented.
Federal immigration policy is generally concerned with firsy, the appropriate level of
immigration and secondly, the criteria by which potential immigrants are selected
(Cobb-Clark, 2000).
Currently, there are four major categories applied to potential new permanent
residents (Barker & Rugimbana, 2005). These comprise the
1. skilled immigrant category (the largest at approximately 46% of the total);
2. family stream (approximately 16%);
3. humanitarian program (approximately 9%); and,
4. non-program immigrants (mostly New Zealand citizens; approximately 18%)
(ABS, 2005).
Indeed, Australia is known as one of the three classic immigration countries (along
with Canada and the USA; van Tubergen & Maas, 2004) whose skill shortages in a
broad range of sectors are linked with requirements for greater numbers of welleducated
and skilled workers (Mirchandani, 2004).
This requirement for skills largely drives immigration policy and simultaneously leads
to discouragement of other categories (e.g. more rigourous English language test
requirements for family stream applicants). In addition, some immigrants who
possess skills may belong to other categories (e.g. the humanitarian program),
potentially increasing available skills.
The actual pool of skilled immigrants available is also dependent upon the
immigration policies of other “competing” countries such as Canada and the US and
the assessments made by people with “marketable skills” about “Australia’s relative
attractiveness as a destination” (Cobb-Clark & Connelly, 1997, p. 671).
Although skilled immigrants tend to have relatively greater control over their
circumstances and Australia’s immigration program largely rests on the possession
of required job skills that are transferable to the local work environment, immigrants
are very likely to have culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, which are
dissimilar to mainstream Australian Anglo-Celtic culture and can contribute to
adjustment issues.
Similarly, while a good working knowledge of English is essential, it may not be their
first language (Barker & Rugimbana, 2005). Moreover, perceived discrimination
based on ethnicity and foreign accent can act as important stressors with negative
outcomes (e.g. for job satisfaction and commitment) that can impact on individual
well-being and the organisation (Wated & Sanchez, 2006).
Research has shown that many Asian migrants, for example have encountered
language and especially cultural barriers in transferring their skills to mainstream
workplaces. Ironically, their lack of local work experience further confers a
substantial disadvantage in job search (e.g., Fletcher, 1999; Mak, 2001).
As such, there are many factors to consider in accessing employment and the
adjustment of new immigrants to the Australian work environment. Targeted
intervention programs that teach intercultural skills for success in the new culture are
needed to assist them.
Over the last 4 years we have undertaken an innovative implementation of the
EXCELL�� (Excellence in Cultural Experiential Learning and Leadership) Program
with migrant jobseekers in a job placement program offered by Bridgeworks
Personnel Pty Ltd, a specialist job placement organisation for skilled migrants within
the business community and amongst immigrant communities in South East
Queensland.
Our experience of offering the program to skilled migrants has taught us that
migrants may find themselves in a range of challenging scenarios involving
participation in team and other workplace and community-based meetings. For
example, some migrant jobseekers were exasperated that they could not find a way
to contribute to lunch room conversations between colleagues, or interject in a
weekly cross-functional team meeting in headquarters,
These migrants expressed their fears that colleagues would perceive them as people
who had nothing to contribute, were overly shy or worse yet, snobs. While migrants
were often clear about what they wanted to say, they simply did not know how to
break into the conversations.
The next section addresses the EXCELL tm Program an innovative approach for
learning new cultural rules for effective participation in the host society. The
EXCELLTM Program was initially offered to international students in Canada,
Australia, and the UK (Mak, Westwood, Barker, and Ishiyama 1998).
Ideally co-facilitated by a leader from the host culture and another leader originally
from a culturally different background, the group program has since been introduced
to The Netherlands and New Zealand. It has also been used with migrant students
and workers originally from various Asian countries or other non-English-speaking
backgrounds, as well as mixed groups of locals and ethnic minority members.
What is the EXCELL TM Program?
EXCELL TM is an experiential and practice-focussed social learning program aiming to
develop people’s intercultural social competence and facilitate intercultural relations
without compromising minority members’ original cultural identity (Mak & Barker,
2004).
Key socio-cultural competencies taught in the Program include culture access (e.g.,
participation in a group, seeking help) and culture negotiation competencies (e.g.,
refusing a request, giving feedback). The full program is offered over four to six
weekly sessions of two to three hours duration. EXCELL��’s conceptual framework is
described by its developers in Mak, Westwood, Ishiyama, and Barker (1999).
Summaries of the program’s application and efficacy of its use in multicultural
educational environments are documented in Mak (2000), Ho, Holmes, and Cooper
(2004), and Mak and Buckingham (in press).
Suitable Participants
EXCELL TM is designed to be offered, ideally by two trainers (co-facilitators), to groups
of between 8 and 20 participants, all or many of them:
�� being students, immigrants, refugees, or expatriates from diverse
cultural backgrounds;
�� who have been in the new country long enough to have dealt with their
initial “survival” needs, and are now seeking ways of engaging with the
new culture;
�� who have enough fluency in the host language to participate in a group
program, and
�� who are motivated to improve their intercultural social competencies for
attaining academic, professional, and personal goals.
Trainer Requirements
EXCELL TM trainers who deliver the program must have successfully completed a
three-day EXCELL TM Trainer Course. The intensive course is suitable for counsellors,
and academic and international office staff members who work with immigrants,
expatriates, or international students, or other “transition” or special needs students,
or locals who want to increase their cross-cultural awareness and/or their social
effectiveness.
Candidates for the trainer course will have group facilitation skills and have
experience in the field of cross-cultural service delivery. At the time of writing this
article, delegates from over 60 educational institutions have completed the trainer
course in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the UK, and the Netherlands.
Theoretical Basis for the EXCELL TM Learning Process
EXCELL TM focuses on behavioural competence training derived from the following
established learning paradigms (Mak, Westwood, et al., 1999).
1. Operant conditioning: Early attempts are shaped towards the desired
behaviours by rewarding successful trials.
2. Classical conditioning: Social anxiety is reduced by pairing successful
performance of the behaviours in a non-threatening environment.
3. Social cognitive learning: Participants watch credible models perform desired
behaviours, and develop social-efficacy beliefs that they too can take specific
actions to bring about a positive social environment;
4. Role-based group learning: Participants observe others’ behaviours and
perfect skills in a supportive environment with like people.
Group Procedures Incorporating Cultural Mapping
Below is a summary of the group procedures in teaching each sociocultural
competency (Westwood et al., 2000). Being part of a training group confers
additional benefits. Listening to other participants’ experiences and observations is
often affirming.
The emotional and practical social support generated in a learning community can
alleviate acculturative stress and enhance recent migrants’ wellbeing.
1. Alliance building and assessment: The trainers create an environment in
which the unique cultural backgrounds of participants are acknowledged and
validated, making it safe to share personal experiences with challenging
intercultural social encounters (e.g., in having to interrupt to participate in a
group discussion, or in putting a request to an authority figure).
Cultural mapping: Explanations of what behaviours will be appropriate in
certain types of social encounters and why things tend to be done the way
they are.
The emphasis on cultural observations in the mapping process encourages
participants to practise observations of how host members behave in various
group situations in everyday interactions.
This can enhance participants’ capacity to identify verbal and non-verbal
triggers of participating in different types of groups (e.g., formal and informal,
small and large, same gender and mixed gender, as a supervisor and as a
subordinate).
3. Modelling of a practice scenario to replicate the social situation by the trainer
then follows, with the participants observing the interaction and commenting
on it.
4. Participants are then invited to practise the same exchange in pairs with a
third person as an observer, with the trainer coaching and giving feedback
and mini-demonstrations of how to change the approach if required. This
process is repeated if necessary until participants master specific micro-skills.
5. Goal-setting and contracting to apply learning in a real situation.
Participants are helped to create realistic and specific action plans, and write
them down as a homework activity in the relevant section in their individual
copies of the EXCELL�� Participant’s Manual. Participants are encouraged to
report back to the group the outcomes of their actions in the following
session.
This paper has outlined the EXCELL TM method and process, and how it may enhance
migrants’ social integration and wellbeing.
_________
* Professor Michelle Barker, Centre for Work, Leisure and Community Research,
Griffith University; Associate Professor Anita S Mak, Centre for Applied
Psychology, School of Health Sciences, University of Canberra.
Further Information about EXCELL TM
For further information visit www.excellinterculturalskillsprogram.com.
< Return to index |