Multicultural societies - and the disappearance of culture?

Vertovec (2007) describes countries with a heterogeneous population in terms of origin and migration status as super-diverse. Within these plurally composed societies the boundaries between minority and majority become blurred and norms, values and symbols may be negotiated dependent on context. For people growing up in such a multicultural context it is the norm to be with people of different cultural backgrounds and language skills. Reinders (2006) has introduced the term co-culturation, as distinct from enculturation and acculturation, to describe the process of engagement with cultural diversity by both, natives and those with migration background. In a sample of adolescents growing up in multicultural Luxembourg, we highlight the interplay between migration status, friendship patterns, family relations, well-being and identity.
Students (N = 85) attending a Luxembourgish secondary school participated in this questionnaire study (Mage = 16.45, SD = 1.09, 46 male, 39 female). The majority (n = 68) of the students were born in Luxembourg, 17 are natives (born to two Luxembourgish parents), 43 are second generation, 17 first generation and 6 are of mixed parentage. We assessed language competence and use, friendship patterns and family relationships. Measures also included the Brief Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scales (BMSLSS) which assesses satisfaction with life in different domains and the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM) scale.
The results indicate that friendship patterns are formed on the basis of the characteristics of the individual rather than based on the country of origin. Few statistically significant differences could be found in terms of country of origin/ migration status and various outcome measures.
The results can be interpreted in the co-culturation framework. For this cohort of adolescents, culture contact is the norm and salience of cultural background appears to weaken as a result. However, the Luxembourgish language plays an important unifying role.