Members of Southern Cameroonian young male diaspora in the United States: Descriptions of their acculturation strategies

This generic qualitative study examined the lived experiences of Southern Cameroonian young male adults living in the United States. The research question was, How do Southern Cameroonian young male adults living in the United States describe their acculturation strategies? Using the purposive nonrandom sampling method, 9 Southern Cameroonian young male adults between the ages of 18--45 currently living in the United States were interviewed. The results of this study showed the efforts made by Southern Cameroonian young men to adapt to the U.S. environment. An inductive thematic analysis method was used to identify the following themes: isolation and individualism, social support networks, political turmoil and economic uncertainty, and acculturation, tolerance, and adaptation. These themes help to bring the Southern Cameroonian immigrant experiences to the limelight of existing acculturation theories and other research conducted in that area. These themes also threw light on the lived experiences of Southern Cameroonian young men both in the United States and back in their home country. The acculturation theories that informed this study were John Berry's 4 models of acculturation including assimilation, marginalization, separation, and integration and the cross-cultural adaptation theory, which purports that adaptation in a host society requires the individual to experience a gradual personal identity transformation that may be very subtle but will lead to an increasingly intercultural personhood. A few recommendations are noted for future research such as the need for the researcher to understand that there is a difference between indigenous culture and national culture, making the possibility of different outcomes of future results if this recommendation is respected.