'Getting settled' : a longitudinal study of the experiences of newcomer family members in Canberra

Abstract

Using a symbolic interactionist framework and fieldwork methods, this thesis investigates the experiences of the members of thirty newcomer families in Canberra, Australia, during 1976-1977. The study covers two main interests. First, particular attention is given to the adaptive processes common to all newcomers, which I call the newcomer career. These processes include: making and maintaining friends; making commitments to local activities; obtaining and giving help and support; and using and developing skills. Over the course of the families' first year in Canberra, I have tried to capture a significant segment of this newcomer career for analysis. In addition, the study focuses on the newcomers' changing perspective on themselves, their family, their relocation and the local environment. The newcomers' close relationships with others are explored because of the potential of various others to affect the self-concept in new situations. The newcomer or stranger experience is used to explicate stability and change in the individuals' self-concepts which they attribute to others actually present, distant others seen infrequently though held in the imagination, societal models or the generalised other. Through the investigation of this substantive area (the adaptation of newcomers), I attempt to clarify various aspects of the symbolic interactionist theoretical framework; reflexively, I use that theoretical framework throughout to understand these observations. Show more