Perceived communicative patterns in daily life interactions:

Abstract

The recent Swedish election shows an increase in support of the anti-immigration party, Swedish Democrats, signalling an unrest in society towards the immigration issue that challenges the harmony of the multicultural society of Sweden. This study aims at investigating the perspectives of Hong Kong Chinese immigrants and Swedes concerning perceptions of two daily life interactions, “communication with neighbours” and “communication during grocery shopping”. Differently from previous research, it investigates the perspectives of both native Swedes and immigrants, which gives a more comprehensive picture of the Swedish communicative patterns. Ultimately, it helps to figure out the possible cultural misunderstanding and the barriers for immigrants’ adaptation. In this study, the data are collected through focus group interviews with a group of four Swedes and another group of five Hong Kong Chinese immigrants. The data are then transcribed for analysis. Through the comparison among the three sets of perceptions: Hong Kong Chinese communicative patterns, the Hong Kong Chinese perceived Swedish communicative patterns and the Swedish perceived Swedish communicative patterns, it is found that Swedes have a greater tendency to avoid communication with neighbours or staff and customers during grocery shopping than the Hong Kong Chinese immigrants. Social distance between individuals is greater in Sweden and privacy and freedom are highly emphasized by the Swedes. The Swedish tendency to do things by themselves and the separation of private and public lives are also seen in the study. Due to the lack of understanding of each other’s cultural patterns, misunderstanding and misinterpretation of the communicative behaviours occurred. Together with the Swedish language barrier, these characteristics of Swedish communicative patterns hinder the acculturation process of the immigrants, which causes negative impact to the immigrants’ adaptation to the Swedish society.