Simulating acculturation dynamics between migrants and locals in relation to network formation
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International migration implies the coexistence of different ethnic and cultural groups in the receiving country. The refugee crisis of 2015 has resulted in critical levels of opinion polarization on the question of whether welcome migrants, causing clashes in the receiving countries. This scenario emphasizes the need to better understand the dynamics of mutual adaptation between locals and migrants, and the conditions that favor successful integration. Agent-based simulations can be useful to this goal. In this work, we introduce our agent-based model MigrAgent and preliminary results. The model synthetizes the dynamics of migration intake and post-migration adaptation. In detail, it explores the different acculturation outcomes that can emerge from the mutual adaptation of a migrant and a local population depending on their degree of tolerance. With parameter sweeping, we detect how different acculturation strategies can coexist in a society and at different degree for various subgroups. We compare these observations at different time points and in different conditions of speed intake. Results show higher polarization effects between a local population and migrants for fast intake conditions. In slow intake of migrants, transitory conditions between acculturation outcomes emerge for subgroups, e.g. from assimilation to integration for liberal migrants and from marginalization to separation for conservative migrants. Additionally, relative groups sizes due to speed of intake illustrate counterintuitive scenarios as separation of liberal locals. We qualitatively compare the processes of our model with SCIP survey in Germany, finding preliminary confirmation of our assumptions and results.
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