Engaging with Subaltern Consumers: Migration, Identity and Consumer Acculturation

摘要

Extant literature on consumer acculturation is dominated by the study of consumers who migrate with the intention of making permanent lives in their new locations. There is little research on consumer acculturation occurring among temporary migrants, who migrate on work permits, and return to their home cultures after accumulating financial resources. There have been some studies on the ways in which consumer culture in the home countries gets affected by return migrants. But these studies have not specifically examined the issue of consumer acculturation. Moreover, extant research has looked at the consumer acculturation of migrants who move to North American or European cultures . There has been insufficient examination of consumer acculturation issues arising out of inter-cultural contact occurring in non-Western cultures. Through an interpretive inquiry, we look into the ways in which migrants, while being physically located in the dominant culture, continue the consumption practices of the home culture, in effect, "living" in the home culture. We also examine the performances of consumption carried out by migrants in the host and home cultures. We then analyze the processes underlying the opening up of this consumption space when the migrant moves back to the home culture.