Expatriates' Emotion Reactions toward Malaysian Multicultural Society

Culture is an elements that shaped individual and group mindset which differentiate one from the other. Insufficient cultural knowledge caused psychological discomfort and affects the effectiveness of intercultural relationship. Cultural difficulties, uncertainty and anxiety are a sign of losing familiar cultural cues and influenced by the stereotyping, ethnocentrism and racism sentiments. Diversification of cultural elements at different locations gives varied magnitude of cultural impact. Thus, in-depth interview has conducted to learn sojourners’ emotion reaction toward multicultural setting of Malaysia. Notably, intercultural competency found essential to build mutual interpersonal relationship crossborder. Sufficient cultural knowledge assist sojourners’ to eliminate psychological defect of emotion when encounter intercultural difficulties. Issues on the effectiveness of intercultural relations is highlighted and discussed.