Intergenerative Conflicts and Health Hazards in Migrant Families

In the beginning of the sociology of migration - it has been pointed out - that migration is a special occasion of life - because in an all-embracing way - it changes all aspects of the migrants' lives and demands high converting capacities. It is this assumption which is underlying the thesis of the "culture shock" caused by migration. Accordingly, the beginning of the integration processes can be characterized as an "anomic situation" for the immigrants themselves as well as for the members of the receiving society (Hoffmann-Nowotny, 1970, 1973). But, different studies on the integration of migrants have shown that the conflicts of the integration process vary both concerning their intensity and duration between different integration contexts, historical periods, and nationalities of immigrants. This means that migration does not automatically result in a "culture shock" or an "anomic situation". By attempting to explain potential conflicts caused by migration, sociology hence named a number of social structural conditions which modify the integration process and the conflict potential. It is deferred on that the course of the integration process strongly depends on the action possibilities which are offered by the particular affiliation context: if the opportunities of structural integration on the labour market are limited due to intensive competition, as it may be the result of already existing immigration, the integration process will be delayed and will proceed with more conflicts than in an open receiving context (Esser, 1985). Following this argumentation, it is assumed that in contrast to the integration process of subsequent waves of immigrants the integration process of the first immigrant groups may take a peaceful course. This is especially true if different waves of immigration can be easily identified as belonging to different nationalities and if the subsequent immigrant groups show a bigger "cultural distance" to the receiving society than the earlier ones. Then, the competitive threat on the labour market is an "ethnic" conflict and no problem of social structure. The numerous findings about categorical differences in the course of integration processes according to gender and generation membership, social origin, educational attainment, and the age of migration can be interpreted as the result of differentially dispersed action motivations and options. In this sense, the higher educational attainment accounts on the