Background of Integrative Communication Theory
Young Yun Kim's assimilation Theory of Cross-Cultural Adaptation maintains that human transformation takes only one path, assimilative. Kim argues that all human beings experience conformity as they move into a new and culturally unfamiliar environment and that they do so by "unlearning" who they were originally. The concept, cross-cultural adaptation, refers to a process in and through which an individual achieves an increasing level of psychological and functional fitness with respect to the receiving environment. Kim's theory postulates a zero-sum process whereby assimilation or "adaptation" occurs only to the extent that the newcomer lose the characteristics of their original cultural identity, such as language, customs, beliefs and values.
Kim's theory however is self-contradictory for on one hand Kim argues that the newcomer "evolves" toward becoming exactly like the host majority by internalizing the majority's ways of thinking, feeling and behaving while unlearning their own. But on the other hand Kim argues that out of this transformation emerges an intercultural identity, that somehow exists beyond all the contingencies of culture and language itself. Kim claims that individuals that enter a new culture for varying lengths of time, and to include migrant workers, diplomats, and expatriates alike
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