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Paper short abstract:

In the center of my analysis I place the dependencies between cultural distance and acculturation process, and their impact on identity changes of migrant women and the role of social mirror and the self reflected emerging in the relationship of female migrants to the host society and new culture.

Paper long abstract:

Women who decide to escape from their country of origin, and opposition to the cultural norms and patterns adopted in their communities, often break cultural taboos. The situation of forced migrants is radically different from that of male refugees. Likewise, the adaptability of these two groups is incomparable. As a result, they are forced to redefine their existing identity determined by traditional gender roles that define a specific framework for self-perception. In consequence, their existing identity (individual and social) in a conflict situation is broken down and becomes problematic (Wetherell & Edley 1998).Women usually take care of children, which largely determines their adaptation strategies. It is also of great importance for their self-perception and self-definition (Bem 1972). The fact of being a woman is often associated with the internalization of a specific culture and its behavioral patterns that dominate other identifications and become an embodied identity (objectification theory) (Fredrickson & Roberts 1997,). The attempts to meet the real and imaginary expectations of the own group and members of the settlement culture give direction to most of their activities. This fact often determines how will unfold the relations of foreign women with representatives of the local community. The research I carried out in this environment confirmed that the "mirror" in which forced migrants most often look at themselves is not a "social mirror" reflecting opinions and beliefs about them, functioning in the host community, but "distorting mirror" of their own cultures - deforming image, determining self-definition and hindering acculturation (Chaika 2007).