Acculturation and food consumption of South Asian diaspora in the UK: moderating influence of Religious identity and the neighbourhood

The increasing globalization and migration enabled people to move beyond their national boundaries for improved life and better economic opportunities. This has resulted in the changed national demographic landscape in the UK. Currently, the UK is hosting more than 10% ethnic minorities, and the South Asians constitute an ethnic group. Living in a dissimilar culture may cause an acculturative stress on the immigrants. They may undergo the process of adapting to a new culture. On the contrary, some individuals may attempt to maintain their heritage culture. Both scenarios have implications on their consumer behaviour. The studies in acculturation have explicated the process of acculturation, however, a few shed lights on the influences on the process itself. This study aims to investigate the factors that may accelerate the acculturation process or otherwise and the relationship between the degree of acculturation and food consumption.
This study applies to the individuals who belong to South Asian countries (including India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Drawing upon existing literature 22 hypotheses were developed. Data was collected from a sample of 924 South Asian immigrants. The hypotheses were tested using SEM (structural equation modelling).
The study found that the Religiosity has a strong negative influence on acculturation, followed by Age. The length of stay and income positively influences the acculturation. The level of Acculturation was measured with the help of 22 items on the five-point Likert scale. The data showed that the high level of acculturation positively influences the mainstream food consumption, and has a negative influence on the consumption of ethnic food. The moderating effects of Religious Identity and the neighbourhood suggest that an individual’s religious identity moderates the relationship between influences and acculturation as well as between the level of acculturation and food consumption. However, the data showed that the type of Neighbourhood moderates the relationship between income and acculturation, and between acculturation and the mainstream food consumption only.