Immigrants and attachment status: Research findings with Dutch and Belgian immigrants in California

Although immigrants are an extremely diverse group, adults who emigrate nearly always experience separation from family of origin, extended family, and country. In this research we examined state of mind with respect to attachment, using the Adult Attachment Projective (George & West, 2003; George, West, & Pettem, 1999), and compared the attachment status of adult residents of California, USA, who still live near their family of origin in the area in which they were born and raised, to that of individuals who emigrated from The Netherlands and Belgium as adults to California. We found a significant relationship between being an immigrant and unresolved attachment status unrelated to time in the US, reason for immigration, and being married or single. Implications and limitations of these findings are discussed.