What is Living in Limbo

The aim of this chapter is to contribute with a novel understanding of how immigrants face acculturation-mediated conflicts while experiencing events in a host culture. The context of wedding events is chosen because it enables to study consequences of troubled acculturation when immigrants face ‘unfamiliar' rituals and social experiences in the host society. For doing this, the present study relies on the literature on acculturation theory, acculturation tensions, and role theory, the latter of which helps the researchers explain role distance conflicts and double bind situations that have been discovered in empirical data. The findings show four types of acculturation-mediated conflicts: (1) resisting host norms and values, (2) miscomprehending ritual practices, (3) disempowerment, and (4) trouble with role adjustment. The authors discuss how many of the immigrants end up in cultural clashes, or ‘limbo zone' role conflicts, that turn paradoxical because individuals face a situation that is difficult to continue and at the same time difficult to get away from.