Proceedings of The International Social Sciences Conference
Year: 2024
DOI:
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Communication Across Cultures: The Case of Moroccans Living in Belgium
Mohammed ADLI
ABSTRACT:
Communication plays an important role not only in one society, but in all societies as well. It is a part of people’s everyday life because it shapes and regulates their lives. No one in this globe can live without communication because it is extremely fundamental to every area of life: at home, at work, at the university or out in the street. Every minute, people keep exchanging a great number of ideas and pieces of information. Their goal is to achieve effective communication and reach mutual understanding by sending and receiving messages. However, communication is not the only aspect, which seems to govern human relations. Culture, too, is closely attached to human orientation and is present in almost every interaction. Culture has to do not only with material objects such as houses and means of transport, for example, but with other aspects of life such as behaviors, languages, values and customs as well. The present paper will attempt, on the one hand, to question the close relationship between communication and culture and, on the other hand, to shed some light on the extent to which Moroccan Immigrants have been able to bridge the communication and cultural barriers and integrate in the Belgium society.
keywords: Barriers, Ethnocentrism, Stereotypes, Immigration, Solutions