It is well-established that experiences of discrimination influence immigrants’ acculturation. Yet, whereas a large body of research has demonstrated the role of discrimination by members of the dominant societal group, surprisingly little is known about how being discriminated by members of one’s own group relates to the way immigrants acculturate. With a sample of 162 African first- and second-generation immigrants living in Norway, the present research investigated the relationship between both types of discrimination, acculturation and psychological well-being. It did so, focusing on discrimination based on one’s skin tone, a type of discrimination Africans can experience from White as well as African individuals. Results showed that skin-tone discrimination by Whites was associated with a lower host culture orientation. By contrast, skin-tone discrimination by Africans was associated with a lower heritage culture orientation. Mediation analyses showed that the positive relationship of skin-tone discrimination by Whites and Africans with life satisfaction was mediated by a lower host and heritage culture orientation respectively. This indirect relationship did not reach significance with self-esteem as dependent variable. Participants’ actual skin tone was unrelated to experiences of skin-tone discrimination. We discuss our results in light of previous research and highlight potential limitations. © 2018 Kunst, Phillibert. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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immigrant Norway Caucasian human African self esteem Humans migrant psychology Black person life satisfaction African Continental Ancestry Group male Emigrants and Immigrants Acculturation female dependent variable inheritance cultural factor Article adult European Continental Ancestry Group skin pigmentation psychological well-being