Newcomers and New Beginnings: Factors Facilitating Single vs. Coupled Newcomers’ Adaptation

Globally, migration has steadily inclined as newcomers seek economic opportunities abroad, seek safety from war, political unrest, or persecution, and due to devastation brought on by natural disasters (Jarvis & Kirmayer, 2023; International Organization for Migration, 2024). The process of adapting to a new environment is often accompanied by the loss of one’s close social relationships. Yet, despite the widely established importance of social support networks for well-being (Guruge et al., 2015), the current body of literature on newcomers has predominantly focused on individual factors that impact newcomers’ psychological outcomes. One important social resource that is available to migrants might be their romantic partner. Newcomers who migrate solo may experience negative psychological outcomes such as lower perceptions of social support as they encounter new and potentially stressful experiences without the help of their social support networks or a romantic partner (Bas Sarmiento et al., 2017; Lee et al., 2020). On the contrary, coupled newcomers (that is, newcomers who migrate with their spouse or intimate partner) may experience less distress and may be more adept at coping in the face of stressful experiences because they are able to rely on their partner for social support (Ermer et al., 2020; Government of Canada, 2021). For single newcomers, limited social support may undermine acculturation in their new society. In addition, it is also possible that migration is associated with positive outcomes via self-expansion opportunities. For single newcomers, migration may boost one’s opportunity of seeing novel experiences and cultivating relationships with new people, thus promoting the development of new social ties within one’s new society. In contrast, coupled newcomers may be more limited in their ability to form social ties in their new community. Particularly, those who migrate with a partner may prefer to remain within their “coupled-up bubble” due to familiarity and comfort with what is known. As such, it is imperative to identify distinct experiences among single and coupled newcomers to understand how to effectively enhance acculturation among newcomers.