Rethinking Acculturation and Military Transition: An Agenda for Military-Civilian Biculturalism, Reintegration, and Adjustment

Veterans are like migrants, at least according to some military researchers. When service members leave the military, they leave a strong military culture for civilian life, needing to adapt socially, psychologically, and economically to their new life. Confusing this comparison between veterans and migrants; however, is that some veterans are also migrants, born outside their country of military service, raising the question of whether leaving the military is on par with migration as an intercultural transition. Drawing on the example of foreign-born service members, we problematize the notion of “civilian culture.” Then, we reformulate military acculturation theory as military-civilian biculturalism and put forward six questions forming an agenda for future research.