Perceived discrimination has been commonly studied as a stressor in migrants’ psychological acculturation process. However, scholars have hardly ever distinguished between subtle and blatant forms of discrimination. Indeed, a scoping review previously conducted by us considered 144 articles that examined the role of perceived discrimination for first-generation immigrants’ acculturation and found that only ten percent of them explicitly considered the role of subtle vs./or blatant discrimination in the context of acculturation. Furthermore, the review revealed that the conceptualization and operationalization of these forms of discrimination is often fuzzy and unclear (e.g., the same measures have been adopted to assess both blatant and subtle discrimination in different studies). In the present study, we attempt to disentangle the constructs of perceived, subtle, and blatant discrimination by providing clear definitions that can inform future research. Then, we look at how subtle and blatant forms of discrimination have been operationalized in the acculturation literature by presenting a qualitative content analysis of the quantitative scales that have been more frequently used in the field. In the analysis, we highlight which items of each scale focus on these different forms of discrimination. Finally, we build on some theoretical frameworks (e.g., microaggressions) to point out some indications and future directions for the field.

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Subtle discrimination,blatant discrimination,conceptual review