The intake and settlement of immigrants has become a core issue in many societies, with political, economic, educational and psychological dimensions. How can we understand the orientations of both immigrants and receiving societies with respect to their acculturation and settlement? It is now clear that not all immigrants settle into their new lives in the same way. It is equally clear that they all do not have the same experiences, nor do they achieve the same degree of success in their personal lives, or in their communities. It is also clear that not all receiving societies attempt to settle immigrants in the same way. This presentation poses three questions: what are the variations in how immigrants and the national society seek to acculturate; what are the variations in how well they adapt; and what are the relationships between ways of acculturating and levels of successful adaptation? If there are important relationships between how and how well, then it may be possible to outline a best practice for societies of settlement and their institutions (particularly educational and justices ystems), and for immigrant cultural communities (including families and individuals) to adopt over the early years following their migration. These questions will be addressed using concepts and evidence from earlier research with adults, and from recent studies of youth (Berry, Phinney, Sam & Vedder, 2006; Berry & Sabatier, 2010). In essence, results show that those immigrants who embrace both their culture of origin and the society of settlement have better psychological and social adaptation than those who are oriented toward one, or the other (or neither) group. Some policy implications are advanced based on analyses of variations across individuals and across societies of settlement.