Immigrant Religiosity in Canada: Multiple Trajectories

Although much research focuses on the economic and linguistic adaptation of immigrants to their new societies, it is rare to find research that studies the religious adaptation of immigrants at a national level. Using longitudinal data among immigrants to Canada in 2001, hypothesized trajectories of immigrant religiosity during initial settlement controlling for a number of individual and contextual level factors are explored. Religious group membership increases a few years after migration and then falls back to earlier levels within 4 years after migration. However, religious participation declines throughout the adaptation process, while the likelihood of religious volunteerism dramatically increases. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of potential explanations for these seemingly contradictory trajectories.     

Religious Affiliation and Attendance Among Immigrants in Eight Western Countries: Individual and Contextual Effects

This study examines the religious affiliation and participation of immigrants from a large-scale, comparative perspective. I propose a "specific migration" framework, in which immigrants' religiosity is an outcome of both individual characteristics and contextual properties related to immigrants' country of origin, country of destination, and combinations of origin and destination (i.e., communities). I use notions discussed in the religion and migration literature that fit into this scheme. To test these ideas, I collected and standardized 20 existing surveys on immigrants in eight Western countries, yielding about 38,000 immigrants. Applying multilevel models, I found, among other things, that: (1) immigrants from countries with higher levels of modernization express lower levels of religious commitment; (2) immigrants in religious countries are more religious themselves; and (3) the well-documented higher levels of religious commitment among women is not generalizable to immigrants.     

Examining Islamic Associations of Pakistani and Bangladeshi Immigrants in Greece

Abstract

Since the mid-1970s the territory of Greece has turned from an emigration to an immigration space. A considerable number among the thousands of immigrants that arrive every year in the country are of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin and of Muslim faith. Their Muslim background plays a significant role in the organisation of their communities. Islam is a strong factor when it comes to the development of their social life and in this sense it influences the process of immigrants' acculturation within the host society. The informal worship place (informal mosque) is the space where the faithful fulfil their religious duties, meet each other and spend much of their free time discussing and exchanging views on mundane and more serious matters. However, the majority of the informal mosques are related to various Islamic associations which hold their own views on religion, society and life. The Pakistani and the Bangladeshi Islamic associations in Greece fall into two broad categories: the missionary movements and groups and the organisations with a ‘political dimension’. An examination of the Islamic associations' discourse, activities and aims shows that the organisations of the first category promote a very conservative stance for their constituencies towards the host society, whereas those of the second category encourage the immigrants to integrate, while preserving, however, their ‘Islamic values’. Meanwhile, the efforts of the Greek state and society to integrate the Muslim immigrants with a long presence in the country lack in determination and effectiveness.     

Religion and Civic Engagement in Muslim Countries

Previous studies of religion on civic and political participation focus primarily on Western Christian societies. Studies of Muslim societies concentrate on Islamic religiosity's effect on attitudes toward democracy, not on how Muslim religious participation carries over into social and political arenas. This article examines the relationship between religion and civic engagement in nine Muslim‐majority countries using data from the World Values Surveys. I find that active participation in Muslim organizations is associated with greater civic engagement, while religious service attendance is not. In a subset of countries, daily prayer is associated with less civic engagement. The main area in which Muslim societies differ from Western ones is in the lack of association between civic engagement, trust, and tolerance. Religious participation is a more significant predictor of secular engagement than commonly used “social capital” measures, suggesting a need to adapt measures of religiosity to account for differences in religious expression across non‐Christian faiths.     

Social support as a moderator of the relationship between religious participation and psychological distress in a sample of community dwelling older adults

This study investigated relationships among religious participation, social support, and psychological distress within a sample of older adults while controlling for the influence of significant demographic variables. Community-dwelling older adults between the ages of 65 and 90 (n?=?115) completed a packet of instruments including the Negative Affect Scale of the PANAS, the Social Provisions Scale (SPS) and a tailored survey that included questions regarding religious participation and demographic variables. Correlational and multiple regression analyses were performed to determine predictors of negative affect. Results indicated that religious participation continued to predict negative affect with the effect of demographic variables statistically controlled for. Subjective social support was also found to moderate the relationship between religious participation and psychological distress. Religious participation appears to be more important regarding alleviating distress for those elderly low in social support compared with those high in social support. Religious participation may thus occupy an important position with regards to factors that manage psychological distress among elderly individuals, particularly for those low in social support.     

Ethnoracial Origins, Social Capital, and Earnings

The purpose of this article is to analyse ethnoracial differences in income attainment, as well as differences in earnings that can be attributed to social capital. The data set is the Ethnic Diversity Survey, a large survey of Canadians conducted by Statistics Canada in 2002. Bivariate and multivariate analyses show that ethnoracial minorities are disadvantaged when compared with the British or whites in general. This disparity remains even after controlling for a host of theoretically relevant variables. The brunt of this disadvantage is experienced by male visible-minority immigrants. Although social capital is shown to exert an independent effect on earnings, its benefit varies by social origins, types of social capital, birth, and gender. Trust is important for females’ earnings but not for males’. Family contact and religious participation benefits British males’ earnings more than those of visible-minority males. Religious participation also benefits those born in Canada more than those who immigrated to Canada. In contrast, female immigrants benefit from their associational participation more than females born in Canada.     

Effects of Religious Participation on Social Inclusion and Existential Well-Being Levels of Muslim Refugees and Immigrants in Turkey

ABSTRACT

Being a refugee or immigrant brings many difficulties that can detrimentally affect well-being. Participation in social life and feeling included in the host country can play an important role on well-being. This article aims to investigate the effects of religious participation and social inclusion on well-being levels of refugees and immigrants. Data were collected from 97 participants who were enrolled in voluntary Turkish language courses for refugees in Istanbul. Results of path analysis indicated that religious participation enhanced the level of social inclusion and social inclusion fostered existential well-being. Although religious participation demonstrated no direct effects on existential well-being, it showed a significant and positive indirect effect through social inclusion. Results of difference tests indicated that participants with higher level of education attended to religious activities significantly more often and their existential well-being and social inclusion levels were higher as well. Results also demonstrated that social inclusion scores of high attenders (to religious activities) were significantly higher.     

Tradition versus tradition: Mizrahi pupils in National Religious schools in Israel, 1948–1990

Absorbing the immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa in Israel was one of the Israeli education system’s important tasks. This article deals with the way the National Religious schools treated these new immigrants and their descendants, known as Oriental Jews, Mizrahi Jews, or “Mizrahim.” The differences between Mizrahi Jews and Ashkenazi Jews (those of European ancestry) were related to differences in religious traditions, academic level, and religious observance. Educators imposed the Ashkenazi tradition on Mizrahi pupils. This created social tension and alienated Mizrahi pupils from the system. On the other side, Ashkenazi pupils who had difficulties with the heterogeneous educational environment left the public system and enrolled in more religious schools, which had a much smaller percentage of Mizrahi pupils. This segregation was even more common at the high school level. Ashkenazim attended yeshiva high schools, while Mizrahi pupils went to regular high schools. Small changes were evident by the 1990s. By that time, more Mizrahi pupils were attending the elite yeshivot, and the public system adopted a more multicultural attitude and included the Mizrahi tradition as well.     

The Religiosity of Immigrants in Europe: A Cross‐National Study

This study examines cross‐national differences in the religiosity of immigrants in Europe utilizing three different measures of religiosity: religious attendance, praying, and subjective religiosity. Hypotheses are formulated by drawing upon a variety of theories—scientific worldview, insecurity, religious markets, and social integration. The hypotheses are tested using European Social Survey data (2002–2008) from more than 10,000 first‐generation immigrants living in 27 receiving countries. Multilevel models show that, on the individual level, religiosity is higher among immigrants who are unemployed, less educated, and who have recently arrived in the host country. On the contextual level, the religiosity of natives positively affects immigrant religiosity. The models explain about 60 percent of the cross‐national differences in religious attendance and praying of immigrants and about 20 percent of the cross‐national differences in subjective religiosity.     

Increase or Decrease? The Impact of the International Migratory Event on Immigrant Religious Participation

Immigrant religiosity has recently become a hot topic both in academia and in the public arena. For years, a debate has existed as to whether there is an increase or decrease of immigrant religious participation surrounding the migratory event. Some argue that the act of migration spurs an increase in immigrant religious participation, while others contend that migration is a disruptive event and decreases immigrant religious participation. In addition to contextual factors, a number of micro-level factors may explain this change in religious participation: sex, family composition, religious affiliation, and employment status. This article uses longitudinal data from Quebec, Canada surveying nearly 1,000 immigrants during the 1990s. Results indicate that immigrant religious participation decreases substantially as compared to the average level of religious participation among the same immigrants prior to their migration. Besides religious affiliation, most of the micro-level factors hypothesized to explain this change in religious participation prove statistically insignificant. The lack of significant results for micro-level factors points to environmental factors that may be at work.     

Trajectories of Religious Participation from Adolescence to Young Adulthood

Using a life course approach, this study examines trajectories of religious participation from early adolescence through young adulthood. Distinct patterns of religious participation are identified, providing insight into how trajectories are shaped by family and religious characteristics and demonstrating the influence of life events on changes in religious participation. The study employs a group-based method of trajectory analysis, identifying three trajectories of stable religious participation (nonattendance, occasional attendance, and frequent attendance) and three trajectories of change (early, late, and gradual declining attendance). Residing with two biological parents and in a religious family increases the likelihood that youth attend religious services throughout adolescence. Religious disaffiliation is associated with lower religious participation for youth in all trajectories; marriage, cohabitation, and religious switching/conversion are associated with changes in participation among youth in the frequent and occasional attendance trajectories only.     

“Unpacking” the Identity‐to‐Politics Link: The Effects of Social Identification on Voting Among Muslim Immigrants in Western Europe

The identity‐to‐politics link assumes that individuals who share a certain demographic feature also share common political pursuits. This article critically examines that presumed relationship by analyzing how voting probability is affected by social identification in combination with other elements—namely, perception of shared grievances and group resources. Tallying responses from Muslim immigrants in Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom via surveys conducted for the European research project EURISLAM, this study supports the assumption that social identification affects voting in specific circumstances. The results show that identifying with the origin country decreases voting probability among Muslim immigrants in Europe. Another finding was the context‐specific effect of social identification. That is, origin‐country identification's effect is contingent on an individual's perception of shared grievances and national identification; and origin country and religious identifications' effects are contingent on an individual's perception of shared grievances, national identification, and group differences.     

An Exploratory Study of Religiosity, Meaning in Life and Subjective Wellbeing in Muslim Students from Algeria

This study explores the relationships between religiosity, Meaning in Life and Subjective Wellbeing (SWB) in a sample of 495 Muslim students (330 Females, and 165 males) from Algeria. Their Mean age is 21.26 (SD2.30). Relying on experts’ judgments and pilot-testing, a Comprehensive Measure of Islamic Religiosity (CMIR) has been developed. It consists of 60 items covering four broad areas with high inter-correlations: Religious Belief, Religious Practice, Religious Altruism, and Enrichment of religious experience. A short version of the ‘Presence of Meaning in Life’ (PML) scale, Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS), and Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI) are also administered in one set of questionnaires, together with religiosity items. The results indicate that Religious Belief and Religious Altruism significantly contribute in providing subjects with meaning in life. Nevertheless, Hierarchical Regression Analyses show that only Religious Belief makes a significant contribution in both SWLS and PWI. But, this effect has almost totally been accounted for by Meaning in life in the second step. Comparisons on the basis of the demographic characteristics show that males marginally differ from females (p < .05) in Religious Altruism, but these latter are higher in SWLS (p < .05). Moreover, it has been shown that students of science score marginally higher in Belief and Practice and also in PML, and SWLS compared to their counterparts of Arts studies. Though no differences are found in the strength of religious belief in subjects from rural and urban location, the former have generally higher scores on other religiosity subscales. This trend is slightly reversed in PWI (p < .05). Furthermore, subjects from high income families are favoured in PML, SWLS, and PWI. These results are discussed on the light of current international research.     

Religious identification and politicization in the face of discrimination: support for political Islam and political action among the Turkish and Moroccan second generation in Europe

Taking an approach from religion as a social identity and using large-scale comparative surveys in five European cities, we investigate when and how perceived discrimination is associated with religious identification and politicization among the second generation of Turkish and Moroccan Muslims. We distinguish support for political Islam from political action as distinct forms of politicization. In addition, we test the mediating role of religious identification in processes of politicization. Study 1 estimates multi-group structural equation models of support for political Islam in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Sweden. In line with a social identity model of politicization and across nine inter-group contexts, Muslims who perceived more discrimination identified (even) more strongly as Muslims; and high Muslim identifiers were most ready to support political Islam. In support of a competing social stigma hypothesis, however, negative direct and total effects of perceived discrimination suggest predominant depoliticization. Using separate sub-samples across four inter-group contexts in Belgium, Study 2 adds political action tendencies as a distinct form of politicization. Whereas religious identification positively predicts both forms of politicization, perceived discrimination has differential effects: Muslims who perceived more discrimination were more weary of supporting political Islam, yet more ready to engage in political action to defend Islamic values. Taken together, the studies reveal that some Muslim citizens will politicize and others will depoliticize in the face of discrimination as a function of their religious identification and of prevailing forms of politicization.     

Sacred Canopies or Religious Markets? The Effect of County-Level Religious Diversity on Later Changes in Religious Involvement

Secularization theories, such as Berger's Sacred Canopy argument, hold that religious diversity leads to a decline in religious participation. Religious market models (e.g., Finke and Stark) argue the opposite. Voas, Olson, and Crockett found that nearly all of the vast research exploring this important question prior to 2002 was flawed due to a previously unrecognized noncausal statistical relationship between measures of religious diversity and measures of religious participation. Since 2002, this methodological issue has largely stymied research on this important topic. We first describe how, following Voas et al.’s recommendations, longitudinal models can overcome these problems. We then apply these methods to data measuring the religious composition of all U.S. counties found in the Religious Congregations and Membership Studies from 1980, 1990, 2000, and 2010. Using multilevel longitudinal regression models, we find that greater county-level religious diversity is followed by later declines in county-level religious participation rates. The negative effect size of religious diversity is large and robust to changes in the control variables and different methods of measuring religious diversity.     

Varieties of openness in Tehran and Qom: psychological and religious parallels of faith and intellect-oriented Islamic religious reflection

This study examined whether faith and intellect-oriented religious reflection would be polarised in Iranian Muslins as they appear to be in American Christians. Iranian students at a university in Tehran and at an Islamic seminary in Qom responded to Faith and Intellect-Oriented Islamic Religious Reflection measures along with scales recording various forms of religious commitment and psychological openness. Both types of religious reflection and the Intrinsic Religious Orientation predicted greater Integrative Self-Knowledge, Openness to Experience, and Need for Cognition and also interacted in ways suggesting complexity in Muslim thought. Comparisons between Tehran and Qom students supported the same conclusion. The Quest Religious Orientation had limited relevance for understanding Muslim commitments. The Extrinsic Personal Religious Orientation predicted greater and the Extrinsic Social Religious Orientation predicted lower psychological openness. These data contrasted with previous evidence of polarisation in the religious reflection of American Christians. They also argued against any simple equation of Muslim commitments with cognitive and religious rigidity.     

Religion and politics among Arab seafarers in Britain in the early twentieth century

For the communities of Arab seafarers who settled at British ports, religion and politics were two domains that remained closely intermeshed throughout the first half of the twentieth century. A number of international Islamic organizations were active among the Arab seafarers during this time. The Islamic Society and the Western Islamic Association were active among these Arab seafaring communities during periods of acute tension and unrest. After the 1919 race riots, the Islamic Society called for reconciliation and understanding rather than resistance, and in 1930 the Western Islamic Association sought to counter the activities of those Arabs who chose resistance and solidarity with the Communist‐led Seamen's Minority Movement. The North African‐based ^c Alawi tariqa creaud something of a religious revival among the Arab seafarers during the 1930s and 1940s. Its efforts appear to have been welcomed and supported by the British authorities as a useful counter to Communist propaganda.     

Differentiating religious coping from Islamic identification in patient and non-patient Pakistani Muslims

Pakistanis suffering from major medical problems and non-patient controls responded to two factors from the Psychological Measure of Islamic Religiousness that operationalised religious coping. Punishing Allah Reappraisal correlated positively with Poorer Psychological Functioning and External Control and negatively with Self-Adjustment. Factor analytic procedures demonstrated that the Islamic Positive Religious Coping and Identification subscale (IPRCIS) contained three dimensions. These Positive Islamic Coping, Islamic Identification, and Extra-Prayer Commitment factors displayed similar linkages with single-item measures of religious orientation and religious interest. Positive Islamic Coping also had noteworthy implications for understanding Muslim religious coping. These data most importantly demonstrated that the IPRCIS is a multidimensional construct, that Punishing Allah Reappraisal is maladaptive, and that the influences of beneficial Muslim forms of coping may be complex.     

New religious movements in Islamic West Africa

Christianity and Islam have interacted extensively with traditional African faiths to engender innovative religious developments known as 'New Religious Movements in Africa'. Although the majority of these movements have arisen out of the interaction with Christianity, a number of them have been inspired by Islam. The article, following an established paradigm for New Religious Movements, covers 'African-Related Movements' which are neo-primal, i.e. movements where the inner dynamic and basic structure derives from traditional faith to enable them to cope with new situations and the 'Synthetist movements' which reflect a real assimilation of Islamic elements, but are less ethnocentric and more universal in outlook. The former are referred to as 'Africanized neo-Islamic Movements' whereas the latter are called 'Orthodox New Islamic Movements'. Between these two are the 'traditional movements'. Reasons for the different effects of Islam and Christianity on African tradition and a comparison of Islamic and Christian movements are also presented.