Bridges or Buffers? Motives behind Immigrants’ Religiosity - A Comparative Study of Europe and the United States Abstract: This study reviews and evaluates the motives and incentives behind immigrants’ religiosity, focusing on the two sides of the Atlantic – Europe and the United States. The contribution of the study is mainly empirical, trying to identify indicators for the type of incentive – whether immigrants’ religiosity serves as a ‘bridge’ or a ‘buffer’ in the process of adaptation to the receiving country. The statistical analysis draws on data from several waves of the European Social Survey (ESS), the American General Social Survey (GSS), and the International Social Survey Program (ISSP). Estimation of extended ‘mass participation equations’ and ‘prayer equations’ leads to the following findings: (a) immigrants are indeed more religious than the populations in the receiving countries, both in Europe and in the United States; and (b) while in the United States the religiosity of immigrants serves as a bridge between the immigrants and the local population, in Europe it has mainly the function of a buffer and of a “balm for the soul”. There is an extensive literature on the ‘bridge versus buffer’ (or ‘bridge versus boundary’) theories and their different implications in the United States and in Europe. However, to the best of our knowledge, our paper presents an innovative attempt to disentangle the two types of motives and to show that while the former is more relevant in the United States, the latter dominates in Europe. Introduction and motivation The religiosity of immigrants has received the increasing attention of social scientists. Religiosity of immigrants is important from a social perspective as well due to the massive inflow of immigrants into Western countries, who now constitute a significant share of the population in many countries and substantially affect the economy and society in their countries of residence. Religiosity is an important factor in the adaptation process and reflects on social and economic outcomes. Because religiosity has behavioral aspects (e.g., marriage and fertility) it also has long-term consequences and will affect future demographic and cultural transitions. A better understanding of the various facets of immigrant religiosity can lead to improved forecasts of these future transitions and a better preparation for the outcomes. Comprehensive data bases, including cross-national and longitudinal surveys, are now accessible, thus facilitating careful statistical analyses. However, many questions concerning the immigration-religiosity intersection still remain unanswered. While it is believed that immigrants tend to be more religious than the native population, the incentives behind the intensified religiosity of immigrants are less clear. In particular: is immigrants’ religious performance driven by socio-economic motives relating to the establishment of networks and bridges that connect them to the local population, or does it stem from psychological bonding and comforting motives, serving as a “balm for the soul” and as a buffer against the hardships of integration? These two types of motives have been discussed in the literature (e.g., Casanova, 2007; Foner and Alba, 2008; Connor and Koenig, 2013; see the more detailed review below) but have not been tested empirically. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first innovative attempt to disentangle the two types of motives and show which of the two is dominant. It will be claimed that the dominance of one type of incentive over the other is country specific. While in the United States the religiosity of immigrants serves as a bridge that leads to the integration of immigrants in the host population, in Europe the bonding motives are more powerful. The question of the principal incentive is important and has long-term consequences: a dominant bridging motive leads to the better integration of immigrants, while a buffering/bonding motive could lead to alienation and hostility against immigrants. The constant inflow of immigrants into Europe and the United States, and in particular the growing share of the Moslem immigrant community, intensifies the social perspectives of the immigration-religiosity intersection. Based on the existing literature and on a statistical analysis of several data sets (the International Social Survey Program – ISSP: Module Religion, 2008; the European Social Survey – ESS, waves 2002-2010; and the American General Social Survey – GSS, waves 2002-2010), we aim to offer quantitative contributions to the literature on the motives behind the immigration-religiosity interaction on the two sides of the Atlantic - Europe and the United States by: (i) starting with descriptive statistics on foreign-born populations and the religious landscape of the native and immigrant populations in European countries and the United States. In particular, religion and religiosity of immigrants is examined and compared to religion/religiosity of natives in the receiving countries. These immigrant-native differences, coupled with differences in fertility, will obviously shape future changes in the religious landscapes of European countries; (ii) following the background information, a core issue that relates to motives and incentives behind immigrants’ religiosity is explored. The bridging versus the bonding theories is tested and cases of European countries versus the United States are contrasted. The historical differences in the state-religion relationship, immigration policies and concepts lead to the expectation of different motives. It is likely that immigrants’ religiosity has a bridging motive in the United States, given that the country was founded on the immigration of people from different religious backgrounds, while Europe has instead strong national religious connotations. In Europe, the religiosity of immigrants will therefore stem from bonding motives and serve as a buffer against the adversities of adaptation. Regression analysis indeed unravels a pronounced ‘bridging’ motive in the United States versus a noticeable ‘bonding-buffer’ component in Europe. It should be noted that our empirical analysis tries to unravel and identify indicators of motives/incentives for the religious performance of immigrants and sort them out between ‘bridging’ versus ‘bonding’ motives. We do not look into the relationship between the religiosity of immigrants and consecutive economic and social integration outcomes, such as educational attainments, employment, earnings or occupational attainments. The article is structured as follows: the next section presents background information and a literature overview on immigration and religiosity in the United States and Europe, focusing on the ‘bridging’ versus the ‘buffer-bonding’ elements. An empirical analysis aiming at unraveling the motives behind immigrants’ religiosity follows in the third section, while the last section summarizes and concludes. Full study here - econ.biu.ac.il/files/economics/working-papers/2013-08.pdf
Posted on: Tue, 03 Dec 2013 15:11:04 +0000
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