Religion and new immigrants' labor market entry in Western Europe
Abstract
This paper analyzes the effects of religious participation upon a major socio-economic integration outcome, namely employment, among recent Christian and Muslim newcomers in three Western European destination countries: Germany, the Netherlands, and Great Britain. The paper revisits theoretical arguments about religious participation as an ethnic investment strategy or, alternatively, as a bridge to the societal mainstream. Drawing on the longitudinal dataset produced in the international survey project on ‘Socio-cultural Integration Processes among New Immigrants in Europe’ (SCIP), the paper puts these arguments to a rigorous test by analyzing effects of involvement in religious communities on employment and by scrutinizing channeling effects of the ethnic composition of religious congregations for recent migrants’ entry into mainstream versus ethnic niche economies. The paper finds only limited support for either of the two arguments, suggesting that religious participation is structurally decoupled from socio-economic integration. However, persisting net employment gaps between recent Christian and Muslim immigrants might indicate the existence of religiously marked and socio-economically consequential boundaries in Western Europe.
Get full access to this article
View all access and purchase options for this article.
References
Adida CL, Laitin D, Valfort MA (2010) Identifying barriers to Muslim integration in France. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 107(52): 22384–22390.
Akresh IR (2011) Immigrants religious participation in the United States. Ethnic and Racial Studies 34(4): 643–661.
Alba R, Foner N (2014) Comparing immigrant integration in North America and Western Europe: how much do the grand narratives tell us? International Migration Review 48(S1): 262–290.
Alba R, Nee V (2003) Remaking the American Mainstream: Assimilation and Contemporary Immigration, Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Bankston CL III, Zhou M (1996) The ethnic church, ethnic identification, and the social adjustment of Vietnamese adolescents. Review of Religious Research 38(1): 18–37.
Baumann M (2014) Becoming a civil society organisation? Dynamics of immigrant religious communities in civil society and public space. Nordic Journal of Religion and Society 27(2): 113–130.
Bisin A, Patacchini E, Verdier T, et al. (2011) Ethnic identity and labour market outcomes of immigrants in Europe. Economic Policy 26(65): 57–92.
Breton R (1964) Institutional completeness of ethnic communities and the personal relations of immigrants. American Journal of Sociology 70(2): 193–205.
Breton R (2012) Different Gods. Integrating Non-Christian Minorities into a Primarily Christian Society, Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press.
Brubaker R (2014) Linguistic and religious pluralism: between difference and inequality. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 41(1): 3–32.
Casanova J (1994) Public Religions in the Modern World, Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Cheung SY (2014) Ethno-religious minorities and labour market integration: generational advancement or decline? Ethnic and Racial Studies 37(1): 140–160.
Chiswick BR (2003) Patterns of immigrant occupational attainment in a longitudinal survey. International Migration Review 41(4): 47–69.
Connor P (2009) Immigrant religiosity in Canada: multiple trajectories. Journal of International Migration and Integration 10(2): 159–175.
Connor P (2011) Religion as resource: Religion and immigrant economic incorporation. Social Science Research 40(5): 1350–1361.
Connor P, Koenig M (2013) Bridge and barrier. Religion and immigrant occupational attainment accross integration contexts. International Migration Review 47(1): 3–38.
Connor P, Koenig M (2015) The Muslim employment gap in Western Europe. Individual-level effects or ethno-religious penalties? Social Science Research 49: 191–201.
Diehl C, et al. (2015) Socio-Cultural Integration Processes of New Immigrants in Europe (SCIP) – Data file for download. GESIS Data Archive, Cologne.
Diehl C, Koenig M (2013) God can wait. Polish and Turkish new immigrants in Germany between early adaptation and religious reorganization. International Migration 51(3): 8–22.
Diehl C, Lubbers M, Platt L (2016) Starting out: new migrants socio-cultural integration trajectories in four European destinations (Introduction). Ethnicities 16(2): 157–179.
Edwards KL, Christerson B, Emerson MO (2013) Race, religious organizations, and integration. Annual Review of Sociology 39: 211–228.
Esser H (2004) Does the ‘new’ immigration require a ‘new’ theory of intergenerational integration? International Migration Review 38(3): 1126–1159.
Fleischmann F, Phalet K (2012) Integration and religiosity among the Turkish second generation in Europe: A comparative analysis across four capital cities. Ethnic and Racial Studies 35(2): 320–341.
Foner N, Alba R (2008) Immigrant religion in the U.S. and Western Europe: Bridge or barrier to inclusion? International Migration Review 42(2): 360–392.
Fuller S, Martin TF (2012) Predicting immigrant employment sequences in the first years of settlement. International Migration Review 46(1): 138–190.
Gresser A and Schacht D (2015) SCIP Survey – Methodological Report. Konstanz. Available at: www.scip-info.org (accessed 2 November 2015).
Güveli A (2015) Are movers more religious than stayers? Religiosity of European majority, Turks in Europe and Turkey. Review of Religious Research 57(1): 43–62.
Güveli A, Platt L (2011) Understanding the religious behaviour of Muslims in the Netherlands and the UK. Sociology 45(6): 1008–1027. .
Halaby CN (2005) Panel models in sociological research: Theory into practice. Annual Review of Sociology 30: 507–544.
Heath A, Cheung SY (2007) Unequal Chances: Ethnic Minorities in Western Labour Markets. Proceedings of the British Academy 137, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Heath A, Martin J (2013) Can religious affiliation explain ethnic inequalities in the labour market? Ethnic and Racial Studies 36(6): 1005–1027.
Helbling M (2012) (ed.) Islamophobia in the West. Measuring and Explaining Individual Attitudes. London: Routledge.
Hirschman C (2004) The role of religion in the origins and adaptation of immigrant groups in the United States. International Migration Review 38(3): 1206–1233.
Johnston R, Sirkeci I, Khattab N, et al. (2010) Ethno-religious categories and measuring occupational attainment in relation to education in England and Wales: A multilevel analysis. Environment and Planning A 42(3): 578–591.
Kanas A, Van Tubergen F, Van Der Lippe T (2011) The role of social contacts in the employment status of immigrants: A panel study of immigrants in Germany. International Sociology 26(1): 95–122.
Khattab N (2009) Ethno-religious background as a determinant of educational and occupational attainment in Britain. Sociology 43(2): 304–322.
Khoudja Y, Fleischmann F (2015) Ethnic difference in female labor force participation in the Netherlands: Adding gender roles and religiosity to the explanation. European Sociological Review 31(1): 91–102.
Kogan I (2006) Labor markets and economic incorporation among recent immigrants in Europe. Social Forces 85(2): 679–721.
Koopmans R (2013) Multiculturalism and immigration: A contested field in cross-national comparison. Annual Review of Sociology 39: 147–169.
Koopmans R (2015) Does assimilation work? Sociocultural determinants of labour market participation of European Muslims. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. Epub ahead of print DOI: 10.1080/1369183x.2015.1082903.
Lancee B (2012) Immigrant Performance in the Labour Market. Bonding and Bridging Social Capital, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
Lindley J (2002) Race or religion? The impact of religion on the employment and earnings of Britain's ethnic communities. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 28(3): 409–442.
Lucassen L (2005) The Immigrant Threat: The Integration of Old and New Migrants in Western Europe Since 1850, Champaign: University of Illinois Press.
Luthra RR (2013) Explaining ethnic inequality in the German labor market: Labor market institutions, context of reception, and boundaries. European Sociological Review 29(5): 1095–1107.
Luthra R, Platt L (2016) Elite or middling? International students and migrant diversification. Ethnicites 16(2): 316–344.
Mitchell C (2006) The religious content of ethnic identities. Sociology 40(6): 1135–1152.
Model S, Lin L (2003) The cost of not being Christian: Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims in Britain and Canada. International Migration Review 36(4): 1061–1092.
Mol H (1979) Theory and data on the religious behaviour of migrants. Social Compass 26(1): 31–39.
Pew Research Centre (2012) Faith on the Move. The Religious Affiliation of International Migrants, Washington DC: Pew Research Centre.
Pichler F (2011) Success on European labor markets: A cross-national comparison of attainment between immigrant and majority populations. International Migration Review 45(4): 938–978.
Portes A, Rumbaut RG (2006) Legacies: The Story of the Immigrant Second Generation, Berkeley: University of California Press.
Reitz JG, Banerjee R, Phan M, et al. (2009) Race, religion, and the social integration of new immigrant minorities in Canada. International Migration Review 43(4): 695–726.
Silberman R, Alba R, Fournier I (2007) Segmented assimilation in France? Discrimination in the labor market against the second generation. Ethnic and Racial Studies 30: 1–27.
Van Tubergen F (2005) Self-employment of immigrants: A cross-national survey of 17 Western societies. Social Forces 84(2): 709–732.
Van Tubergen F (2013) Religious change of new immigrants in the Netherlands: The event of migration. Social Science Research 42(3): 715–725.
Van Tubergen F, Maas I, Flap H (2004) The economic incorporation of immigrants in 18 Western societies: Origin, destination and community effects. American Sociological Review 69(5): 704–727.
Voas D (2009) The rise and fall of fuzzy fidelity in Europe. European Sociological Review 25(2): 155–168.
Voas D, Fleischmann F (2012) Islam moves West: Religious change in the first and second generations. Annual Review of Sociology 38: 525–545.
Warner RS (2007) The role of religion in the process of segmented assimilation. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 612: 102–115.
Wiley NF (1967) The ethnic mobility trap and stratification theory. Social Problems 15(2): 147–159.
Cite article
Cite article
Cite article
OR
Download to reference manager
If you have citation software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice
Information, rights and permissions
Information
Published In
Article first published online: April 3, 2016
Issue published: April 2016
Keywords
Authors
Metrics and citations
Metrics
Article usage*
Total views and downloads: 1373
*Article usage tracking started in December 2016
Articles citing this one
Receive email alerts when this article is cited
Web of Science: 27 view articles Opens in new tab
Crossref: 28
- How and why does religion matter for the integration of Muslim minorities? Differentiating religiosity from religious orientations among Turkish Muslims in Germany
- Handbuch Sozialstrukturanalyse
- Religious Diversity, Islam, and Integration in Western Europe—Dissecting Symbolic, Social, and Institutional Boundary DynamicsReligiöse Diversität, Islam und Integration in Westeuropa – Analyse symbolischer, sozialer und institutioneller Grenzdynamiken
- The labour market entry of immigrant women in Germany: disentangling the determinants of labour force participation
- Religiosity of Migrants and Natives in Western Europe 2002–2018: Convergence and Divergence
- Explaining recently arrived refugees' labor market participation: The role of policy characteristics among Syrians in the Netherlands
- The Romanian Orthodox Diaspora in Italy
- Researching religion and migration 20 years after ‘9/11’: Taking stock and looking ahead
- Migrant Women’s Employment: International Turkish Migrants in Europe, Their Descendants, and Their Non-Migrant Counterparts in Turkey
- The interacting effects of religion and birthplace on the labour market outcomes of Asian immigrants in Australia
- View More
Figures and tables
Figures & Media
Tables
View Options
Access options
If you have access to journal content via a personal subscription, university, library, employer or society, select from the options below:
I am signed in as:
View my profileSign out
I can access personal subscriptions, purchases, paired institutional access and free tools such as favourite journals, email alerts and saved searches.
loading institutional access options
Alternatively, view purchase options below:
Purchase 24 hour online access to view and download content.
Access journal content via a DeepDyve subscription or find out more about this option.
