Religiosity, values, and acculturation

Abstract

We address the understudied religious dimension of acculturation in acculturating adolescents who combine a religious Islamic heritage with a secularized Christian mainstream culture. The religiosity of 197 Turkish Belgian adolescents was compared with that of 366 agemates in Turkey (the heritage culture) and 203 in Belgium (the mainstream culture) and related to cultural values, acculturation orientations, and ethnic identification. Belgian adolescents showed lower and declining religiosity with age, whereas Turkish and Turkish Belgian adolescents were more religious regardless of age. Acculturating adolescents reaffirmed religion as compared with monocultural adolescents in Turkey. Religious reaffirmation was related to cultural values of interdependence, heritage culture maintenance, and ethnic identification.

The vicious circle of religious prejudice: Islamophobia makes the acculturation attitudes of majority and minority members clash

“…When participants experienced only low degrees of islamophobia, both constructs were virtually unrelated. Analogous to earlier studies (Güngör et al, 2012;Güngör et al, 2011), religious identity was related to higher levels of ethnic orientation. Yet, the experience of religious discrimination further amplified this relationship as the simple slopes indicated: Their religious identity related especially strongly to an ethnic orientation when participants experienced high degrees of islamophobia.…”

“…Generally speaking, among Muslim minorities, religious identity predicts a stronger preference for maintaining and engaging in their ethnic culture (Güngör, Bornstein, & Phalet, 2012;Güngör, Fleischmann, & Phalet, 2011), which makes sense because their religious and ethnic identity in fact often overlap (Verkuyten & Martinovic, 2012;Verkuyten & Yildiz, 2007). However, the little research that has investigated the relationship between religious identity and engagement in the national sphere has produced inconsistent results.…”

The Specificity Principle in Acculturation Science

“…However, this dynamic depends on the domain and is not always advantageous. In some domains immigrants may maintain their culture of origin (e.g., religious practices in Foner & Alba, 2008; Ross-Sheriff, Tirmazi, & Walsh, 2007); in other domains, immigrants may be in the process of changing from culture of origin to destination (e.g., vocal interactions of parents in Gratier, 2003; knowledge of child development in Bornstein & Cote, 2007; restrictive childrearing attitudes; Chiu, 1987; Lin & Fu, 1990); in still others, immigrants may have completed a change from their culture of origin to resemble their culture of destination (e.g., personality in Güngör, Bornstein, & Phalet, 2012; mother-infant interaction in Bornstein, Cote, Haynes, Suwalsky, & Bakeman, 2012; Caudill & Frost, 1972, 1974). Caudill and Frost (1972, 1974), for example, observed Sansei (third-generation) Japanese American mothers and their Yonsei (fourth-generation) infants.…”

Collective memories of colonialism and acculturation dynamics among Congolese immigrants living in Belgium

“…Moreover, little attention has been paid to the acculturation dynamics among Congolese immigrants living in Belgium, as most of the acculturation literature developed in Belgium has focused on other groups of immigrants, such as the Muslim communities (e.g. mainly Moroccan and Turkish, see Beirens & Fontaine, 2011;Güngör, Bornstein, & Phalet, 2012;Kosic & Phalet, 2006;Saroglou & Mathijsen, 2007;Van Praag, Stevens, & Van Houtte, 2016), people originating from other European countries (e.g. Gkoumasi, 2014;Grigoryev, 2016;Phalet & Swyngedouw, 2003), and Latin American/Hispanic speaking immigrants (e.g.…”