The worst of both worlds? Origin and destination effects on migrant religiosity

Abstract

Insecurity theory states that religiosity is predominantly affected by insecurities experienced during childhood, instead of present insecurities. The empirical research of these aspects, however, has been hampered by the difficulty to disentangle past and present contextual effects. In this respect, first-generation migrants offer an interesting case study that allows us to discern: (1) contextual effects experienced during childhood (i.e. associated with the origin country); (2) contextual effects experienced during later life (i.e. associated with the destination country); and (3) individual effects experienced during later life in the destination country. We test hypotheses using the European Social Survey (ESS) in cross-classified multi-level analyses on 5,900 individuals within on the one hand twenty-five destination countries and on the other 146 origin countries. While insecurity theory offers interesting prospects of explaining origin country variance, the applicability of insecurity theory to migrants at the individual and destination level is questioned by the results.

Keywords:

• migrant religiosity
• insecurity theory
• Europe
• origin destination and individual effects
• past and present effects
• cross-classified multi-level

Notes

1. Elaborate methodological reports are available at the ESS website. These contain response rates for each country and each wave (see: http://ess.nsd.uib.no/).

2. Based on the current age and the categorical classification of years of residence. For each respondent we took the middle of the categorical range and subtracted that from the age to determine age at arrival.

3. Moreover, additional analyses removing childhood periods with only one case per period produced the same results. Analyses are not shown but are available upon request from the authors.

4. Models are not shown here but are available upon request from the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Koen Van der Bracht

KOEN VAN DER BRACHT is Researcher in the Hedera Research Group, Department of Sociology at Ghent University.

Bart Van de Putte

BART VAN DE PUTTE is Professor in the Hedera Research Group, Department of Sociology at Ghent University.

Sarah Van de Velde

SARAH VAN DE VELDE is Researcher in the Hedera Research Group, Department of Sociology at Ghent University.