How and why does religion matter for the integration of Muslim minorities? Differentiating religiosity from religious orientations among Turkish Muslims in Germany

Abstract

The high level of religiosity of immigrants in general and Muslims in particular is often conceived of as a barrier to integration in European public and scholarly debates. However, existing survey research on the relation between religion and integration was limited to measures of religiosity and has yielded contradictory findings. For a broad range of outcomes spanning the domains of structural, social and cultural integration, there are studies showing positive, negative or no associations with immigrants’ religiosity. Arguing that religious cognitions are independent of religiosity, we examine whether the way immigrants reason about religion explains additional variation in immigrant integration. Drawing on original survey data of Turkish-origin Muslims in Germany (N = 500), we examine how religious literalism, symbolism and theological exclusivism relate to a broad range of integration outcomes (educational attainment, labour market participation, intergroup contact, civic and political participation, volunteering, sense of belonging to Germany and social distance), over and above levels of religiosity. Factor analyses reveal that a symbolic approach to religion (i.e. emphasizing the need to take the historical context into account when interpreting religious texts) is conceptually distinct from literalism and exclusivism and can explain variation beyond religiosity, particularly in the domain of civic integration.