Bridge and Barrier – Contextualizing Religion and Immigrant Occupational Attainment

Phillip Connor, Pew Research Center
Matthias Koenig, University of Göttingen

Using data from the US, Western Europe, and Canada, this paper examines context-dependent impacts of religion on immigrant structural integration. It identifies two context-dependent mechanisms through which religion can affect structural integration – as ethnic marker (religious affiliation) or as social organization (religious participation). The analyses find only limited evidence for the assumption that immigrants belonging to a minority religious group face religious structural integration penalties in contexts with “bright” religious boundaries (such as Western Europe and, to a lesser extent, Canada). By contrast, the findings support the assumption that religious participation tends to be positively related to occupational attainment in contexts with Tocquevillian religious field characteristics (such as the US and, to a lesser extent, Canada).