Ethnicity & Religiosity

ethnicity and religiosity trends

• white british majority and chinese minority have the lowest levels of religiosity. in contrast moth ethnic minorities, espesh south asians have much higher levels of religiosity
• first generation immigrants are more likely to be religious
• madood 1997, participation/identification

madood - participation/identification

black christians are 3x more likely to attend church than white christians.

• 11% of white members of the church saw religion as very important in their lives compared to..
• 71% of caribbean members of the new protestant church,
• 43% of hindus and …
• 74% of muslims.

explanations of ethnicity and religiosity sociologists:

bird, bruce and pryce

bird key points

membership of religious groups, religion as a way to deal with oppression, greater levels of religiosity in countries of origin and religious socialisation

membership of religious groups - bird

people turn to religion for a sense of community. durkheims social solidarity and value consensus

religion as away to deal with oppression (cultural defence) - bird

solidarity movement with the pope in poland (bruce). people face greater oppression when being religious for a group outside the norm. (link maduro liberation theory, marginalisation due to religious identity)

greater levels of religiosity in countries of origin - bird

existential security theory, explains why second generation immigrants are less religious - they dont have existential security

religious socialisation - bird

children come under pressure to maintain the religious tradition of their parents

bruce key points

cultural defence, cultural transition

cultural defence - bruce

first generations come into hostile/uncertain environments, so they use religion to preserve their culture and language (community solidarity) as they feel their culture is at risk. its a coping mechanism for oppression. e.g. black african caribbean christians turning to balck led churches (pentecostalism)

cultural transition - bruce

religion is used to ease into a new culture, providing a community for minority groups. high levels of religious participation fro first generation immigrants in the uk, ireland and usa
once transition is complete, religion loses its importance through further generations

criticism of cultural defence, bruce - secular nature of british society, bruce

the secular nature of british society will erode the importance of religion to ethnic minorities

criticism of cultural transition - madood

afro-caribbean people were consdierably less religious than their parents, HOWEVER (evaluation), he found that in some groups, there wasnt a decline between generations - particularly muslims. could be due to religious education.

pryce study - is support for bruce and bird

studied african caribbean community in bristol (first gen immigrant). found a mixture of cultural transition and defence. mpentecostalism was a highly adaptive religion of the oppressed. it helped them adapt to new environments, encouraging self reliance and mutual support, hope.

critique of pryce - rastafarians

rastarfians are a sect of african caribbean community who radically rejected wider society as racist and exploitive.