A Threat to the Occident? Comparing Human Values of Muslim Immigrants, Christian, and Non-religious Natives in Western Europe

Abstract

With a growing Muslim population, many European countries need to integrate Muslims into their societies. One aspect that can hinder successful integration are substantial differences in human values. This is because such values are consequential for attitudes as well as behavior. We compare basic human values between Muslim immigrants and non-Muslim natives in four European countries with distinct immigration histories and integration politics: Belgium, France, Germany, and Sweden. For most insightful comparisons, we contrast values of Muslim immigrants with those of Christian natives as well as those of non-religious natives. We employ data of more than 50,000 individuals based on the first eight waves of the European Social Survey. Our findings reveal significant differences in value priorities between Muslims, Christians and nonreligious individuals in all four countries. Amongst other things, Muslim immigrants score particularly high in conservation values (security and tradition/conformity). At the same time, they also score higher in self-transcendence values (benevolence as well as universalism). While many of these findings are in line with theory and previous research, the higher score in universalism is unexpected. A potential explanation is the combination of religious traditionalism and discrimination experiences. In other words, religious traditions are associated with more conservative views, but being subject to marginalization can still result in an appreciation of equal opportunities. We find only limited support for differences in hedonism. Religiosity correlates with values of tradition/conformity for Muslim immigrants as well as for Christian natives. Thus, accounting for religiosity renders differences in these values between Muslims and other groups statistically insignificant. While most of these findings hold in all countries, differences are most pronounced in Sweden and lower in the other three countries, which is also true after accounting for differences in socioeconomic status and religiosity between the three groups. This suggests that a combination of a country's history of diversity and national integration policies either encourages the convergence of values or leads to a solidification of value differences between groups. We discuss these political and social implications of our findings.

All cops are trusted? How context and time shape immigrants’ trust in the police in Europe

“…In this case, differences in trust in the police between natives and immigrants described in other studies should decrease over time, as immigrants' opportunities for experiences with the police accumulate and their trust in police decreases. A convergence of this type is seen in other types of attitudes as well, including on the issue of immigration itself (Just and Anderson 2015), but attitude convergence can also be context-dependent, with immigrants and natives becoming more alike in some countries than in others (Czymara and Eisentraut 2020). Immigrants' trust in police often begins at a higher level compared to natives.…”

All Cops are Trusted? How Context and Time Shape Immigrants' Trust in the Police in Europe

“…Perhaps most problematically in this respect is that the questionnaire is only distributed in the language of the respective host country. This implies that new or less integrated immigrants are less likely to participate due to language barriers (Czymara and Eisentraut 2020). These immigrants are also more likely to be ethnic minorities in these countries.…”

“…In this case, differences in trust in the police between natives and immigrants described in other studies should decrease over time as immigrants´ opportunities for experiences with the police accumulate and their trust in police decreases. A convergence of this type is seen in other types of attitudes including on the issue of immigration itself (Just and Anderson 2015), but attitude convergence can also be context dependent with immigrants and natives becoming more alike in some countries than in others (Czymara and Eisentraut 2020).…”

Migrants, Families, and Religion: An Intriguing Research Agenda. Book’s Content and Introduction

“…On the one hand, the influxes of asylum seekers solicit (or would solicit) European societies to become aware of the tremendous religious-based violations and persecutions which characterize the current global scenario and turn into a root-cause of contemporary migrations [26]. On the other hand, since they are perceived as more and more unpredictable in their dimensions and internal composition, new arrivals force Europe to come to terms with the full and long-standing legacy of its relationship with immigration and with the "diversity" -including the religious one-that immigration brings with it [27].…”