How Muslims’ denomination shapes their integration: the effects of religious marginalization in origin countries on Muslim migrants’ national identifications and support for gender equality

Abstract

Public debates proclaim that Muslims have turned their backs on Western societies and their “core values”. Quantitative studies have shown that Muslim migrants identify more with their origin nation and less with their host country, and that they support gender equality less than other migrants. While often attributed to Muslims’ religiosity, migrants’ denominations also reflect whether they belonged to the dominant religious majority or a marginalized minority in their origin country, which also shapes national identifications and support for gender equality. EURISLAM data on 1,500 migrants from Turkey and Pakistan show that Alevi and Ahmadiyya minority-migrants identify less with their origin country and more with their host society than Sunni majority-migrants. Pivotally, marginalized minority-migrants acculturate faster, as their support for gender equality increases more strongly over the years than majority-migrants’. Altogether, focusing on essentialist views of Muslims’ religion overlooks other mechanisms that shape diversity in acculturation among Muslim migrants.