Immigrants, Muslims and others, adapt their beliefs to the host culture.

Our son recently started his studies in a small university town in Wales. On our visits there, we have encountered a number of Polish young people. In fact, Polish is the third most popular language in that town – after Welsh and English! The Poles tend to fall into one of two camps. Patti belongs to the first camp. Although she has adopted an English nickname, she is still content to switch back into Polish at the first opportunity. In many ways, her life in Wales is a continuation of her life in Poland, with activities similar to those she left in Poland. Kinga falls into the second camp. The only thing Polish about her was her name – quintessentially Polish. Everything else about her was British – her accent, her clothing, her mannerisms. In fact, she was loathe to even carry on a conversation with us in Polish. It was obvious that she had worked hard to assimilate into her chosen host culture.

These two young women exemplify a potent ramification of European migration patterns for disciple making in Europe. First, although migration is often viewed through the lens of extra-European migration, according to recent studies by the European Union, most European migration happens within the borders of Europe proper.1  The challenge presented to mission by the needs of these intra-Europe migrants may well be different from those migrants coming from outside of Europe. A second challenge for reaching the migrant communities arises as the immigrants begin to take on the national character of their adopted host culture. The culture of a specific nation will have a powerful influence on the inhabitants of that nation. According to studies done by the World Values Survey, “the differences between the values held by members of different religions within given societies are much smaller than are cross- national differences.”2  In other words, national culture trumps all and immigrants moving to a new host culture will begin to adapt to that culture.

An interesting example of this principle can be found amongst the Muslim populations of France and Germany. A recent survey by Gallup, Inc. remarked that “while British, French, and German Muslims are more likely than the general populations in those three countries to identify strongly with their faith, they are also as likely (if not more likely) than the general public to identify strongly with their countries of residence.”3  The study also found that the Muslim populations differed from their respective host cultures in their moral viewpoint.4  However, data from the World Values Survey tend to show that European Muslims are more similar in their moral outlook to their European host cultures than to their cultures of origin (graph on next page).

This underlines a fundamental consideration – immigrant populations will strive to take on the identity of their chosen cultures. One barrier to this assimilation is the lower socio-economic status of most immigrants. In a recent study of French immigration, it was shown that “the child of a doctor from Morocco is much more likely to succeed at school than the child of a stonemason from  Poland.”5  It seems that much societal dysfunction currently ascribed to migrant populations is most likely attributable to socio-economic factors. Another barrier to full acculturation of migrant populations may simply be the unwillingness of the host cultures to accept the new immigrants. The Gallup poll showed a tendency for the host cultures to have a lower acceptance of  the assimilation of the migrant populations than those migrant populations held of themselves.6  Even if the host cultures may have been correct in their assessment of the assimilation of the migrant community, they were missing the point entirely – those immigrant populations highly value being assimilated into their respective host cultures.

Where does this leave us? As we look at the migrant populations in a given country, we need to realize that not all immigrants are the same. Many will have migrated for a short time – most likely those intra-EU migrants who can (and will) easily return to their home cultures. They will most likely remain closed to members of their host culture and dependent on others from their home culture. Outreach will need to be done within those self-contained communities. For those who have immigrated to a new culture with an intent to stay longer, they will choose to assimilate as best as they can. The longer they live in their new host culture – and the more access they have to that culture – the more likely they will be to acculturate. The best outreach will focus on reaching them as identifiable members of that host culture and, where necessary, providing them access to those host cultures.

[The complete report of immigrants in Europe can be downloaded from here (11MB) http://www.emrgnet.eu/storage/foreign_citizens_in%20_europe_and_north-africa_october2010.pdf]

 

——–

Notes for Persistence of Cultures and Migrant Populations
1. Citizens of European countries account for the majority of the foreign population in EU-27 in 2008, Eurostat, December, 2009.
2. Ingelhart, Robert and Wayne Baker, Modernization-Cultural Change-and the Persistence of Traditional Values, American Sociological Review, Vol. 65, February, 2000, pp.19–51.
3. The Gallup Coexist Index 2009: A Global Study of Interfaith Relations, Gallup, Inc., page 8.
4. Robert Ingelhart, World Values Study commented that Muslims in Europe are set apart “more by eros than demos ”. [Inglehart, Ronald; Pippa Norris , The True Clash of Civilizations , Foreign Policy, No. 135. (Mar. – Apr., 2003), pp. 62-70.]
5. France’s Real Immigration Story, Newsweek, 22 January 2010. [A review of  newly published French research – Le destin des enfants d’immigrés. Un désenchaînement des générations (The Destiny of Immigrants’ Children), by Claudine Attias-Donfut and François-Charles Wolff.]
6. Gallup, pp. 15-16.