Religious responses to existential insecurity: Conflict intensity in the region of birth increases praying among refugees.

Do violent conflicts increase religiosity? This study draws on evidence from a large-scale survey among refugees from Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria in Germany linked with data on time-varying conflict intensity in refugees' birth regions before the survey interview. The results show that the greater the number of conflict-induced fatalities in the period before the interview, the more often refugees pray. The relationship between conflict and praying holds equally across demographic subgroups. Evidence suggests that both short- and long-term cumulative fatalities in refugees' birth regions affect how often they pray. Additionally, the link between conflict and praying is stronger for refugees with family and relatives still living in their country of origin. Finally, we show that the conflicts that matter are those occurring within the refugees' specific region of birth rather than in other regions in the country. Implications for existential insecurity theory and cultural evolutionary theory are discussed.

Online activity of mosques and Muslims in the Netherlands: A study of Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter.

Research on Muslim minorities in western societies has mainly focused on offline behavior, such as mosque attendance, whereas little is known about their presence in the online world. This study explores the online visibility and activities of all (478) mosques in the Netherlands. We collected data on personal websites and four social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube). The majority of mosques have a website (52%) and an account on Facebook (61%). Less often used are Twitter (17%), Instagram (17%) and YouTube (19%). On social media platforms, mosques strongly differ in their activity and number of followers. We find evidence to suggest that Salafist mosques, which tend to have a strict ideology, are more active on Twitter and YouTube, and also attract a larger share of followers on Facebook than non-Salafist mosques. Our more fine-grained analysis on Twitter shows that Salafist mosques in the Netherlands cluster together. Followers of Salafist mosques make up a community of users who are mainly connected to each other ("bonding ties"), and much less so to other users ("bridging ties"). We conclude with a discussion of opportunities for studying the online presence and activities of mosques and Muslims in western societies.

More popular because you're older? Relative age effect on popularity among adolescents in class.

Previous studies have found a significant effect of pupil's month of birth on their school- and sports performances. The current study investigates whether this so-called relative age effect also exists in a rather unexplored domain, namely popularity among adolescents in school classes. Whereas prior studies examined relative age related to the cut-off date at primary school entry, we also study possible relative age effects regarding the age composition within pupils' current school class. Data are from nationally-representative surveys among 14-15 year-old pupils from the Netherlands, Sweden and England. Results indicate a statistically significant positive relation of both types of relative age with popularity status in classes. The relation of past relative age is particularly strong in England, which has a system of social promotion, whereas current relative age is strong in the Netherlands, with its system of grade retention. These findings underscore the importance of education policy.

Post-Migration Education Among Refugees in the Netherlands.

Refugees face significant barriers in the labor markets of western countries due to limited transferability of educational credentials. Post-migration education can increase refugees' chances in the labor market, but little is known about the prevalence and underlying patterns of such post-secondary educational investments. I contribute to the literature by analyzing survey data from the Netherlands on post-migration education among more than 3,000 adult refugees who come from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, former Yugoslavia, and Somalia. I find that refugees' investments in schooling depend on both pre- and post-migration characteristics. Results show that post-migration schooling is more common among adult refugees who are higher educated, who arrived at a younger age, who have applied for recognition of their foreign education, and who have (successfully) participated in integration and/or language courses. When refugees are kept in an asylum center for a longer time, they are less likely to invest in post-migration education.

Media messages and attitudes toward muslims and ethnic minorities: A panel study among ethnic majority adolescents in the Netherlands.

In recent years, western media coverage is frequently filled with issues relating to Islam, which are unfavorable to Muslims. The attitudinal consequences of such media messages are widely discussed; however, empirical research is scarce. This study uses large-scale panel data on adolescents in combination with newspaper data and takes advantage of an extensive fieldwork period during which media salience of Muslims has fluctuated. All unmeasured time-invariant characteristics are accounted for by adopting a fixed-effects panel design. The results provide evidence of immediate attitudinal responses to media salience: the more media salience of Muslims on the day of survey participation, the more negative adolescents feel about Muslims. However, the results do not point toward a secondary transfer effect because media-induced negative attitudes toward Muslims were not transferred to ethnic minorities. Findings of this study advance current research by providing evidence for the effect of daily variations in media salience on attitudes.

Similar or divergent paths? Religious development of Christian and Muslim adolescents in Western Europe.

Little is known about the religious development of youth in Europe. In light of the growing ethnic diversity of Western European populations, this paper examines two groups of youth with an immigrant background, i.e. Christian and Muslim youth, and compares their religiosity to that of Christian native youth. We differentiate between three indicators of religiosity, namely, subjective importance of religion, frequency of service attendance, and praying frequency. In addition to comparing the changes in the mean of religiosity between groups, we also investigate variations within groups over time. We employ the first three waves of the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Survey in Four European Countries (CILS4EU), which were collected between 2010 and 2013 with adolescents residing in 958 classes within 480 schools in England, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden. Multiple group linear growth models show that there is an overall slight decrease in subjective importance of religion, frequency of service attendance and praying frequency for Christian youth, while Muslim youth do not experience any significant change on these accounts. Furthermore, the changes in service attendance and praying frequency vary significantly between youth within all groups, while the change with regard to subjective importance of religion varies most within Christian youth and least within Muslim youth.

Gender Differences in Resistance to Schooling: The Role of Dynamic Peer-Influence and Selection Processes.

Boys engage in notably higher levels of resistance to schooling than girls. While scholars argue that peer processes contribute to this gender gap, this claim has not been tested with longitudinal quantitative data. This study fills this lacuna by examining the role of dynamic peer-selection and influence processes in the gender gap in resistance to schooling (i.e., arguing with teachers, skipping class, not putting effort into school, receiving punishments at school, and coming late to class) with two-wave panel data. We expect that, compared to girls, boys are more exposed and more responsive to peers who exhibit resistant behavior. We estimate hybrid models on 5448 students from 251 school classes in Sweden (14-15 years, 49% boys), and stochastic actor-based models (SIENA) on a subsample of these data (2480 students in 98 classes; 49% boys). We find that boys are more exposed to resistant friends than girls, and that adolescents are influenced by the resistant behavior of friends. These peer processes do not contribute to a widening of the gender gap in resistance to schooling, yet they contribute somewhat to the persistence of the initial gender gap. Boys are not more responsive to the resistant behavior of friends than girls. Instead, girls are influenced more by the resistant behavior of lower status friends than boys. This explains to some extent why boys increase their resistance to schooling more over time. All in all, peer-influence and selection processes seem to play a minor role in gender differences in resistance to schooling. These findings nuance under investigated claims that have been made in the literature.

Ethnic Composition and Friendship Segregation: Differential Effects for Adolescent Natives and Immigrants.

Ethnically diverse settings provide opportunities for interethnic friendship but can also increase the preference for same-ethnic friendship. Therefore, same-ethnic friendship preferences, or ethnic homophily, can work at cross-purposes with policy recommendations to diversify ethnic representation in social settings. In order to effectively overcome ethnic segregation, we need to identify those factors within diverse settings that exacerbate the tendency toward ethnic homophily. Using unique data and multiple network analyses, the authors examine 529 adolescent friendship networks in English, German, Dutch, and Swedish schools and find that the ethnic composition of school classes relates differently to immigrant and native homophily. Immigrant homophily disproportionately increases as immigrants see more same-ethnic peers, and friendship density among natives has no effect on this. By contrast, native homophily remains relatively low until natives see dense groups of immigrants. The authors' results suggest that theories of interethnic competition and contact opportunities apply differently to ethnic majority and minority groups.

The conditional returns to origin-country human capital among Turkish and Moroccan immigrants in Belgium.

This study extends the analysis of the economic returns to pre-migration human capital by examining the role of the receiving context, co-ethnic residential concentration, and post-migration investments in human capital. It uses large-scale survey data on Turkish and Moroccan immigrants in Belgium. The analysis demonstrates that regarding employment, Moroccan immigrants, that is, those originating from former French colonies receive larger returns to their origin-country education and work experience in French- vs. Dutch-speaking regions. Other than the positive interaction effect between co-ethnic residential concentration and work experience on employment, there is little evidence that co-ethnic concentration increases the returns to origin-country human capital. Speaking the host-country language facilitates economic returns to origin-country work experience. Conversely, immigrants who acquire host-country credentials and work experience receive lower returns to origin-country education and experience, suggesting that, at least among low-skilled immigrants, pre- and post-migration human capital substitute rather than complement each other.

Ethnic intermarriage in longitudinal perspective: testing structural and cultural explanations in the United States, 1880-2011.

Focusing on macro-level processes, this article combines Decennial Census and Current Population Survey data to simultaneously test longitudinal and cross-sectional effects on ethnic intermarriage using structural and cultural explanations. Covering a 130 year period, the results of our multilevel analysis for 140 national-origin groups indicate that structural characteristics explain why some origin groups become more "open" over time while others remain relatively "closed". Ethnic intermarriage is more likely to increase over time when the relative size of an immigrant group decreases, sex ratios grow more imbalanced, the origin group grows more diverse, the size of the third generation increases and social structural consolidation decreases. Cultural explanations also play a role suggesting that an origin group's exogamous behavior in the past exerts long-term effects and exogamous practices increase over time when the prevalence of early marriage customs declines. For some of the discussed determinants of intermarriage, longitudinal and cross-sectional effects differ calling for a more careful theorizing and testing in terms of the level of analysis (e.g., longitudinal vs. cross-sectional).

Religious change of new immigrants in the Netherlands: The event of migration.

Using data on recently arrived immigrants in the Netherlands, I study the role of migration in religious attendance and praying. For the majority of immigrants, the frequency of religious attendance and praying remains the same after migration, but a substantial group shows religious decline. I observe this drop of religiousness for both attendance and praying, but the drop is much more pronounced for attendance. Whereas 40% participate less often in Holland than before migrating, frequency of praying dropped among 17% only. The degree of religious continuity and decline differs dramatically across immigrant groups. Conditional upon pre-migration religiousness, I find that the "older", well-established and numerically larger migrant groups of Turks, Moroccans, Surinamese and Antilleans more frequently attend religious meetings and pray than the "new" and smaller groups of Poles and Bulgarians. Religious continuity and decline seem less dependent on individual experiences.

Implicit and explicit interethnic attitudes and ethnic discrimination in hiring.

We study effects of explicit and implicit interethnic attitudes on ethnic discrimination in hiring. Unlike explicit attitudes, implicit attitudes are characterised by reduced controllability, awareness or intention. Effects of implicit interethnic attitudes on ethnic discrimination in the labour market remain under-researched. Moreover, previous experiments on the effects of explicit interethnic attitudes on discrimination have important drawbacks. We use data from a laboratory experiment (n=272) consisting of an Implicit Association Test, a questionnaire and a recruitment test in which participants reviewed résumés representing fictitious applicants who varied regarding ethnicity, gender, education and work experience. Participants graded applicants and selected applicants for an interview. Results show that only explicit interethnic attitudes affect discrimination in grades, but both explicit and implicit interethnic attitudes increase discrimination in selection.

Irreconcilable differences? Ethnic intermarriage and divorce in the Netherlands, 1995-2008.

This study uses population data of the Netherlands (municipality registers) between 1995 and 2008 to describe and explain the occurrence of divorce among recently newlywed interethnic and mono-ethnic couples (N=116,745). In line with homogamy theory, divorce risks are higher for interethnic couples, in particular if the spouses were born and raised in countries that are culturally distant from each other. In addition, the effect of cultural distance is smaller for second generation immigrants than for first generation immigrants. There is no evidence for a higher risk of divorce among Black-White marriages. In line with convergence theory, results show that the higher the divorce propensity in the wife's origin country, the higher the divorce risk of a couple is.

Economic participation and national self-identification of refugees in the Netherlands.

This study examines whether refugees self-identify as a member of the host society. We use survey data of more than 2,500 Somali, Iraqi, Afghani, Iranian, and ex-Yugoslavian refugees in the Netherlands. The results show that economic participation in the host country is positively related to refugees' national self-identification. In addition, we find that refugees' social ties with Dutch natives are associated with national self-identification and that the relationship between economic participation and national self-identification is partially explained by these social ties. Perceived discrimination is not related to refugees' national self-identification. Implications of these findings for debates on immigration and integration are discussed.

Acquisition of cross-ethnic friends by recent immigrants in Canada: a longitudinal approach.

This paper examines the development of inter-ethnic friendships between immigrants and Canadians. It uses longitudinal data from three waves of the Canadian LSIC survey, in which newly arrived immigrants were followed during the first 4 years of settlement. It is found that pre-migration characteristics play an important role in the development of inter-ethnic friendships: immigrants who arrive at a younger age and for economic reasons, as well as those who are highly educated and have a cross-ethnic partner at the moment of arrival, establish more inter-ethnic friendships over time. In addition, post-migration characteristics affect the formation of inter-ethnic friendships. Such friendships are more common among immigrants who embrace Canadian traditions and acquire the host-country language, as well as among those who work in international settings and inhabit ethnically mixed neighborhoods. The effects of pre-migration characteristics are partially mediated by post-migration characteristics. Our findings point out that economic, cultural, and spatial integration are all conducive to inter-ethnic friendships.

A comparative perspective on intermarriage: explaining differences among national-origin groups in the United States.

Little is known about the validity of group-level theories of ethnic intermarriage despite the fact that such theories are often invoked in explaining why certain ethnic groups are "closed," whereas others are relatively "open." We develop a comparative perspective by analyzing the marriage choices of 94 national-origin groups in the United States, using pooled data from the Current Population Surveys, 1994-2006, and multilevel models in which individual and contextual determinants of intermarriage are included simultaneously. Our analyses show large differences in endogamy across groups. After taking compositional effects into account, we find that both structural and cultural group-level factors have significant effects on endogamy. Cultural explanations (which focus on the role of norms and preferences) play a more important role than structural explanations (which focus on meeting and mating opportunities). Our results reinforce the common but untested interpretation of endogamy in terms of group boundaries.

Adolescent alcohol use in the Netherlands: the role of ethnicity, ethnic intermarriage, and ethnic school composition.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the association between ethnicity, ethnic intermarriage, ethnic composition of schools and adolescent alcohol use. DESIGN: Data were derived from the National Survey of Students in the Netherlands, a repeated, nationally representative, cross-sectional study of students aged 11-20 in secondary school. Surveys conducted in 1994, 1996, 1999, and 2001 were pooled, leading to a total of 30,346 native Dutch students and 6227 ethnic minority students. Alcohol use was based on whether the student consumed alcohol at all, drinking frequency, and drunkenness. Multilevel methods were applied. RESULTS: Ethnic minority students showed lower levels of alcohol use than Dutch students in each measure. Among ethnic minorities, the level of alcohol use was particularly low among students from a Muslim background. Students with ethnically mixed parents had higher levels of alcohol use than students with mono-ethnic parents. The larger the presence of Muslims in school, the lower the alcohol consumption of students from a Dutch and ethnic minority background. CONCLUSIONS: Ethnic differences in alcohol consumption among students seem to reflect differential alcohol use norms prevalent in their parents' country of birth. Alcohol use norms are presumably stricter in families with mono-ethnic parents and in predominantly Muslim schools than in families with ethnically mixed parents and in schools with fewer Muslim students.

Postimmigration investments in education: a study of immigrants in the Netherlands.

We use a unique data source to examine postimmigration investments in education among four immigrant groups in the Netherlands. We derive hypotheses from the Immigrant Human Capital Investment model (IHCI), which argues that immigrants' investments are an outcome of settlement intentions, skill transferability, and opportunity costs. The multinomial and ordered logistic regression analyses show that educational investments are stronger among immigrants with higher premigration education, immigrants from former colonies, immigrants who migrated for family reasons, and immigrants who arrived in periods of high unemployment. These findings generally support the IHCI model.