Individuals can identify with a religion without becoming engaged in its rituals and activities. Sometimes there is an inverse relationship between identification with and participation in religion.
Published in Chapter:
Religious and Ethnic Identification of Minoritized Youth in Hong Kong: Exploring Acculturation Outcomes
Hin Wah Chris Cheung (The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong), Miron K. Bhowmik (The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong), Kerry J. Kennedy (The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong), Hoi Yu Ng (The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong), and Ming Tak Hue (The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong)
Copyright: © 2020
|Pages: 20
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-1978-3.ch016
Abstract
Religion plays an important part in the lives of many immigrants. The second generation is assumed to have a higher level of integration into the host society and lower religious and ethnic identification. This assumption, however, views acculturation as an essentialist process producing common outcomes for all groups. Yet such an assumption needs to be tested with different ethnic groups. This chapter, therefore, explores the cases of second generation Pakistani and Indian immigrant youth in Hong Kong. The findings indicate that it is not possible to generalise across these groups. Indian youth seem to have acculturated with a lower sense of religious and ethnic identification. Pakistani youth, on the other hand, reported relatively strong religious affiliation and sense of belonging to their heritage culture. This suggests that acculturation is a more nuanced process than is often portrayed and is strongly context dependent, influenced by group values, commitments and practices.