Muslim and Jewish Immigrants’ Adjustment: The Role of Religious-American Harmony, Religious-American Identity Centrality, and Discrimination

2021 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 259-274
Author(s):  
Sadie S. Amini ◽  
Angela-MinhTu D. Nguyen
Keyword(s):  
Religious Identity ◽  
First Generation ◽  
Perceived Discrimination ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
American Identity ◽  
Muslim American ◽  
Religious Minority ◽  
Identity Centrality ◽  
Dual Identities ◽  
Jewish Immigrants

Religious-minority immigrants must negotiate both their religious and host cultural (e.g., American) identities; however, the duality of these identities is rarely examined in relation to adjustment. In this study, we tested whether a religious-American identity centrality could predict better adjustment over and above religious identity centrality and American identity centrality. Moreover, based on the Integrative Psychological Model of Biculturalism, we investigated whether the harmony perceived between one’s religious and American identities could mediate the relationship between religious-American identity centrality and adjustment, and between perceived discrimination and adjustment. With data from 130 first-generation Muslim American and Jewish American participants, we found support for most hypotheses. Although a more central religious-American identity predicted better adjustment, it did not predict better adjustment over and above religious identity centrality and American identity centrality. More importantly, religious-American harmony mediated the positive association between religious-American identity centrality and adjustment, and the negative association between perceived discrimination and adjustment. Implications of our findings for research on dual identities are discussed.

Veiled Politics: Experiences with Discrimination among Muslim Americans

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 629-677 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karam Dana ◽  
Nazita Lajevardi ◽  
Kassra A.R. Oskooii ◽  
Hannah L. Walker
Keyword(s):  
Perceived Discrimination ◽  
Minority Group ◽  
Anecdotal Evidence ◽  
Muslim Americans ◽  
Muslim American ◽  
Religious Minority ◽  
Institutional Discrimination ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Muslim American Women

AbstractAnecdotal evidence suggests that Muslim American women who wear the hijab may be particularly vulnerable to the experiences of stigmatization because the hijab represents one of the most obvious and dominant markers of “otherness.” Yet, extant research has surprisingly neglected to systematically examine how such external markers of difference can increase perceptions of discrimination. Drawing from two nationally representative datasets, we examine perceived discrimination among Muslim Americans, and find that veiled women report experiencing both societal and institutional discrimination at much higher rates than their counterparts. In fact, our findings show that the hijab is one of the most important predictors of self-reported discrimination amongallMuslim Americans. Interestingly, however, we also find that men are more likely than women to perceive discrimination once we account for the role of the hijab. Our analysis makes an important contribution to existing research by highlighting the unique experiences of a religious minority group and identifies one important and previously underexplored mechanism by which individuals may be targeted for discrimination—the hijab.

Counseling With a Muslim-American Family

2021 ◽  
pp. 1033-1049
Author(s):  
Margaux Hanes Brown ◽  
Ari-Elle R. West
Keyword(s):  
Religious Identity ◽  
Help Seeking ◽  
Poor Mental Health ◽  
Counseling Competencies ◽  
Muslim American ◽  
Religious Minority ◽  
Treatment Interventions ◽  
Help Seeking Behaviors ◽  
The U.S

Islamophobia is the unfounded fear of Islam and resulting hostility that Muslims experience as a religious minority in the U.S. For a marginalized community in the U.S., this increases the risk for poor mental health outcomes and further compounds stigma around help-seeking behaviors. In this case study, a family unit presented for counseling with stress resulting from life cycle stressors. However, the intersectionality of their religious identity affected how the individuals experienced transitions as well as microaggressions. This case study includes a counselor's application of the Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies, treatment interventions, and extensions for further professional development.

Counseling With a Muslim-American Family

2020 ◽  
pp. 44-65
Author(s):  
Margaux Hanes Brown ◽  
Ari-Elle R. West
Keyword(s):  
Religious Identity ◽  
Help Seeking ◽  
Poor Mental Health ◽  
Counseling Competencies ◽  
Muslim American ◽  
Religious Minority ◽  
Treatment Interventions ◽  
Help Seeking Behaviors ◽  
The U.S

Islamophobia is the unfounded fear of Islam and resulting hostility that Muslims experience as a religious minority in the U.S. For a marginalized community in the U.S., this increases the risk for poor mental health outcomes and further compounds stigma around help-seeking behaviors. In this case study, a family unit presented for counseling with stress resulting from life cycle stressors. However, the intersectionality of their religious identity affected how the individuals experienced transitions as well as microaggressions. This case study includes a counselor's application of the Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies, treatment interventions, and extensions for further professional development.

scholarly journals “This Is Who I Would Become”: Russian Jewish Immigrants and Their Encounters with Chabad-Lubavitch in the Greater Toronto Area

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 57-80
Author(s):  
Joshua Tapper
Keyword(s):  
Religious Identity ◽  
Social Space ◽  
The United States ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
Cultural Activity ◽  
Greater Toronto Area ◽  
Jewish Diaspora ◽  
Soviet Jews ◽  
Jewish Immigrants ◽  
Community Centre

Since the early 1970s, the Chabad Lubavitch movement has served as an important setting for religious, social, and cultural activity among Russian-speaking Jewish migrants to Canada and the United States. While scholars and community observers have long recognized the attentiveness of Lubavitch emissaries toward Russian Jews, there is no quantitative data and little qualitative research on Chabad’s influence in the post-Soviet Jewish diaspora. This paper explores the motivations, mechanics, and consequences of this encounter in a Canadian setting, examining how Chabad creates a religious and social space adapted to the unique features of post-Soviet Jewish ethnic and religious identity. Participating in a growing scholarly discussion, this paper moves away from older characterizations of Soviet Jewish identity as thinly constructed and looks to the Chabad space for alternative constructions in which religion and traditionalism play integral roles. This paper draws on oral histories and observational fieldwork from a small qualitative study of a Chabad-run Jewish Russian Community Centre in Toronto, Ontario. It argues that Chabad, which was founded in eighteenth-century Belorussia, is successful among post-Soviet Jews in Canada and elsewhere thanks, in part, to its presentation of the movement as an authentically Russian brand of Judaism—one that grew up in a pre-Soviet Russian context, endured the repressions of the Soviet period, and has since emerged as the dominant Jewish force in the Russian-speaking world. The paper, among the first to examine the religious convictions of Canada’s Russian-speaking Jewish community, reveals that post-Soviet Jews in Toronto gravitate toward Chabad because they view it as a uniquely Russian space.  

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Alisa Perkins
Keyword(s):  
American Identity ◽  
Muslim American ◽  
Urban America ◽  
Muslim Minorities ◽  
Muslim American Identity

The introduction lays out the central assertions of the study: that Muslims’ experiences in urban America test pluralism as a model of secular inclusion, and that Muslims and non-Muslims expand the boundaries of belonging together by engaging in social, spatial, and material exchanges across lines of difference. Because anxieties over Muslim minorities are often expressed through the idiom of gender, this study further asserts that contestations over Muslim women’s visibility and queer Muslim visibility provide significant opportunities for the elaboration of difference. After describing the context of the study and its interlocutors, the introduction discusses the challenges faced by scholars who focus on Muslim American identity as an object of analysis in the post-9/11 age. These challenges include representational dilemmas inherent in studying individuals from many backgrounds under a unified signifier, and in offering counter-representations of a group that is often stereotyped in media and popular accounts marked by Islamophobia.

scholarly journals God in the Barrio?: The Determinants of Religiosity and Civic Engagement among Latinos in the United States

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Allen Gershon ◽  
Adrian D. Pantoja ◽  
J. Benjamin Taylor
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Civic Engagement ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
First Generation ◽  
Church Attendance ◽  
The United States ◽  
Generational Status ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
The Social ◽  
Church Participation

AbstractIt is often assumed that Latinos in the United States are deeply religious, and that this religious identity plays an important role in shaping their political beliefs and behaviors. A more controversial though unexplored proposition is that Latinos may not be as religious as is commonly believed and that forces beyond their religiosity play more prominent roles in shaping their political engagement. Relying on data from the 2006 Latino National Survey, we examine secularism — measured by church attendance — and civic engagement among Latinos. Our efforts are to analyze the social forces that shape levels of religiosity and find that generational status plays a significant role. Additionally, we further find that while church attendance declines among later generations, second and third generation Latinos have higher levels of civic engagement than their first generation peers, indicating that a decline in church participation does not depress political participation among later generations of Latinos.

scholarly journals Social Exclusion of Muslims in India and Britain

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-77
Author(s):  
Sabah Khan
Keyword(s):  
Social Exclusion ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Minority Group ◽  
Religious Minority ◽  
Physical Spaces

The main objective of this article is to study the complexities and nuances of exclusion of Muslims, a dominant minority group in India and Britain. It is an exploration of how Muslims, a religious minority in both India and Britain, are facing exclusion in different spheres of life, namely socio-economic and physical spaces. Moreover, it also explores the process of ‘othering’ which further excludes Muslims. It aims to explore how exclusion is directly associated with religion in face of a stigmatised religious identity. Muslims in India and Britain are not one monolith community. However, their experience of exclusion in different spheres of society offers some similarities. It offers an account of the fact that Muslims stand on the periphery in social and secular spheres of life and how this is closely related to their identity.

scholarly journals Effects of Perceived Discrimination on Depressive Symptoms Among Black Men Residing in the United States: A Meta-Analysis

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angelitta M. Britt-Spells ◽  
Maribeth Slebodnik ◽  
Laura P. Sands ◽  
David Rollock
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Black Men ◽  
Perceived Discrimination ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
The United States ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Model Study ◽  
Relationship Of

Research reports that perceived discrimination is positively associated with depressive symptoms. The literature is limited when examining this relationship among Black men. This meta-analysis systematically examines the current literature and investigates the relationship of perceived discrimination on depressive symptoms among Black men residing in the United States. Using a random-effects model, study findings indicate a positive association between perceived discrimination and depressive symptoms among Black men ( r = .29). Several potential moderators were also examined in this study; however, there were no significant moderation effects detected. Recommendations and implications for future research and practice are discussed.

The Muslim League in South India since Independence: A Study in Minority Group Political Strategies

1966 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 579-599 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theodore P. Wright
Keyword(s):  
Religious Identity ◽  
Minority Group ◽  
Religion And Politics ◽  
Equal Treatment ◽  
Difficult Case ◽  
British India ◽  
Religious Minority ◽  
Muslim Population ◽  
Muslim Minority ◽  
Provincial Autonomy

How can a religious minority organize most effectively to protect its interests without weakening the distinction between religion and politics by which advocates of a secular state justify equal treatment for the minority? As in Europe earlier in the century, this problem is again acute in some of the so-called “New Nations” of Asia and Africa where national integration is far from complete and religion is still the primary mode of self-identification among many of its communicants. If a minority faith is geographically concentrated so as to constitute a majority in certain extensive areas, it is likely to seek independence, merger with an adjacent state of the same religion, or at least provincial autonomy if its members believe that their religious identity is threatened by assimilation.Of the great world religions, Islam provides the most difficult case of adjustment to minority status by separation of religion from the state. The leaders of the Muslim minority of British India finally set the objective of separate national independence in 1940 after they had concluded that they could not rely upon constitutional guarantees to safeguard their rights against the Hindu majority. But the creation of Pakistan in 1947 left a substantial though scattered Muslim population of some forty million in the Indian Republic, ten percent of the latter's people. Suspected by many Hindus of further divisive intentions, how was this group to act within the framework of parliamentary and at least ostensibly secular democracy?

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