Abstract

When analyzing the relationship between individual religiosity and attitudes toward immigration, empirical research often leads to contrasting findings. By focusing on contemporary Italy, our contribution aims to provide evidence of two opposite effects that religiosity can exert on attitudes toward immigration. On the one hand, belonging to a religious community is expected to reinforce a social identity, leading to negative attitudes toward outgroups. On the other hand, religious commitment implies adhering to religious teachings which promote altruistic values, such as the acceptance of others. Since the two hypotheses pertain to different dimensions of religiosity, we propose to use a typology combining affiliation and church attendance, so that the two hypotheses can be tested as complementary. The first evidence we provide to support the hypotheses analyzes parallel survey data coming from the European Social Survey (ESS), the European Values Study (EVS), and the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP). In particular, we point out that non-religious and highly religious people show more positive attitudes toward immigration than affiliated individuals with low religious commitment. Moreover, data from the 2018 ISSP module “Religion IV”, which includes more specific measures of religious identity and commitment, lend further support to our expectations.

摘要

在分析个人宗教信仰与移民态度之间的关系时，实证研究通常会得出截然不同的结果。通过关注当代意大利，我们的贡献旨在提供证据，证明宗教信仰可以对移民态度产生两种相反的影响。一方面，归属于宗教社区会强化社会认同，导致对外群体的消极态度。另一方面，宗教承诺意味着遵守促进利他价值观的宗教教义，例如接受他人。由于这两个假设涉及宗教信仰的不同维度，我们建议使用结合了隶属关系和教会出席率的类型学，以便可以将这两个假设作为补充进行测试。我们提供的第一个支持假设的证据分析了来自欧洲社会调查 (ESS)、欧洲价值观研究 (EVS) 和国际社会调查计划 (ISSP) 的平行调查数据。我们特别指出，与宗教信仰较低的关联个人相比，无宗教信仰和高度宗教信仰的人对移民表现出更积极的态度。此外，来自 2018 年 ISSP 模块“宗教 IV”的数据，包括更具体的宗教身份和承诺措施，进一步支持我们的预期。我们指出，与宗教信仰低的关联个人相比，无宗教信仰和高度宗教信仰的人对移民表现出更积极的态度。此外，来自 2018 年 ISSP 模块“宗教 IV”的数据，包括更具体的宗教身份和承诺措施，进一步支持我们的预期。我们指出，与宗教信仰低的关联个人相比，无宗教信仰和高度宗教信仰的人对移民表现出更积极的态度。此外，来自 2018 年 ISSP 模块“宗教 IV”的数据，包括更具体的宗教身份和承诺措施，进一步支持我们的预期。