I feel Moroccan, I feel Italian, and I feel Muslim: Second generation Moroccans and identity negotiation between religion and community belonging

Abstract

Second generation immigrants in Western societies negotiate between cultural sets: the inherited and the acquired culture. For second generation Muslims the negotiation involves personal dimensions such as identity and it deals with the assimilative pressures of the society where they have grown up: a context where their ethnic and religious identities are combined and mixed. From an ecological perspective, these processes happen in the communities where everyday life and cultural transmission take place.This study examines from an ecological perspective the negotiation of identity in young adult second generation Muslim, how their ethnic, national, and religious ties are intertwined with the pressures from the community they perceive as the most important. We started from the community that the participants felt was most important for them and explored the different ways in which their religious, ethnic, and national identities were related to their most important community. Twenty young adult Moroccans settled in Italy since age 6 years were involved in semi-structured in-person interviews. The interview responses highlighted how complex these individuals find managing their ethnic and religious identities and how this process is related to their conception of religiosity and the forms it takes in everyday life (e.g., a system of values vs. a set of practices).