Abstract
Since the second half of the 20th century, immigrants and refugees from numerous countries have arrived in Switzerland. With their long-term settlement, the immigrant minorities have established cultural and religious associations to maintain their cultural and religious traditions and to teach their children the faith and religious practices from the country of origin. In contrast to the first immigrant generation, the second generation has had concurrent social influences from the Swiss ordinary school system and the cultural-religious traditions of their parents. This article asks to what extent the young generations have continued the religious traditions brought by their parents and what changes have occurred in adapting religious practices, ideas and collective forms to the new socio-cultural environment. In addition, we study whether and how the second generations have striven to move away from the often-marginalised social position of their parents and engage with social recognition in Swiss society. To provide answers to these pertinent questions, the article will draw on the examples of first and second-generation Muslims and Buddhists in Switzerland and refer to the theoretical model designed by the American scholars Fred Kniss and Paul Numrich. The article argues that not only outward changes of religiosity are observable among second-generation youths, but also that despite an intensified degree of individualisation, some of their newly founded youth associations strive for civic participation and social recognition in the public arena of Swiss civil society.
Highlights
Second-Generation Immigrant Youths in European DiversityIn the second half of the 20th century, European countries faced large-scale arrivals of immigrant workers, spouses, and refugees
The basic question both of the parent generations and of many academic studies has been to what extent the young generations continue the religious traditions brought by the parents and what changes have occurred in adapting religious practices and ideas to the new socio-cultural environment
Our results of a shift towards individualisation are mirrored by similar studies on young Muslims in other European countries (Herding, 2013; Jacobsen, 2009; Sedgwick, 2015; Voas & Fleischmann, 2012), young Tamil Hindus in Germany (Marla-Küsters, 2015) and young Thai and Tibetan Buddhists in Great Britain and Switzerland (Schlieter, Kind, & Lauer, 2014; Thanissaro, 2014)
Summary
In the second half of the 20th century, European countries faced large-scale arrivals of immigrant workers, spouses, and refugees Over time, they established places of assembly and founded associations to maintain their religious and cultural traditions and to teach their children the faith and religious practices from the country of origin. Social Inclusion, 2020, Volume 8, Issue 3, Pages 273–285 socialised both in the European countries and in the cultural-religious traditions of their parents’ country of origin The basic question both of the parent generations and of many academic studies has been to what extent the young generations continue the religious traditions brought by the parents and what changes have occurred in adapting religious practices and ideas to the new socio-cultural environment. We define the second generation as the descendants of immigrants who have been socialised in Switzerland, whilst the first generation immigrated to Switzerland as adults
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