Religion and perceived attitudes among African immigrants in Guangzhou, China

Abstract

ABSTRACT Motivated by the fast-emerging literature on African immigrants in new destinations, this paper examines the role of religion in the African immigrants’ perceived attitudes of Chinese people toward them. Building on the triple-market model, we identify different ways Islam and Christianity influence African immigrants’ perceived attitudes in Guangzhou, the most popular gateway city for African immigrants to China. Using both survey and in-depth interview data, we find that Muslim Africans tend to perceive better attitudes of local Chinese toward them than their Christian counterparts. African-dominated congregations, where Christian Africans are used to participating, are negatively associated with African immigrants’ perceived attitudes. We argue that the mechanism underlying the relationships reflects how religion influences immigrants’ social experiences in China.