Religiosity and educational attainment among the Roma: Shedding an oppositional identity?

Abstract

The Roma have faced poverty, discrimination and persecution since emigrating from India centuries ago. Persistent disparities between Roma and non-Roma throughout Europe have prompted many integration efforts. Using data from 12 Eastern European countries, we construct religiosity measures for the Roma and their non-Roma neighbors and use LASSO to explore predictors of religiosity in Muslim and Christian communities. We then estimate the effect of religiosity on educational attainment and expectations using lifetime parental exposure to communist-era religious restrictions as an instrument. Parental religiosity tends to increase educational attainment and expectations, but with differences by historical Ottoman Empire influence. A placebo test among non-Roma households reveals no similar religiosity effects on educational outcomes. These results are consistent with a model of religious engagement softening oppositional identities in favor of mainstream education norms and expectations. The role religious institutions may play in stagnant Roma integration efforts merits further attention.