Racial Barriers and Religious Boundaries: Assimilation among Second Generation Asian Americans

TL;DR

Second-generation Asian Americans experience a crisis of authenticity, leading them to embrace evangelical Christianity and Islam as sources of identity and belonging, while other religious groups struggle to maintain religiosity.

Transcript

I'm prudence Carter and the faculty director at the Research Institute for the Center for studies in comparative studies in race and ethnicity welcome to our last faculty seminar talk of the academic year I cannot believe it we're already here at the end of the 2013-2014 year and what an amazing way what I think an amazing series we've had this yea... Read More

Key Insights

• 😀 Second-generation Asian Americans face a crisis of authenticity, feeling neither fully American nor authentic Asians.
• ❓ Evangelical Christianity and Islam provide religious communities that offer a sense of belonging and identity for second-generation Asian Americans.
• 💪 Assimilation has a secularizing effect on second-generation Asian Americans, but religions with strong oppositional boundaries against mainstream society resist this secularization.
• 😫 Asian American evangelicals and Muslims set themselves apart from both mainstream society and their own ethnic culture, embracing a pure and authentic form of their respective religions.
• ❓ Catholics, Hindus, and Buddhists struggle to maintain religiosity and their ethnic identity as they become more assimilated into mainstream society.
• 👳 Second-generation Asian Americans are more likely to be religiously unaffiliated, as they are younger, highly educated, urban, and concentrated in the West and Northeast.
• 👥 The racialization of Islam has forced second-generation Muslims to expand their boundaries of brotherhood and sisterhood beyond their own ethnic group.

Questions & Answers

Q: Why do second-generation Asian Americans embrace evangelical Christianity and Islam?

Evangelical Christianity and Islam offer strong boundaries that differentiate them from mainstream society, providing a sense of belonging and identity for second-generation Asian Americans who feel a crisis of authenticity.

Q: Why do other religious groups struggle to maintain religiosity?

Catholicism, Hinduism, and Buddhism are often seen as inseparable from ethnic identity, making it difficult for second-generation Asian Americans to connect with these religions as they lose fluency in their ethnic traditions.

Q: How does assimilation impact religiosity among second-generation Asian Americans?

Assimilation has a secularizing effect, with second-generation Asian Americans becoming less religious than their immigrant parents. However, religions with strong oppositional boundaries resist this secularization.

Q: Why are evangelicals and Muslims more resilient in maintaining religiosity?

Evangelicals and Muslims set themselves apart from both mainstream society and their own ethnic culture, embracing a pure and authentic form of their respective religions. They also embrace their racial difference and find solidarity within their own religious communities.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Second-generation Asian Americans face a crisis of authenticity, feeling neither fully American nor authentic Asians.

• Evangelical Christianity and Islam provide religious communities that offer a sense of belonging and identity for second-generation Asian Americans.

• Other religious groups, such as Catholics, Hindus, and Buddhists, struggle to maintain religiosity and their ethnic identity.

• Assimilation has a secularizing effect on second-generation Asian Americans, but religions with strong oppositional boundaries against mainstream society resist this secularization.