Has immigration slowed down secularization in Germany? Empirical evidence from 2014 to 2021

Abstract

The aim of this data visualization is to answer the question of whether immigration has acted as a counter-secularization force in Germany in recent years. The hypothesis is based on the tendency of first- and second-generation immigrants to exhibit higher levels of religiosity compared with the host populations. Simulation analysis involving more than 15,000 respondents of data from the 2014 to 2021 German General Social Survey indicates that the increase in the immigrant population during this period does not emerge as a substantial counterforce to religious decline in both eastern and western Germany. An effective slowdown of secularization in Germany would have required a more substantial increase in immigration, a notably higher level of religious engagement among new arrivals and their descendants than was observed, and a reduced pace of secularization among them.

Jan-Philip Steinmann

Postdoctoral researcher

Head of the research unit “Aetiology of Deviance” at the Criminological Research Institute of Lower Saxony (KFN), Germany