Predincting migrants’ democracy satisfaction

Besides political interest, the thesis further proposes that the four integration dimensions (cultural, emotional, structural and social integration) are main conditions for migrants’ perceived regime responsiveness and legitimacy and thus democracy satisfaction in the receiving country. People with a higher social status (i.e. structural integration), for instance, are more likely to perceive their needs and wishes for social approval satisfied by the political system, and thus to perceive the political regime as responsive and legitimate. Relatedly, researches have documented that judgments of the personal state of the economy or health as well as job satisfaction or life satisfaction are closely related to democracy satisfaction (e.g. Schäfer 2013; Zmerli, Newton, and Montero 2007).

Perceived discrimination Ethnic identity Political interest National identity Majority language

and native contacts _{Income, social}

status, employed within the receiving

country labour market

Emotional capital

Cultural, social and structural capital

Political attitude Mechanisms

Main indep. variable Outcome

The command of the majority language and social contacts with natives in turn may affect democracy satisfaction through producing social trust, which spill over to political trust (Jacobs and Tillie 2004, 421). Yet, I argue that there is also another mechanism that links host country-specific cultural and social capital (i.e. majority language proficiency and interethnic contacts) to regime satisfaction due to reducing cultural distances on behalf of the native policy makers and authorities, which may otherwise foster disadvantages in terms of political representation of migrant interests. Thus, Ulbig (2005, 2) assumes that policy makers who share characteristics with citizens ‘by appearance, statements, or symbolic gestures send cues to their constituents that they will be more responsive to their needs’.

Further, emotional inclusion in the form of national identification can be expected to increase democracy satisfaction as it biases positive attitudes towards the national group (and related objects that help to preserve a positive identity). In similar veins, national identification bias migrants’ perceptions of regime responsiveness i.e. making the ‘the polity democratically more legitimate in one’s eyes’ (Mansbridge 1999, 651). Last but not least, national identification can be expected to enhance satisfaction with the democratic regime of the receiving society, because it drives migrants to assimilate the self to the content of the national group prototype. According to Kunovich (2009), besides ‘ethnic’ characteristics such as language, this also involves ‘civic’ and ‘political’ aspects such as legal rights and duties of a democratic national political community.

Apart from the structural, social, cultural and emotional inclusion processes, an increasing body of literature as well as theories from social psychology point towards religion as factor within the immigrant’s context of settlement that bear a main influence on migrants’ political support attitudes. There has been a traditional strand of political science literature that connects religion with attitudes towards democracy by cultural arguments (see, among others: Huntington 1996a; Huntington 1996b; Modood 2003; Pauly 2013). Yet, empirical studies do not consistently document the alleged negative association between a Muslim affiliation and democratic attitudes or democratic skills as well as differences to a Christian affiliation in western host societies (e.g. Jackson and Doerschler 2012; Maxwell 2010).

Relying on social psychological literature, the doctoral thesis argues for two distinct micro-mechanisms through which religion becomes relevant to migrants’ regime evaluation. According to SIT, social identities are a main source of shaping and determining individual’s well-being and expectations. Thereby, religious identity can be suggested to particularly enhance individuals’ subjective life-satisfaction because it offers a comforting and compelling worldview, a social support system, and a unique form of psychological enrichment (i.e.

personal well-being and self-esteem) (Ysseldyk et al. 2010). Yet, there are good reasons to assume that main dimensions of migrants’ religious identity, their religious self-categorisation and attendance may have different (positive and negative) effects on democracy satisfaction.

Through the church-based social system, members can not only actively re-affirm a positive identity but may also experience support in terms of advice or assistance when attending religious services. Thereby individuals’ general well-being is enhanced. Moreover, political participation in organised communities such religious organisations may satisfy migrants’ needs and expectations towards democracies of free expression and practice of religion. In addition, religious participation provides social interaction opportunities to develop civic skills, norms, trust and the political knowledge necessary to practise democratic citizenship (Putnam 2000). Thereby, it may also enhance migrants’ satisfaction with decision- making structures of a democratic regime.

In contrast, the self-categorisation dimension of religious identity as a member of a particular religious community may under circumstances of a socially disadvantaged and stigmatised religious identity lead to perceptions of a lack of responsiveness legitimacy of the political regime of the receiving country. Thus, as a Muslim affiliation is associated with disadvantages in the main positioning system of the host society, the labour market (e.g. Constant et al. 2006: 25), and the majority population shares negative attitudes as well as discriminate against Muslim believers (e.g. Helbling 2013), it can be expected to decrease migrants’ well-being as well as perceived regime responsiveness.

Because religious attendance and affiliation are closely related, interaction effects can be suggested: Because Muslim believers experience contrary to their expectations and wishes for free expression and practice of religion a contested and disadvantaged identity within the German receiving society, the positive effect of church attendance can be expected to be less pronounced for them compared to Protestant or Catholic immigrant believers. Similarly, it can be suggested that because Muslim believers are less likely to meet native Germans by their church attendance than Protestant and Catholic believers do, respectively remain among their religious community of shared grievances, the negative effect of Muslim affiliation may be more pronounced among Muslims that frequently attend religious services and events.

Yet, an alternative assumption is that religious attendance may enhance the psychological resources that help to cope with a negative and contested Muslim identity through the mechanisms of a social support system. Thus, church attendance may buffer the negative well-being effect of Muslim affiliation on democracy satisfaction.

Figure 1.4 depicts the influence associations between migrants’ emotional, cultural, social, and strucutural integration and democracy satisfaction that are topic of empirical Chapter 5 of the present doctoral work.

Figure 1.4. Conceptual diagram on the main micro-mechanisms of migrants’ integration processes/capital and their political interest in Chapter 5