Ethnic church attendance and social participation of immigrants in Canada

Abstract

Like immigrants to the US, described in Zhou and Lee's chapter about recent American immigration patterns, immigrants from non-European countries have dominated the immigration flow to Canada for the last few decades (Jasso and Rosenzweig 1990). The population of these new immigrants in major North American cities has reached the point of critical mass needed to support various ethnic activities and diverse institutions. Ethnic churches are among the ethnic institutions that have seen considerable growth in recent decades (Warner 1998). If one drives around the North American cities that have a large number of Chinese immigrants, it will not be difficult to see Chinese churches in the neighborhoods where these immigrants are concentrated. Most of the ethnic churches in North American cities are congregation oriented and emphasize volunteer participation. Decisions in the immigrant church are usually made by lay leaders rather than by full-time clergy (Yang and Ebaugh 2001). The strong congregation orientation partly reflects, as Yang (1999) observed, the fact that immigrants have a choice of religious affiliation in North America, in contrast to religion as the tradition of the nation or ethnic group. To compete effectively in the "religious economy," as Finke and Stark (1992) put it, ethnic churches have yielded substantial decision-making power to lay persons in order to entice them to stay. Almost all church activities are initiated, organized, and run by church members. Therefore, ethnic churches in North America can be viewed as ethnic voluntary organizations with considerable participation of members in every aspect of church activities. Members who are active in Chinese churches can easily spend many nights during the week and almost entire weekends in the church. These members participate in church choir practice, weekly Bible study, weekly prayer meetings, Sunday service, and/or a weekly outreachvisiting program. Some of these members may serve as leaders of small groups or as guides in youth fellowship, activities that require more than one meeting in a week. As these ethnic churches flourish in major cities across North America, the study of ethnic churches has experienced a considerable revival (Yang and Ebaugh 2001; Warner 1998; Bankston and Zhou 1996). Most of these studies are about the consequences of participation in ethnic churches. They focus on understanding how immigrants adapt their religion to express their experiences in the new country and to make sense of their new environment by organizing themselves through religious activities. More specifically, these studies document how immigrants negotiate their identities (Kurien 1998) and develop a stronger sense of ethnic identification (Bankston and Zhou 1996), and how the churches facilitate a sense of satisfaction (Min 1992) and foster networks that support entrepreneurship (Park 1997). Although many of these studies have explored the effect of the ethnic church on the adaptation process of immigrants, surprisingly few studies, and especially few quantitative empirical studies, have examined the effect of attending ethnic churches on the social integration of immigrants, especially friendship choice and participation in social activities of the wider society (Bankston and Zhou 1996). Most studies remain at the level of theorizing or detailed ethnographic case study (Nagata 2003; Yang 1999; Park 1997). To address how church attendance is related to social integration, especially the friendship choice and participation in social activities of the wider society, and how this relationship is related to the demographic and socio-economic background of immigrants, we have drawn upon recent data collected on Chinese economic activities in Toronto in 1998 and 1999. In the following sections, we review the literature on the topic. Specific hypotheses developed from the discussion are then tested. The results of the analyses and the implications of the findings on immigrant church attendance and integration are discussed. © 2006 by Hong Kong University Press, HKU. All rights reserved.