A study on the clashes between social institutions and religious values of immigrants

Abstract

　Western European countries have experienced a wave of immigration since the 1950s and have consequently faced several immigrants-related problems. One of those is the cultural clash between religious values of immigrants and social institutions of the host-nation. This paper aimed to inquire why appearance and seriousness of cultural clashes differ among Western democratic countries. Previous studies have shown that social stratification of immigrants, distance of their religion from the main religion of the host-society, and immigrant’s religion with or without rituals on public sphere play important roles in this issue. This paper derived the structural outline of cultural conflicts from previous studies on cross-national comparison of battles of Muslim women’s headscarf. The findings showed that immigrants’ religion on one side and institutions that are built path-dependently, identity, and major religion of a host-nation on the other are the major factors. Christianity’s effect on the modern Western secularism and basic principles in the way of thinking also makes it a factor. The interaction between these factors makes variations of appearance and gravity in cultural clashes. Finally, this paper analyzed solutions to cultural clashes given by three German scholars using the outline to show a part of its effectiveness.