Religion and Immigrant Occupational Attainment across Social Integration Contexts in Finland

This article focuses on expanding the existing knowledge on contextual social integration of immigrants based on religion and occupational attainment. Drawing on the theory of social exchange, it identifies that immigrant religion in Finland serves as a marker of ethnic structures and social identify for minority groups of groups. Religion is the main social identity that provides an institutional belongingness that provides access to tangible resources. These claims are supported by a systematic literature review of prior scholarly work that have investigated the area of religion, migration, and social integration. Using empirical data obtained from interviews conducted on selected number of immigrants living in Helsinki, Finland, this article analyzes the effects of religion across social integration contexts in relation to immigrant occupational attainment. Analysis of the interviews find out to a limited extent that in immigrant religious circles social integration is enhanced and there are high chances of connection to occupational opportunities. Similarly, there is an association of discrimination in structural social integration in case of immigrant strong religious expressions. By contrast, this article found out that in case of matching immigrant and natives’ religious practice religious participation and attendance seems to be positively associated with occupational attainment.