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Vietnamese Catholics and Buddhists in Denmark

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Vietnamese Catholics and Buddhists in Denmark Article • DOI: 10.2478/v10202-011-0015-z NJMR • 1(3) • 2011 • 176-184 RELIGION AND CULTURAL INTEGRATION: Vietnamese Catholics and Buddhists in Denmark Abstract Jørn Borup*, Lars Ahlin This article is based on a quantitative study of two rather distinct religious traditions (Buddhism and Christianity) sharing the same ethnic origin Section for the Study of Religion, Faculty of Theology, Aarhus University, (Vietnamese) in the same host nation (Denmark). It investigates the Taasingegade 3, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark possible relations between religion and acculturation, and looks at whether various forms of religiosity and religious belonging are plausible variables in acculturation perspectives. Our analyses suggest that there is a clear tendency that Catholics, on a number of variables, are more likely than Buddhists to be oriented towards own ethnic and religious identity, and that religion and religiosity seem to be negative factors in integration processes. However, we also conclude that a broader complex of variables defines the field of study, including type of religion, religious engagement, socialisation, and general relations to host culture. Keywords Acculturation • Buddhists • Catholics • diaspora • integration • migration • Vietnamese 1 Introduction the family reunification program, and 71% of them have Danish citizenship. There are equal numbers of men and women, but a large Religion, migration and acculturation, and the relations between majority of them are below 50 years of age (83%). Four Buddhist these entities in a global and more or less multicultural setting, are monks and four Catholic priests serve the 3,000 Buddhist and 3,000 at present a fast-growing research area, which has been the focus Catholic members of the religious communities and an even greater of intense research during recent years. This article takes its point of number of individuals (up to 8,000 Buddhist and 5,000 Catholic departure in a different field, namely a diasporic frame with two rather “users”) at festivals and rites of passages in the six Buddhist temples distinct religious traditions (Buddhism and Christianity) sharing the and the eight Catholic churches that have Vietnamese masses. same ethnic origin (Vietnamese) in the same host nation (Denmark). Whereas research in religion and immigrants with an Asian back- As refugees, or “boat people”, the “Overseas Vietnamese” (Viet Kieu) ground in a Western setting is still sparse in the European context, it arrived in waves to the West following the fall of Saigon in 1975, until has a longer tradition in American history; surprisingly, little has been the mid-1980s. Most of them wished to go directly to the USA, but written on the Vietnamese religious diaspora (see, however, Adam many ended up in Europe, especially because of the international 1995 on Vietnamese in Australia; Baumann 2000 on Vietnamese agreements on quotas. Denmark received 4,000 Vietnamese refu- in Germany; Borup 2005, 2011 on Vietnamese in Denmark; Dorais gees during this period, primarily from 1980 onwards. In 2010, the 2005, 2007 on Vietnamese in Canada; Rutledge 1992, Zhou & number of people of Vietnamese origin has grown to almost 14,000, Bankston 1996 and Caplan, Choy & Whitmore 1991 on Vietnamese or 3% of the immigrants from non-Western countries. Half of them in USA, Rönnqvist 2009 on Vietnamese in Sweden). Apart from the came in as refugees, the rest are descendants or came through sheer quantitative differences, making research into major minority * E-mail: [email protected] 176 groups more reasonable, there is an underlying argument of hav- integration and social integration have often been given higher prior- ing overlooked this group – seen as the perfect silent other living ity than more slippery and “soft” factors, such as religion, culture, in a “silent exodus” (Chai, quoted by Cadge & Ecklund 2007: 368) and values. Such a distinction has already been conceptualised by – which may be parallel to the basic argument that religion in the Milton Gordon as structural assimilation as opposed to cultural as- USA until recent years has been overlooked in immigration and in- similation (Gordon 1964). The concept and strategy of assimilation tegration studies (Foner & Alba 2008: 360); these groups are simply has been criticised for its essentialist and teleological assumptions of not seen as problematic enough to achieve political and scholarly automatic and irreversible incorporation into apparently monocultural attention. As is the case in other Western countries, the Vietnamese settings, and more nuanced definitions and models have argued for are often conceived of as being “model immigrants” (one among much more multidimensional and relational models in multicultural several Danish newspaper headlines, including also “The Pattern settings, either by reinterpreting assimilation in a new key (as for Breakers”, “The Silent Minority”, “The Discreet People”, “The Silent instance “new assimilationism” with no presupposed societal core; Others”, see Borup 2011). The few examples of integration research Alba & Nee 2003), or by using other terminology. Though there has in Denmark that have actually included this group also seem to been no consensus on the definition and use, the concept of inte- suggest positive tendencies of social and economic integration. The gration has often – in migration literature and public debate – been average personal income is the second highest among the migrant associated with a more flexible idea of immigrants in multicultural groups (Ministeriet for Flygtninge, Indvandrere og Integration 2005: settings being incorporated into new host cultures. In the sense of 184), the young have successful education results (Tænketanken om ideally blending in with the majority population by participating in udfordringer for integrationsindsatsen i Danmark 2005, Hvidtfeldt & political, social, and economic spheres while maintaining aspects of Schultz-Nielsen 2008), and rates are relatively low for unemployment the cultural and religious features of their origin, it has thus been (Ministeriet for Flygtninge, Indvandrere og Integration 2009), crime considered semantically close to adaptation, acculturation, social in- (Statistiske Efterretninger 2008: 8), sickness (Schläger, Rasmussen corporation, or cultural integration (Baumann & Salentin 2006; Foley & Kjøller 2005), suicide (Sundaram, Qin & Zøllner 2006), and per- & Hoge 2007; Martikainen 2005). In recent years, network relations ceived discrimination (Tænketanken 2007B: 105), all being factors have been discussed as being mechanisms of cultural integration, fostering the image of the diligent Vietnamese working their way up cf. especially Putnam’s notion of social capital (2000, see also Smidt from bottom to top, examples of which have also been portrayed in 2003; Furseth 2008). The central idea of this concept is that the several newspaper articles. belonging to a network is in itself a valuable resource and serves as This article attempts to analyse whether, and to what extent, a powerful basis of social coherence in local communities. Especially religion, and different religious belonging amongst a segment of the in acculturation processes for immigrants living in diaspora, it seems Vietnamese, can be said to relate to acculturation in a Danish con- constructive to further distinguish the concepts into two modes, text. After a short introduction to acculturation theories and methods bonding social capital being “ties to people who are like you in some used in this survey, data will be analysed with regard to (a) identity important way” and bridging social capital being “ties to people who and acculturation and (b) religion, followed by a discussion of the are unlike you in some important way” (Putnam 2007: 143). Whereas possible relations and causality between religion and acculturation. the lack of the latter can have negative consequences, resulting in cultural isolation, segregation, and parallel societies, the former is often in itself a constructive strategy (as Zhou & Bankston 1996 2 Acculturation theories exemplified by Vietnamese immigrants in USA). Acknowledging different kinds of acculturation and different The whole spectrum of ideas and concepts related to the situation ways and mechanisms (one of them being the “social capital argu- of migrants who meet and adapt to new host cultures is manifold ment”, Foley & Hoge 2007: 29) of achieving more successful social and broad, and it is to a very large extent shaped by, reflected in, incorporation is in itself a challenge, but it is an even greater task to and itself inspiring the social, political, and historical context in which suggest theories, models, and methods to actually measure and op- it is embedded. In a way the whole debate and terminology are erationalise such fields and processes. One example of this is John social constructs, always dependent on the “prevailing ideological Berry’s multidimensional acculturation model of different ways for climate” (Cheong et al. 2007: 5). The social theories of the Chicago immigrants to be incorporated into a new host culture, defining four School in the 1920s on how immigrants became incorporated into types of acculturation based on identity and relation to other groups. the American society thus assumed a three-stage model of contact, Integration in such a conceptual framework is one such instance accommodation, and assimilation, the latter expressing the natural of acculturation, in which “there is some degree of cultural integrity and
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