Religious transmission and cultural negotiation in first-generation Muslim migrant parents in Italy: a qualitative study

This study investigated the interplay between acculturation and religion in the religious transmission of first-generation Islamic parents in Italy. Basing on the model of the Big Four Religious Dimension (BFRD) the study took a multidimensional approach to religiosity to gain a detailed understanding of the different facets of religiosity and their contribution to the overall process of cultural adaptation and intergenerational transmission of religious values. Eleven first-generation Muslim parents (9 women; mean age: 48 years) participated in a semistructured interview. Results showed that the tension between the desire to “raise good Muslims” and that for their successful integration in a non-Muslim context challenges different facets of religiosity opening spaces for cultural negotiation which leads parents to reconsider how religious rules and identity are passed on to second generation and to develop a more conscious approach to religiosity in migration. The ability to connect religious values and identity with the context of life was greater when parents have developed a balance between the dynamics of integration in the Italian or cross-cultural spaces of everyday life and the spaces reserved for Muslims and had a high level of cultural capital. Practical implications for implementing policies of cultural and religious pluralism are discussed.