There is a growing recognition of the need to examine religiousness and conduct research on its influence on acculturation and adjustment among ethnic minority youth (Güngör et al. 2012). Examining religious identity and acculturation orientations during this developmental stage is particularly important because adolescents often belong to multiple social groups and the process of forming a social identity represents a crucial developmental task for them (Kroger and Marcia 2011). This process becomes particularly salient for ethnic minority adolescents who have to navigate among multiple social groups and cultures (Benet-Martínez and Haritatos 2005; LaFromboise et al. 1993). It is during this stage that youth acquire a deeper understanding of their social identities (including religious identity) and their orientation towards cultural maintenance and adoption.
In fact, strong religiousness is associated with enhanced adjustment of individuals in general and ethnic minority groups in particular (Friedman and Saroglou 2010). This implication fuels an increasing interest in studying the role of ethnicity and culture in relationship with religiousness, acculturation and adjustment. However, there is a dearth of research examining correlates of acculturation orientations and their relationships across ethnically diverse samples, and in Turkish ethnic minority living in Eastern Europe in particular. A focus on Eastern Europe and minority groups in this part of Europe is relevant in light of recent political and socio-cultural transformations with significant influence on identity and acculturation of these groups. A unique feature of Turkish-Bulgarians regards the changing cultural and political context in which they live—the collapse of communism and a need to restore a sense of identity as a basis to negotiate the relations between different ethnic groups in Eastern Europe. These contextual features are relevant in affecting identity and acculturation processes of youth. Therefore, we set up to take advantage of this unique contextual feature in exploring beneficial or protective effects of religious identity for Turkish-Bulgarian youth. For that reason, the current study was designed to assess the influence of religious identity and acculturation orientations on adjustment among Turkish-Bulgarians compared to Turkish-Germans. We specifically focus on Turkish groups in Bulgaria and Germany because even though these two groups share certain characteristics, they also represent two very distinct contexts of settlement. Comparing acculturation conditions, acculturation orientations and acculturation outcomes and the relationships between these components in two diverse settings sheds light on how adolescents’ acculturation process is affected by cultural context by delineating the commonalities and differences in both samples.
Acculturation framework
We apply the acculturation framework proposed by Arends-Tóth and van de Vijver (2006) that differentiates acculturation conditions, orientations, and outcomes. Acculturation describes patterns of cultural and psychological changes that result from the integration of individuals from two or more cultures, which often result in long-term psychological and socio-cultural adaptations between both groups (Berry et al. 2006; Berry 2003). Acculturation conditions refer to personal characteristics (family, personality, identity, specifics of minority groups), and to characteristics of the receiving and host society such as discrimination and opportunity structures. Acculturation orientations refer to the maintenance of one’s culture of origin and the extent to which minority groups actively participate in the mainstream culture. Acculturation outcomes concern the degree of success of the acculturation process in terms of psychological adjustment as well as socio-cultural adjustment in both ethnic and host cultures.
In this study, we focus on Turkish youth in Germany and Bulgaria and operationalize their acculturation conditions as religious identity (representing feeling of attachment and belonging to own religious group), their acculturation orientations as host culture adoption and heritage culture maintenance, and their acculturation outcomes as adjustment to host and heritage cultures and psychological adjustment outcomes (i.e., life satisfaction).
The acculturation context
Research and theory suggest that macro-level variables filtrate through more proximate circumstances in which children and adolescents grow up (Bronfenbrenner 1979). In case of the acculturation process, a similar stance has been put forward by Bourhis et al. (1997) in their Interactive Acculturation Model (IAM). The IAM claims an interactionist relationship between the individual and the acculturative context: State policies and other circumstantial conditions affect individuals’ acculturation orientations and also the outcomes that emerge from different combinations of contextual conditions and individual-level acculturation orientations. Hence, when examining the process of acculturation, its conditions, orientations and outcomes, it seems inevitable to take contextual variables into account.
The notion that contextual conditions affect the acculturative process of individuals has also been supported by empirical findings. In a four country comparison of Turkish groups, evidence has shown that minority groups in the country with the most assimilation pressure (France) report high scores on sociocultural adjustment to the mainstream culture, combined with low scores on psychological adjustment compared to minority groups of countries with less assimilation pressure (Australia, the Netherlands, and Germany) (Yagmur and Van de Vijver 2012). Further support for the context-specificity in acculturation is reported by Vedder and Virta (2005) with Turkish groups in Sweden and the Netherlands. The authors found strong culture maintenance in the Swedish sample and strong language assimilation in the Dutch sample, but weak support for integration (adopting both heritage and host cultures) in the Swedish sample. In summary, findings suggest that the acculturation process varies across social contexts due to tangible opportunities for (Turkish) minority groups in diverse acculturative contexts.
Turkish minority in Bulgaria versus Germany
Based on theoretical and empirical evidence, we consider essential to study and compare the acculturation process of youth in light of their contextual backgrounds. We chose to focus on Turkish groups in Bulgaria and Germany, because even though these two groups share certain characteristics, they also represent two very distinct contexts of settlement. First, both groups are similar as they represent the largest minority group in terms of size and prominence (10 % of about 8 million Bulgarians; close to 4 % of the 80 million German population) with a separate culture, language, and religion (National Statistical Institute 2004; Migration-report commissioned by the German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees 2013). They are a predominantly Muslim group in a country where Christian Orthodoxy (Bulgaria) and Catholicism and Protestantism (Germany) is the official religion (Eminov 2007). In both countries, Turkish groups share a strong supportive network, form cohesive ethnic communities, and maintain their cultural adherence to Turkish traditions.
Second, these two groups also differ. The Turkish minority in Bulgaria has been in the country for centuries unlike Turkish labor migration to receiving countries such as Germany that has happened more recently in the 1960s. Moreover, the Turkish-Bulgarian community inhabits disadvantaged areas characterized by high unemployment rates, poor infrastructure, and low professional opportunities compared to the average country levels (Maeva 2005). Finally, the most distinctive characteristic associated with this minority regards the assimilation policy of the Bulgarian government in the late 1980s. The government conducted several renaming campaigns, representing one of the most rapid assimilation campaigns in European history, coercing nearly one million people to change their names (Dimitrov 2000). Hence, Turkish-Bulgarians are characterized by severe historic assimilation experiences and persistent social disadvantages. Turkish-Germans, on the other hand, were exposed to relatively more favorable acculturation conditions (e.g., targeted policy across areas of education, labor, and urban development, and reforms for a better integration and managed migration; Bendel 2014) compared to the heavily oppressed Turkish-Bulgarians.
Acculturation condition: religious identity
Religious identity, operationalized here as an individual’s sense of belonging and commitment to a religion (Nesbitt and Arweck 2010), is part of the acculturation process. Following past research, we utilize identity as a proxy for acculturation condition, because it reflects a basic personal characteristic as specified in the model guiding our study (Arends-Tóth and van de Vijver 2006) as well as determines coping capacities and psychological adjustment outcomes (Hofer et al. 2006). Across a variety of cultural contexts, it has been documented that religious identity is an important asset for ethnic minority adolescents, regardless of their specific religious affiliation (Lopez et al. 2011; Wallace et al. 2003). Ethnic minority adolescents have been found to score high on religious identity as well as on religious participation and to assign great importance to religion and prayer (Harker 2001; Verkuyten et al. 2012).
Additionally, religious identity has been documented as particularly salient for members of Muslim minority communities (Verkuyten and Yildiz 2009). This pattern has been confirmed across different European countries for both youth and emerging adults (Haddad and Smith 2001; Phalet 2004). Findings suggest that religious identity is likely to be strong when members of minority groups feel a strong affiliation to their ethnic community, which might also result from anti-religion policies (Dimitrova et al. 2014a). Across studies, Turkish youth have been found to demonstrate higher religiosity and an overall stronger religious identity as important source of identification and adjustment compared to mainstream youth (Dimitrova et al. 2014b). These findings are consistent with research documenting that Muslim youth in general display a more pronounced religious identity than their non-Muslim peers (Saroglou and Galand 2004; Saroglou and Mathijsen 2007).
In terms of correlates of religious identity, findings seem mixed. While there is some research that underlines religious identity’ beneficial effects, there is also research on how religious identity might turn into an obstacle for acculturating adolescents. A strong religious identity has been found to be associated with low levels of delinquency (Junger and Polder 1993), disruptive behaviors (Abbotts et al. 2004; Udel et al. 2011), and internalizing and externalizing problems (Bartowski et al. 2008). On the other hand, however, we have evidence showing that more religious Muslims are less willing to adopt the mainstream culture (Friedman and Saroglou 2010; Güngör et al. 2011; Saroglou and Mathijsen 2007) which in turn increases the social and cultural distance between Muslim minorities and mainstream society.
Acculturation orientations: maintenance and adoption among Turkish minority youth
Much research has been devoted to study how acculturation orientations may relate to adjustment outcomes. With few exceptions, maintaining one’s original culture, while at the same time adopting the host culture (termed integration, Berry 1997) seems to be the most adaptive acculturation strategy (Berry et al. 2006; Sam and Berry 2006). However, there is scarce work examining the process of acculturation among Turkish youth in Eastern Europe. One study we are aware of investigated the association between ethnic identity (heritage and mainstream), acculturation orientations (host culture adoption and heritage culture maintenance) and psychological and sociocultural outcomes in Turkish-Bulgarian and Turkish-German youth (Dimitrova et al. 2015). The authors found that youth in both cultural contexts regarded their Turkish culture maintenance as more important than host culture adoption. Turkish-Bulgarians also reported higher scores on host culture adoption than Turkish-Germans. An important finding was that Turkish maintenance was positively related to adjustment to both cultures, whereas mainstream adoption was positively associated with adjustment to the host culture only. The authors further suggest that acculturation orientations exemplified by Turkish maintenance are salient factors for adjustment of Turkish minority adolescents from two different European countries. Relatedly, results of another study support the association between acculturation orientations and adjustment for Turkish adults living in Bulgaria and the Netherlands, while also revealing substantial differences in salience and relations among cultural maintenance, adoption and adjustment between these two groups (Dimitrova et al. 2014b). Turkish-Bulgarians reported higher host culture adoption than the Turkish-Dutch, whereas the opposite pattern emerged for Turkish culture maintenance. As expected, Turkish adults in the Netherlands showed a more pronounced tendency to maintain their heritage Turkish culture compared to their Turkish counterparts in Bulgaria.
Overall, findings seem to be indicative of differences in salience of acculturation orientations among Turkish-Bulgarian and Turkish-German youth. Moreover, findings also seem supportive for the acculturation framework proposed by Arends-Tóth and van de Vijver (2006) confirming strong relationships between acculturation orientations and adjustment outcomes.
The present study
We follow this line of research and address questions about both mean level and structural similarities and differences in Turkish-German and Turkish-Bulgarian adolescents’ acculturation process. We assume that acculturation conditions (religious identity) influence acculturation outcomes (socio-cultural and psychological adjustment) and that this relationship is mediated by the acculturation orientations (maintenance of the heritage culture and adoption of the host culture) of Turkish-Bulgarian and Turkish-German minority youth (see Fig. 1 for an overview).
Two research questions were addressed: (1) Do Turkish youth in Germany and Bulgaria differ in their religious identity endorsement and in their acculturation orientations of cultural maintenance and cultural adoption? (2) How are the relationships among religious identity, acculturation orientations and socio-cultural and psychological adjustment in the two groups? First, we expect differences in religious identity endorsement and acculturation orientations among the two youth samples, since the Turkish-Bulgarians belong to a severely stigmatized ethnic minority group in a post-communist atheist country (Ganev 2004; Verkuyten 2005). More specifically, and in line with previous research showing that Turkish-Bulgarians are more likely to report strong attachment to their host Bulgarian culture (Dimitrova et al. 2014a, b), we propose that Turkish-Bulgarians will report lower levels of religious identity and maintenance, and higher levels of adoption than Turkish-Germans. Second, based on the postulated relationship among acculturation conditions, orientations and outcomes in our model of reference (Arends-Tóth and van de Vijver 2006), we test the relationship between religious identity and socio-cultural and psychological adjustment among the two groups. More specifically, we expect that religious identity (i.e., acculturation condition) is positively related to acculturation outcomes and that this relationship is mediated by acculturation orientations of maintenance and adoption in both Turkish groups (for an overview see Fig. 1).