SECOND-GENERATION KOREANS IN WEST GERMANY: GENERATION OF HEIRS OR FASHIONER OF A FAITH OF THEIR OWN?

• Authors: Sabrina Weiß:
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

This paper systematically examines how second-generation Koreans as children of economic migrants, as Protestants, and as racial minorities shape their practice of religion in West-Germany on an institutional level and on membership level. It's based on a survey of second generation Korean German adults in Korean congregations in the pluralistic religious landscape and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. As second generation Koreans entered young adulthood, they began to vocalize displeasure over their parents and immigrant churches. Intergenerational tensions over themes like individualism, cultural differences in worship-styles and church leadership, and questioning of the church (and family) hierarchies began to surface. The intergenerational tensions and interactions go along with institutional change of the Korean churches. But in contrast to previous studies my survey shows that second generation Korean Germans haven’t failed to transmit their cultural and religious tradition. A typology of four strategies (Member Level: Self-determination/mobility, Displacement; Institutional Level: Separation/differentiation, Cooperation)shows, how second generation Koreans find their way of preserving the cultural heritage of the first generation and develop a faith of their own in new social spaces.

Keywords

EN

MIGRANT CHURCHES; KOREAN CHRISTIANS; SECOND GENERATION; INTERGENERATIONAL TRANSMISSION; NEW SOCIAL SPACES

• Publisher: Wydział Studiów Międzynarodowych i Politycznych Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego oraz Polska Akademia Umiejętności
• Journal: Studia Migracyjne - Przegląd Polonijny
• Year: 2014
• Volume: 40
• Issue: 3(153)
• Pages: 69-86

Contributors

author

Sabrina Weiß:

• Ruhr-Universität Bochum