Living Apart Together? On ethnic identity dynamics and intergroup relations between allochthons and autochthons

In this chapter, we will study the ethnic identity dynamics that come into play in the context of immigrants in a host society. Moreover, we will demonstrate that ethnicity is often strongly interwoven with religiosity. Roosens has offered a vast amount of empirical research in this domain. We will briefly present some aspects of his work that are relevant to our topic here. Then, we will present a social-psychological framework to analyze the topic. The objective of this chapter can be interpreted as a presentation and comparison of two approaches to ethnicity dynamics: an anthropological and a social-psychological approach. The social-psychological theorizing offers a conceptual framework that allows to systematize certain anthropological findings. On the other hand, the anthropological insights constitute a healthy counterweight for the, occasionally, abstract and strict social-psychological theorizing. We will argue that both approaches are complementary. The integration of both approaches will eventually lead to more profound insights into the role of ethnic identity dynamics in intergroup relations.