The Importance of a Religious Funeral Ceremony Among Turkish Migrants and Their Descendants in Germany: What Role do Socio-demographic Characteristics Play?

Our paper analyses the attitudes of Turkish migrants and their descendants in Germany regarding the importance of a religious funeral ceremony. Previous research provides competing hypotheses on the intergenerational transmission of religiosity in migrant communities, such as, declines in religiosity due to assimilation versus maintenance of religiosity as a means to ethnic identity formation. Quantitative research however has not yet considered funerals. Our study utilises data from the Generations and Gender Survey; our sample comprises roughly 4000 people of Turkish migrant background aged 18–81, most of whom are Muslims. We apply logistic regression methods to attitudes regarding the importance of a religious funeral ceremony. More than 80 per cent of the respondents maintained that a religious funeral ceremony was important. Examination of individual characteristics revealed variation by education, partner’s origin, and citizenship. Overall, however, Muslim funeral traditions are sustained across first- and second-generations.