Belief, Belonging, or the Congregational Form: Religious Correlates to Latino Labor Mobility

• In Event: 165 - Section on Sociology of Religion Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 06. Latino/a Religion

Abstract

This paper examines how organized religion is related to Latino labor mobility. Employing the Chicago Latino Congregations Study (CLCS), three potential religious correlates—belief, belonging, and the congregational structure—are examined in reference to occupational attainment outcomes. Using logistic regression techniques, I find religious belief and measures of the congregational form to be the most cogent correlates to Latino parishioner labor mobility, explaining away the statistically significant relationship of my belonging measures. That congregational form variables explain away some of the significance otherwise associated with embedded network ties, makes this paper just as much a test of organizations theory as an analysis of the role of religion for a disadvantaged group. Measures of the congregational form were gathered in conversation with critics of bureaucratized theorizations of the organizational form, and lend support for measuring congregations as voluntary organizations. Therefore, this investigation not only holds clues for identifying what aspects of organized religion most correlate to positive economic outcomes for Hispanics, but may also prove methodologically persuasive for using alternative measures of the organizational form for congregations.

Author

• Ariana Monique Salazar-Newton, University of Notre Dame