The Effects of Siblings on the Dietary Integration of the Second-generation Muslim Youth in Europe

• In Event: 2384 - Section on International Migration Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 13. Migration and Health

Abstract

This study analyzes the effects of sibling (birth order and sibship size) on the dietary integration of the second-generation Muslim youth in Europe, applying comparable ordered logit models to TIES (2005-2007) data from Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. After controlling for selected demographic, socioeconomic and parental religiosity variables, being the second or higher order child has a positive effect on halal food consumption among German females but a negative effect among Belgian males. However, being the second or higher order child has no significant effects on fasting during Ramadan in the three societies.
A comparable model applied to French TeO (2008) data also shows that being the second or younger child has no significant effects on Islamic food restriction among the second-generation Muslim youth, while having one sibling has a negative effect among males and females and having two siblings has a negative effect among females. Having two siblings is also found to have a negative effect on halal food consumption among females in Belgium and a negative effect on fasting during Ramadan among German males. Unexpectedly, after introducing interaction variables, the above variables start to have more significant effects.
The analysis has revealed rather consistent results across sexes and societies: smaller sibship size tends to have a negative effect on Islamic dietary practices while birth orders reflecting the smaller sibship size tend to have a positive effect. The combined effects of birth order and sibship size on the dietary integration differs across genders and societies. It may be true for other aspects of social integration of the second-generation Muslim youth, but it may be somewhat different due to the multiplicity of integration process as indicated by the difference between halal food eating and fasting during Ramadan.

Author

• Hiroshi Kojima, Waseda University