(RNS) ā The worldās 280 million immigrants have greater shares of Christians, Muslims and Jews than the general population, according to aĀ new Pew Research Center studyĀ released Monday (Aug. 19).
āYou see migrants coming to places like the U.S., Canada, different places through Western Europe, and being more religious ā and sometimes more Christian in particular ā than the native-born people in those countries,ā said Achsah Callahan, the studyās lead researcher.
While Christians make up about 30% of the worldās population, the worldās migrants are 47% Christian, according to the latest data collected in 2020. The study found that Muslims make up 29% of the migrant population but 25% of the worldās population. Jews, only 0.2% of the worldās population but 1% of migrants, are by far the most likely religious group to have migrated, with 20% of Jews worldwide living outside their country of birth compared to just 6% of Christians and 4% of Muslims.
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Four percent of migrants are Buddhist, matching the general population, and 5% are Hindu, compared to 15% of the world population.
Over the past 30 years, migration has outpaced global population growth by 83%, according to Pew.
āChristians, Muslims and Jews make up higher shares of migrants than of the overall populationā (Graphic courtesy Pew Research Center)
Though people immigrate for many reasons, including economic opportunity, to reunite with family and to flee violence or persecution, religion and migration are often closely connected, the report finds.Ā U.S. migrants are much more likely to have a religious identity than the American-born population in general.
The influx of religious migrants can have a significant impact on the religious composition of their destination countries. In the case of the U.S., āimmigrants are kind of putting the brakes on secularization,ā Callahan said.
While about 30% of individuals in the U.S. overall identify as atheist, agnostic or religiously unaffiliated, only 10% of migrants to the U.S. identify with those categories.
Pew studied data from 270 censuses and surveys, estimating the religious composition of migrants from 95,696 combinations of 232 origin and destination countries and territories. Their analysis focused on the āstock,ā the total number of people residing as international migrants, rather than āflows,ā numbers measured over a specific time. This methodology allowed them to study all adults and children who live outside their countries of birth, regardless of when they immigrated.
āWeāre not only interested in the religious composition of people who arrived in a destination country in the last year or in the last five years,ā explained Callahan. According to the report, measuring the total āstockā of migrants reflects slower changes, āpatterns that have accumulated over time.ā
- āTop 10 destinations of Christian migrantsā (Graphic courtesy Pew Research Center)
- āTop 10 destinations of Jewish migrantsā (Graphic courtesy Pew Research Center)
- āTop 10 destinations of Muslim migrantsā (Graphic courtesy Pew Research Center)
The study found that migrants frequently move to countries where their religious identity is already represented and prevalent. For example, Israel is the top destination for Jews, with 51% of Jewish migrants (1.5 million) residing there, while Saudi Arabia is the top destination for Muslims, with 13% (10.8 million) residing in the area. Christians and religiously unaffiliated migrants share the U.S., Germany and Russia as their top three destinations.
The majority of the worldās Christian migrants originate from Mexico and settle in the U.S., Pew found. They areĀ typically looking for jobs, improved safety or to reunite with family members.Ā Meanwhile, 10% of the worldās Muslim migrants (8.1 million) were born in Syria, fleeing regional conflict after a war broke out in 2011.
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