Families, Friends or Foods?: Correlates of Integration and Wellbeing Among Muslim Immigrants in East Asia

In this study comparable binomial logit models are applied to the micro-data from the Comparative Survey of Muslim Immigrants in East Asia to analyze the effects of families, friends and foods on their social integration and wellbeing in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.  The dependent variables include self-assessed adaptation to the local society as a measure of integration and overall life satisfaction as a measure of wellbeing.  

The preliminary logit analysis reveals that the presence of grandparents, mother and children at home in the country of origin and the concern for foods have positive effects on adaptation among male Muslim Immigrants in Japan, while living with other family members (than wife and children), living alone and the concern for foods have positive effects on wellbeing and the concern for difficulty to get Japanese habits has a negative effect.  Among male Muslim immigrants in South Korea the presence of grandparents and children at home and having ten or more Korean friends have positive effects on adaptation and the presence of spouse at home and frequent visit halal restaurants have negative effects, while the presence of spouse at home has a positive effect on life satisfaction and the presence of children at home has a negative effect.  Among male Muslim immigrants in Taiwan frequent visit to halal restaurants has a positive effect on adaptation and the presence of children at home has a negative effect, while living with spouse and having ten or more Taiwanese friends have positive effects on life satisfaction and frequent visit to halal shops has a negative effect. Unexpectedly, the effect of family structure at home and variables related to foods have significant effects on the integration and wellbeing of male Muslim migrants in the three East Asian societies after controlling for demographic and socioeconomic variables.