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One of the main issues in migration research concerns the reasons migrants have for crossing borders. It is assumed in the research that migration is primarily economically driven. In recent studies, however, the importance of social and cultural reasons for migration has become apparent. In this context, the present contribution discusses the reasons for the migration of Europeans from Italy, France, the United Kingdom, and Poland who moved to Germany (Berlin) between 1980 and 2002. In this case, it can be shown empirically that purely economic reasons play a lesser role in migration than is generally assumed, whereas social and cultural motives actually have a much greater influence. Primary data gathered in Berlin early in 2002 form the empirical foundation of the study. Multinomial logistic regressions are used to discuss the function of social-structural differences (e.g., nationality, age, gender, education, social origin) in the formation of individual reasons for migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyse migration-related changes in religiosity among new Polish and Turkish migrants in Germany by using data from an international project on Socio-Cultural Integration Processes of New Immigrants in Europe ( SCIP). The study confirms that after migration, both groups experience a decrease in religious practices that is more pronounced among Muslim Turks than among Catholic Poles and more pertinent for worship attendance than for prayer. Among new Polish immigrants, religious decrease is greater for individuals with stronger social ties to the secular German mainstream and there are no signs that religious practices are resumed after the disruptive first couple of months. For Turks, however, our study shows that initial religious decrease is followed by a process of religious reorganization, independent of social assimilation. We discuss the role that 'bright' symbolic boundaries against Islam may play in explaining these group-specific patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]