Ethnic or Religious Identities?:  Multicultural Analysis in Australia from Socio-Demographic Perspective

Yaghoob Foroutan

doi:10.29333/ejecs/280

Authors

Yaghoob Foroutan Associate Professor, University of Mazandaran & Research Associate, Waikato University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.29333/ejecs/280

Keywords:

ethnic and religious identities, multicultural Australia, social and demographic characteristics.

Abstract

Focusing on the data of ethnic and religious identities in a multiethnic and multicultural context, this paper provides research-based evidence to explain whether and how significantly such data could be reliable from a social and demographic perspective. The explanation is based on population census that also provides unique nation-wide data sources on ‘religious affiliation’. The field of this study is the multiethnic and multicultural context of Australia that holds a large variety of ethnic, religious and cultural groups from throughout the world. According to the findings of the present analysis, this paper argues that if ethnic migrants belonging to the same category of religious affiliation are considered as a single group without taking their ethnic origins into account, this will lead to insufficient, incomplete, and misleading knowledge.

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Author Biography

Yaghoob Foroutan, Associate Professor, University of Mazandaran & Research Associate, Waikato University

Dr Yaghoob Foroutan completed PhD in Demography & Sociology Program at the Australian National University, Canberra, Australia. His doctoral dissertation on Muslim/Non-Muslim women's employment differentials in Australia was awarded The W. D. Borrie Essay Prize by the Australian Population Association. He has been Post-Doctoral Fellow at The University of Waikato, New Zealand (2010-2012), where he now holds a position as Research Associate at The University of Waikato Islamic Studies Group, Hamilton, New Zealand. Further, he is Associate Professor of Demography at Department of Social Sciences, The University of Mazandaran, Babolsar, Iran. Dr Foroutan also holds position as Adjunct Fellow at School of Social Sciences and Psychology, Western Sydney University, Sydney, Australia.

Dr Foroutan has served as the Chair of the Scientific Group on ‘Demography of Asian Migrants and Diasporas’ at The Asian Population Association; and as a committee member for The Society of the Scientific Study of Religion (SSSR) in the USA. He also serves as Editorial Board Member of six academic journals including Comparative Islamic Studies; International Journal of Social Science Studies and Technology; Today Social Science; International Journal of Social Science Studies; International Journal of Education, Culture and Society; Humanities and Social Sciences. Dr Foroutan has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals including Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs; Current Sociology; British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies; New Zealand Sociology; International Migration Review; Journal of Population Research; Journal of Beliefs & Values: Studies in Religion & Education.

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