Local Communities, Distant Origins: How Cultural Distance and Local Context Shape Immigrant Ethnoreligious Infrastructures

Vibrant ethnoreligious infrastructures of businesses, associations, and places of worship are key elements of immigrant community life, providing crucial social and economic support for its members. But why do some immigrant communities establish dense organizational ecologies, while others do not? Analyzing 25,117 ethnoreligious organizations catering to 54 immigrant minorities across more than 4,900 local communities in Germany, the authors show that minority communities with similar population sizes can exhibit vastly different organizational ecologies. Contrary to claims emphasizing local context, category consolidation and community homogeneity do not go along with more ethnicity-focused organizations. Instead, various dimensions of cultural distance between immigrants’ origins and the host society consistently predict organizational densities. Analyses produce mixed support for theories of reactive group formation. These findings highlight the importance of cultural distance and challenge prevailing perspectives emphasizing the primary role of local context for immigrant group formation.