Intergenerational Processes and Diasporic Religious Identity Among Immigrant Coptic Families

Considering the scarcity of psychological studies on Middle Eastern Christian immigrant families experiences, this chapter aims to explore the post-migration experience of Coptic Orthodox families immigrated from Egypt to Italy and chooses to adopt a family intergenerational perspective to compare narratives of two different family generations (first-generation parents and their second-generation adolescent children). Based on empirical data from 10 Coptic Orthodox families, for a total of 30 interviewed participants (10 first-generation fathers, 10 first-generation mothers, and 10 second-generation adolescent children), the chapter reveals that religiosity in its intertwined individual and social expressions is a salient part of interviewees' everyday life and an essential source of resilience. However, identity-specific content reveals differences when comparing parents and children's narratives. While a "diasporic" religious identity seems to emerge among first-generation parents, religious identity among children emphasizes the opposition with a highly secularized and "threatening" Italian society.