Conversion among Chinese Overseas Students in the US: A Choice Model on Individual Characteristics and Organizational Traits

Abstract

After people migrate to a different religious landscape, they will have multiple candidate religions to choose from, and some people may convert to a new religion. This study argues that both individual-level characteristics and a religion’s organizational traits are involved in religious conversion. Using cross-sectional samples of Chinese overseas students and scholars in the US in 2018 (n = 1911), we deployed mixed multinomial models to demonstrate how conversion, measured as intergenerational and personal religious changes, is associated with individual-level factors and organizational traits of religions. We found that the choice between Christianity, Buddhism, and Chinese folk religion, compared with no religion, is associated with unique individual-level characteristics. For religious organizational traits, missionary intensity and organized activity intensity are generally associated with a higher likelihood of conversion. This study distinguishes the different levels of the operating mechanism in conversion and points out an interactive and heterogenous model for individuals’ choice of various competing religions.