Review The influence of religion on the acceptance and integration of immigrants: A multi-dimensional perspective Allon Vishkin 1 and Pazit Ben-Nun Bloom 2 Abstract We review the role of religion in the acceptance and integration of immigrants. Majority groups’ religion can exert both a posi- tive and negative effect on tolerance and acceptance of im- migrants, depending on the dimension of religiosity and depending on whether immigrants do or do not share the same religious affiliation. Immigrants’ religion can also exert both a positive and negative effect on their integration, by providing a social network and a system of meaning but also potentially facilitating extremism, depending on value conflicts with the majority group and acceptance by the majority group. We conclude by highlighting avenues for future research, including the study of manifestations of religion in the public sphere. Addresses 1 Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Israel 2 The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel Corresponding author: Vishkin, Allon (allonv@technion.ac.il) Current Opinion in Psychology 2022, 47:101421 This review comes from a themed issue on Immigration (2023) Edited by Amanda Venta , Alfonso Mercado and Melanie M. Domenech Rodríguez For complete overview about the section, refer Immigration (2023) Available online 7 July 2022 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2022.101421 2352-250X/© 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords Religion, Immigration, Integration, Motivation. Religion functions as a belief system and as a potent social identity by which people differentiate their ingroup from the outgroups [1]. As a social identity, religion plays a powerful role in shaping immigration attitudes of majority groups as well as in the integration of immigrants. We begin by presenting a multidimensional model of religion which accounts for various motivations to be religious as well as various ways religion is expressed. Next, we use this model to review and integrate the literature on how reli- gion shapes majority groups’ acceptance of immigrants from diverse backgrounds and how immigrants’ religion shapes their integration. Religion can have complex and contradictory effects on diverse outcomes, such as by both increasing and decreasing prejudice towards outgroups [2], including towards immigrants [3]. One resolution to explain such contradictory findings is that religion is made up of several types of expressions which can exert opposing effects [4e8]. For instance, engaging in collective rituals such as attendance at religious services is associated with increased prejudice towards outgroups, while pri- vate devotional practices and endorsement of religious beliefs are not [5,6,9e11]. This distinction might reflect how private devotional practices and religious beliefs manifest an endorsement of a God who created a universal moral order, whereas engaging in collective rituals manifests a commitment to one’s religious group. However, attendance at religious services is also some- times associated with pro-immigration attitudes [12e14], whereas fundamentalist beliefs are sometimes tied to anti-immigration sentiment [15,16]. To resolve why religious expressions may demonstrate such inconsistent findings, we have recently suggested that more than one motivation may underlie a particular religious expression [17]. Furthermore, we have mapped associations between religious motivations and religious expressions among religious Christians in the United Kingdom and religious Jews in Israel [18] (see Figure 1). Specifically, an intrinsic motivation directed towards connecting with the divine, searching for personal sig- nificance, and seeking self-improvement is associated with professed belief and with engaging in private reli- gious behavior; an affiliative motivation directed towards belonging to a community is associated with engaging in religious social behavior such as communal prayer; a motivation to maintain one’s religious tradition and observe its rules is associated with professed belief; and a motivation to socially enhance oneself by committing to one’s religious ingroup and denigrating outgroups is associated with both religious belief and social behavior. We bear this two-layered multi-dimensional model in mind, with several expressionsdthe observable ele- ments of religiondbeing underlied by several different motivations, when reviewing how religion might shape the acceptance and integration of immigrants. This research was supported by the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (#804031), awarded to the second author. Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect www.sciencedirect.com Current Opinion in Psychology 2022, 47:101421