Evolution and effects on integration
Institutions and coexistence
Understanding change
The research team is developing this coordinated subproject within the framework of the ReChange project, funded by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities. Their work focuses on the sociological study of non-religion and the transformations taking place within the religious landscape in Spain.
Key aspects of religious diversity, intercultural coexistence and social change in Spain, based on official sources.
For more information about the project:
Evolution and effects on integration
It analyses how immigrants’ level of religiosity in Spain evolves over time and across generations. It also examines whether religiosity acts as a bridge or a barrier to integration into the host society, distinguishing by gender, origin and religious denomination.
Research conducted in European countries shows that the religiosity of immigrants and second generations declines with years of residence. In addition, high levels of religiosity are associated with lower levels of socio-economic integration.
It is still necessary to broaden the study to include non-Muslim minorities through systematic comparison, and to deepen understanding of the meaning that immigrants attach to their religion.
To determine whether classical assimilation theories still hold true in Spain and to understand how religion affects social cohesion in a context of rapid secularisation.
I am an Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology II of the National University of Distance Education (UNED, Madrid). I have been a visiting researcher at the Department of Sociology at the Free University of Amsterdam (VU), MZES (University of Mannheim), COMPAS (University of Oxford), AIAS (UvA University of Amsterdam), and AMCIS (UvA University of Amsterdam). I am President of the Research Committee CI-25 (Sociology of Migrations) of the Spanish Federation of Sociology (FES) for 2025-2028. In 2025 I have obtained a Beca Leonardo grant for Scientific Research and Cultural Creation in the area of Social Sciences, financed by the BBVA Foundation.
Juan Ignacio Martínez Pastor is an Associate Professor of Sociology at UNED. His work has focused on understanding how employment, social inequalities and family dynamics are changing in contemporary societies. He has also studied the interpretation of social statistics, the erotic capital and the use of quantitative methods and experimental designs. He is currently researching, among other topics, the social factors that influence taste in modern and contemporary art. He has been Director of Research at the CIS and Vice-Dean of Research at the Faculty of Political Science and Sociology at UNED.
María Miyar holds a degree in Economics from the University of Oviedo and a PhD in Sociology from the National Distance Education University (UNED). Since 2008, she has been a lecturer in the Department of Sociology II (Social Structure) at UNED. She has been a visiting researcher at the Inter-American Development Bank (Washington, D.C.) and the Institute for Fiscal Studies (Madrid). Her research focuses on the analysis of immigrants’ labour market integration and the determinants of migration flows. The results of some of this research have been published in journals such as International Migration, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, and European Journal of Education.
I am a senior researcher at the Centre for Sociological Research and the former Director of the Office of the High Commissioner against Child Poverty. I hold a PhD in Social Sciences from the European University Institute. My research interests focus on social stratification, inequality, poverty, and immigration, with a particular emphasis on immigrant descendants. My work has been published in high-impact journals, including Child Indicators Research, International Migration, the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, and Nutrients. I am also a member of the UNPACK research project team (2025–2028), funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities.
I am a sociologist from Argentina and currently a Ramón y Cajal Fellow in the Department of Sociology II at the National University of Distance Education (UNED, Madrid). I am also an affiliated researcher at CEDH, University of San Andrés (Buenos Aires). Before joining UNED, I was the Principal Investigator of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie project GLAM – Global South Migration and Comparative Integration: A Study of South American Migrants, funded by the European Union. My work has been published in high-impact journals such as Sociology, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, International Migration Review, and Population, Space and Place.
I am a Professor of Sociology at the University of Amsterdam and leader of the AISSR programme group Institutions, Inequalities and Life Courses. I previously held positions as Associate and Assistant Professor at Utrecht University Department of Interdisciplinary Social Science and as researcher at the European Research Centre on Migration and Ethnic Relations. I obtained my PhD from Utrecht University and the University of Leuven for the dissertation; Second-generation Muslims in European societies: Comparative Perspectives on Education and Religion. My research focuses on immigration integration and religion and was recently awarded with a Research Talent grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO).
I am an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Lausanne (UNIL) and the University of Amsterdam (UvA). At UNIL, I am a member of the Life Course and Inequality Centre (LIVES) and collaborate closely with the Swiss Centre of Expertise in the Social Sciences (FORS).
My research focuses on educational and labor market vulnerabilities from cross-national and intersectional perspectives. I am currently the Principal Investigator of the European Research Council (ERC) project PROFEM (2023- 2028) and a Co-PI of the HORIZON Europe project EQUALSTRENGTH (2023-2026). Both projects explore the integration of (female) immigrants and their experiences of discrimination in host societies, using experimental methods.
In addition, I lead the Swiss Generation and Gender Programme (GGP), which collects comparative data on family dynamics, gender relations, and life course trajectories. I also serve as Secretary General of the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP), which conducts comparative survey research in 45 countries worldwide.
