Open access peer-reviewed chapter
Religion and types of relationship.
Abstract
We set out to find out how the sex-age structure of religion of internal migrants influences their integration in the socio-economic activities of Maroua. We used the exponential non-discriminative snowball sampling method to collect data in which each new referral provided us with more data for referral until we got enough number of subjects for the sample. We concluded that: if one is a Muslim, one will have a stable and progressing business because Muslims maintain a good relationship with their neighbors and they also practice a relationship of solidarity. However, the socio-economic activities of Catholics, Pentecostals and Protestants suffer because they lack the cultural capital that Muslims enjoy. However, age plays a major role: when they are 45–54 years old, the income of the internally migrated Muslims and Catholics drastically decline while that of Pentecostals and Protestants increases. Older Muslims and Catholics earn basically very low income unlike Protestants who earn very high salary. The income inequality among men is much higher than that among women. Generally, men have a more conflictual relationship with their neighbors than women and women diversify their relationship with the natives more than men.
Keywords
- Religion
- socio-economic activities
- relationship
- Catholics
- Protestants
- Pentecostals
- Protestants
- Muslims
1. Introduction
The socio-demographic situation of the Far North region of Cameroon of which Maroua is the headquarter is as follows: According to data from the 3rd census conducted in 2005 [1], the population of the Far North was estimated at 3,111,792 inhabitants which was about 17.8% of the Cameroon’s total population. According to the report on demographic projections and the estimates of priority targets for various health programs and interventions, carried out by the National Institute for Statistics (NIS) in 2016 [2], the total population of the Far North increased to about 4,208,433 inhabitants. This population is made up of 50.3% women and 49.7% men. Enquête complémentaire: Enquête Camerounaise Auprès des Ménages1 (EC-ECAM) [3] show that 19.4% of the population is aged between 0 to 4 years, the age of 35.6% varies from 5 to 14 years, 33.2% are of working age (15–64) and only 2.8% are at least 65 years old. Therefore the Far North of Cameroon has a relatively younger population.
Considering the structure of the population by age, there emerges an economic dependency ratio of 1.19. However, it is in the Diamaré division where there are about (49.6%) which is relatively the largest number of people of working age are found in the Far North Region of Cameroon. There are about 8.1 percentage of widowed or divorced women in the Far North and about 10.4% in the Diamaré Division. In the Far North region about 1.2% of the people live with a disability and about 1.8% of them are in the Diamaré division. The average household size in the region is 6.3 people [4].
In 2014, the poverty rate (or incidence of poverty) in the Far North region was 74.3%; nearly double the national level. The poverty rate is higher in households headed by women (81.2%) than in those headed by men (22.9%). Poverty increases with the size of the household; rising from almost 28% in one-person per household to 86% in households of at least 8 people. The poverty rate seems to increase with the age of the head of household: 60.4% in households headed by a person under 35, 76.9% in households headed by someone who is about 35 to 64 years old and 83.2% in households headed by a person who is 65 and above. The level of poverty decreases as the level of education of the head of household increases: from 81% in households where the head has no schooling to 33% in those where the head has a higher educational level. Households headed by inactive people are the poorest (78.6%). The level of poverty among those headed by employed people is also high and stands at 74.2%. Poverty is higher in households headed by people working in the primary sector (85.1%) and the poverty rate is 64.3% and 32.1% in households where the head works in the secondary and tertiary sectors respectively.
About 96.5% of workers were self-employed in 2016, in the Far North region of Cameroon. There is the lack of formal employment opportunities that job seekers often face since the majority of workers are generally employed in the informal sector, which is a sector characterized by high levels of poverty, inequality and low-quality employment.
As of Thursday, February 4, 2021, Cameroon’s current population was about 26,933,967 basing on the Worldometer elaboration of the latest United Nations data. In 2020 its population was estimated at 26,545,863 people at mid-year. UN data indicate that Cameroon population is equivalent to 0.34% of the total world population. About 56.3% of the population (14,941,523 people in 2020) live in the urban area and the average age in Cameroon is 18.7 years [5].
According to [6, 7] about 42.34% of the population of Cameroon is made up of 0–14 years: (male 5,927,640/female 5,820,226) and about 20.04% consists of those who are about 15–24 years: 20.04% (male 2,782,376/female 2,776,873) and about 30.64% are made up of those between 25 and 54 years: (male 4,191,151/female 4,309,483), there is also about 3.87% of those who are about 55–64 years: 3.87% (male 520,771/female 552,801) and finally about 3.11% are people about 65 years and over: 3.11% (male 403,420/female 460,248) (2020).
The 2005 census [8] describes religious demography in Cameroon by stating that 69.2%, 20.9%, 5.6%, 1.0%, 3.2% percent of the population is Christian, Muslim, animist, other religions, and those who have no religious affiliation in Cameroon respectively. Among the Christians, approximately 55.5%, 38%, 6.5% are Roman Catholic, Protestant, and other Christian denominations, including Jehovah’s Witnesses and Orthodox churches respectively. The 2010 Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures Project [9] found that 70.3%, 18.3%, 3.3%, 2.7%, 5.5% of the population was Christians, Muslims, animists, other religions and those with no religious affiliation in Cameroon respectively. Of the Christians, 38.3%, 31.4% were Catholics and Protestants respectively and that there is a rising number of Christian revivalist churches (Pentecostals).
Christians are mostly found in the southern and western parts of Cameroon: Protestants are mainly found in the two Anglophone regions while the five southern Francophone regions are mostly Catholics. The Fulani (Peuhl) ethnic group are mostly Muslims and they primarily inhabit the northern Francophone regions; the Bamoun ethnic group are also mostly made up of Muslims in the West Region of Cameroon. Many Muslims, Christians, and members of other faiths also adhere to some aspects of animist beliefs.
The objective of this work is to examine how the religion of the internal migrants, that is people who have left other parts of Cameroon and have settled in Maroua which is in the Far North of Cameroon, a region predominated by Muslims influence their integration and their socio-economic activities.
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2. Literature review
Religious demography is defined as the scientific and statistical study of the demographic characteristics of religious populations, by paying attention to their growth, distribution, development density, size, age-sex structure, migration, and vital statistics, including the altering of religious identity in a human populations and these characteristics are linked to other social and economic indicators. Demographers do not limit themselves only to the study of basic demographic features of religion (age, sex, fertility, mortality), they also examine religion as a demographic characteristic of human populations which merits its own field of inquiry [9]. Since religion is important for projections, it is therefore a fundamental factor in demography, of future population growth and other social indicators [10].
Social inclusion clearly refers to disadvantaged people on the basis of their age, sex, race, ethnicity, origin, disability, or economic or other status. Social exclusion is the process by which, individuals or groups are fully or partly excluded from wholly participating in the society in which they live’ [11]. Everyone stands the potential risk of social exclusion, however, some attributes or characteristics strengthen such a risk which are often associated to identity or group ascription. Kabeer (2006) [12] refers to this as groups of persons who identify their collective membership, beliefs and values and act in cooperative ways. Caste, ethnicity and religion are examples of such group identities while some are categories of people who are delineated basing on particular shared characteristic rather than collective values and lifestyle.
Members of these categories may not know each other and may share very little in common, apart from the fact that they are discriminated upon Jennie et al. [13]. Certain ingredients of exclusion are dynamic, multi-dimensional processes which are motivated by an imbalanced power relationships which interact across four main dimensions—economic, political, social and cultural—and at different levels include individual, household, group, community, country and global levels. This leads to a continuum of inclusion/exclusion characterized by uneven access to assets, capabilities and rights which result to health inequalities. People are excluded from some domains of life: social, economic, political, civic and spatial − and the salience of each part strongly depends on the country and local contexts and also on the stage of a person’s life course. This means that, the concepts of social inclusion and social exclusion are multidimensional and depend on the context.
Age is not the only selective aspect of migration but also gender, education and other migrant characteristics. Interstate migration in America for example are made by college-educated professionals because their labour markets are often more national than local [14]. Rural-to-urban migration is to an extent driven by better incomes and the migrants’ expectation of a healthier life in urban areas as posited by neoclassical economists [15]. Nevertheless, income inequalities alone do not explain the phenomenon. Interstate movement is also an individual and family risk-diversification strategy and which builds upon pre-existing networks among other motives [16].
People move from one geographical area to another because of their entry into labour force or employment motives [17]. Therefore migration choices and employment are related. Intra-national migration is an answer to the gap that exists between an expected urban and a de facto rural income [18] and migrants think that they will have better-paying jobs at the destination. Therefore interregional migration is due to income variability [19].
The economic crisis that Cameroon faced during the 1980, to an increase of rural job-seekers to urban areas and as a result, the urban population grew. This was due to the fact that poverty severity is higher in the rural than urban areas. About 35.4% of individuals inhabiting cities are non-natives of those areas and migrants in urban areas represent only one-half of the urban population [20]. The inability of national economies to improve well-being appears to be deeply rooted not just in population redistribution, but in the socio-economic and political structures of several countries [21].
The above made us to ask the following questions: Does a migrant religious affiliation facilitate his inclusion in the socio-economic activities of Maroua? Does having a common membership or shared belief like religion facilitate the integration of migrants and their subsequent socio-economic activities? Do migrants who are Muslims profit from existing networks considering that Maroua is predominantly a Muslim community than the other religious denominations?
The major objective of this chapter is to find out how the religious affiliations of the population that have migrated and settled in Maroua for varied reasons influence either their exclusion or inclusion in the socio-economic activities of Maroua. We also set out to find how the sex-age structure of religion influences participants’ integration and socio-economic activities.
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3. Methodology
We used the exponential non-discriminative snowball sampling method or chain-referral sampling which is a non-probability sampling technique in which as [22] states, the samples have traits that are rare to find. We recruited the first subject that we identified as an internally displaced migrant and then he provided us with multiple referrals. Each new referral then provided us with more data for referral and so on, until we got enough number of subjects for the sample.
It was obviously difficult to find a list of all the details of the number of the internal migrants in Maroua. Therefore, we used this method because we were dealing with a population that is hard to locate or difficult to identify or find. More so, there was no pre-calculated list or demographic information of their details, therefore it was an immense pain contacting them in Maroua. As a result, referrals made it easier and quicker to find them as they came from reliable sources.
This sampling method as [22] states, involves a primary data source nominating other potential data sources that will be able to participate in the research studies. Snowball sampling method is purely based on referrals and that was how we were able to generate our sample. We closely examined and filtered the internally migrated population and we then conducted a research by administering a questionnaire with them which were based on elements that made us to understand their integration and the way they were perceived in Maroua.
We analyzed the collected data using SPSS software which helped us to cross-tabulate the collected data.
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4. Analyses of findings
4.1 Internal migrants’ religion and their social relation with natives
We examine the bond that exists between internal migrants and their entourage. The question we ask was the extent to which religion has a considerable impact on internal migrants’ relations with the natives?
Table 1 shows that 44.48%, 26.3%, 21.22%, 4.48%, 1.63% and 1.92% of migrants as a whole have a good neighborly relationship, maintain simple acquaintances with their neighbor, maintain relations of solidarity; have professional relationships; have no relationship with the neighborhood and finally have a conflicting relationship with the neighborhood respectively. We realize that migrants have a good neighborly relationship in most cases, however will this always be the case with the influence of religion?
With the influence of religion, we discovered that if one is a Muslim, the more one will maintain a good relationship with ones neighbors and one will also practice a relationship of solidarity. Equally, if one is a Catholic, one will have a good neighborly and conflicting relationship with ones neighbors. Pentecostals significantly maintain a professional and conflicting relationship with their neighbors. The animists on their part either have a conflicting relationship or no relationship with the neighborhood and finally the Protestants as for them maintain either normal relations with the neighborhood, or purely professional relations. Equally, just like the Pentecostals and the animists, the Catholics also have conflicting relationship with their neighbors.
From the above we notice that Pentecostals just like animists do not have a good neighborly relationship, although Pentecostals significantly make some acquaintances, maintain good professional relationship with their co-workers. We therefore notice that the stricter people are in religious issues, the more they alienate themselves from other people in their neighborhood and may significantly have conflictual relationship with their neighbors.
In conclusion, if one is a protestant, one will have a good and professional relationship with ones neighbors or coworker, if one is a Muslim, one will have a good neighborly relation and a relationship of solidarity. If one is a Catholic, one will either have a good or a conflictual relationship with one’s and Pentecostals have either a professional or conflictual relationship with their neighbors. Therefore apart from the Muslims and Protestants, the others having conflictual relationship with their neighbors.
4.1.1 The religion/age of the internal migrants and types of relationship
Here we examine whether the religion and age of a migrant influence his relationship with his neighbors.
Table 2 indicates that the internally immigrant Muslim diversify their relationship more in their neighborhoods when they are young. They significantly maintain a good relationship, solidarity and professional relation when they are between 15 and 24 years and 25–34 years old. As they get older, their relationship with their neighbors reduces and they simply practice solidarity and maintain good relationship with their neighbors. As they get older, they move from solidarity to a simply acquaintance.
| Religion | Types of relations | Total | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Good Relations | Simple Acquintance | Solidarity | Professional Relation | Conflictual Relation | No Contact | ||
| Muslim | 33 | 19 | 19 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 72 |
| 30,3% | 28,8% | 36,5% | 9,1% | 0% | 0% | 29,4% | |
| Catholics | 33 | 18 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 63 |
| 30,3% | 27,3% | 13,5% | 27,3% | 33,3% | 25,0% | 25,7% | |
| Pentecostals | 3 | 10 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 24 |
| 2,8% | 15,2% | 11,5% | 27,3% | 33,3% | 25,0% | 9,8% | |
| Animists | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 7 |
| 0,9% | 1,5% | 5,8% | 0,0% | 33,3% | 25,0% | 2,9% | |
| Protestants | 39 | 18 | 17 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 78 |
| 35,8% | 27,3% | 32,7% | 36,4% | 0% | 0,0% | 31,8% | |
| Total | 109 | 66 | 52 | 11 | 3 | 4 | 245 |
| 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | |
Table 1.
| Age | Religion | Type of Relationship with Neighbors | Total | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Good Relation | Simple Acquintainces | Solidarity | Professional Relation | Conflictual Relation | No contact | |||
| 15–24 | Musulims | 12 | 4 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 24 |
| 35,3% | 28,6% | 33,3% | 100,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 32,9% | ||
| Catholics | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | |
| 11,8% | 28,6% | 4,8% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 12,3% | ||
| Pentecostals | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 7 | |
| 0,0% | 21,4% | 9,5% | 0,0% | 100,0% | 50,0% | 9,6% | ||
| Animists | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | |
| 2,9% | 0,0% | 4,8% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 50,0% | 4,1% | ||
| Protestants | 17 | 3 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 30 | |
| 50,0% | 21,4% | 47,6% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 41,1% | ||
| Total | 34 | 14 | 21 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 73 | |
| 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | ||
| 25–34 | Musulims | 13 | 11 | 4 | 0 | 28 | ||
| 27,1% | 28,9% | 28,6% | 0,0% | 26,4% | ||||
| Catholics | 20 | 11 | 3 | 2 | 36 | |||
| 41,7% | 28,9% | 21,4% | 33,3% | 34,0% | ||||
| Pentecostals | 2 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 12 | |||
| 4,2% | 15,8% | 14,3% | 33,3% | 11,3% | ||||
| Animists | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |||
| 0,0% | 0,0% | 7,1% | 0,0% | 0,9% | ||||
| Protestants | 13 | 10 | 4 | 2 | 29 | |||
| 27,1% | 26,3% | 28,6% | 33,3% | 27,4% | ||||
| Total | 48 | 38 | 14 | 6 | 106 | |||
| 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | ||||
| 35–44 | Musulims | 5 | 2 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14 |
| 20,8% | 18,2% | 58,3% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 26,4% | ||
| Catholics | 9 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 15 | |
| 37,5% | 27,3% | 0,0% | 50,0% | 50,0% | 50,0% | 28,3% | ||
| Pentecostals | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | |
| 4,2% | 0,0% | 16,7% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 5,7% | ||
| Animists | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | |
| 0,0% | 9,1% | 8,3% | 0,0% | 50,0% | 0,0% | 5,7% | ||
| Protestants | 9 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 17 | |
| 37,5% | 45,5% | 16,7% | 50,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 32,1% | ||
| 6,00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 50,0% | 1,9% | ||
| Total | 24 | 11 | 12 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 53 | |
| 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | ||
| 45–54 years | Musulims | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | ||
| 100,0% | 0,0% | 50,0% | 0,0% | 50,0% | ||||
| Catholics | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |||
| 0,0% | 0,0% | 50,0% | 0,0% | 12,5% | ||||
| Pentecostals | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | |||
| 0,0% | 100,0% | 0,0% | 50,0% | 25,0% | ||||
| Animists | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |||
| 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 50,0% | 12,5% | ||||
| Total | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 8 | |||
| 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | ||||
| > 55 years | Musulman | 2 | 0 | 2 | ||||
| 100,0% | 0,0% | 40,0% | ||||||
| Catholique | 0 | 2 | 2 | |||||
| 0,0% | 66,7% | 40,0% | ||||||
| Protestants | 0 | 1 | 1 | |||||
| 0,0% | 33,3% | 20,0% | ||||||
| Total | 2 | 3 | 5 | |||||
| 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | ||||||
| Total | Musulims | 33 | 19 | 19 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 72 |
| 30,3% | 28,8% | 36,5% | 9,1% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 29,4% | ||
| Catholics | 33 | 18 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 63 | |
| 30,3% | 27,3% | 13,5% | 27,3% | 33,3% | 25,0% | 25,7% | ||
| Pentecostals | 3 | 10 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 24 | |
| 2,8% | 15,2% | 11,5% | 27,3% | 33,3% | 25,0% | 9,8% | ||
| Animists | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 7 | |
| 0,9% | 1,5% | 5,8% | 0,0% | 33,3% | 25,0% | 2,9% | ||
| Protestants | 39 | 18 | 17 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 78 | |
| 35,8% | 27,3% | 32,7% | 36,4% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 31,8% | ||
| 6,00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 25,0% | 0,4% | ||
| Total | 109 | 66 | 52 | 11 | 3 | 4 | 245 | |
| 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | ||
Table 2.
Religion/age of internal migrants and type of relationship.
As for Catholics who have internally migrated, their relationship with their neighbors is limited when they are young and when they are old, and diversified when they reach middle age. When they are young, they significantly practice only simple acquaintance and good relationship with their neighbors. At middle age, they still maintain good relationship with their neighbors and co-workers as well as also have conflicting relationship or no relationship at all with their neighbors. Contrarily to the Muslim, they become more united, that is, they practice solidarity when they get older.
Compared to the Muslims and the Catholics, the Pentecostals have a more diverse relationship with their neighbors. Unlike the others, their relationship with their neighbors is much more that of a simple acquaintance than a good relation. Contrarily to the Muslims and Catholics and even Protestants, they do not have a good neighborly relationship. Unlike the Muslim who do not have any conflicting relationship with their neighbors and the Catholics who have a conflicting relationship when they are adults, those who significantly have conflicting relationship among the Pentecostals, are younger people between 15 and 24 year. The Pentecostals maintain a much better professional relationship than the other denominations. Just like the Catholics, they practice more solidarity when they become old.
Animistts do not significantly have a good relationship with their neighbor nor a simple acquaintance when they are young and old except when they become adults. They are in solidarity with their neighbourboods and they also have conflicting relationship with them when they are middle-aged.
The Protestants practice good relationship with their neighborhoods and colleagues and are in solidarity with them. Unlike the Pentecostals, they significantly do not have any conflicting relationship with their neighbouhoods and are significantly in contact with them (Table 3).
| Respondents’ Age | Value | df | Asymp. Sig. (2-sided) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15–24 years | Pearson Chi-Square | 39,180b | 20 | ,006 |
| 25–34 years | Pearson Chi-Square | 15,669c | 12 | ,207 |
| 35–44 years | Pearson Chi-Square | 53,137d | 25 | ,001 |
| 45–54 years | Pearson Chi-Square | 5,000f | 2 | ,082 |
| > 55 years | Pearson Chi-Square | 106,136a | 25 | ,000 |
Table 3.
Religion/age and levels of Asymptotic 2-sided significance.
The above analyses indicate that the age and religion of a migrant play an important part in his or her social integration in a community. The table below indicates three major areas where there are significant relationship especially when these internally migrated people are young and middle age. Generally, there is a very significant relationship between age, religion and relationship with ones neighbors.
4.1.2 The religion/sex of the internal migrants and types of relationship
Table 4 shows that generally internally migrated women decide not to have any contacts with the natives who are their neighbors and this is significantly so with the Catholic women, Pentecostal women and women who are animists. Generally, men have a conflictual relationship with their neighbors significantly men who are Pentecostals and animists. Muslims generally practice solidarity whether men or women. Women seem to diversify their relationship with their native neigbours than men significantly Catholic and Pentecostals women. While Catholic women significantly have good relation with the natives, Pentecostals women significantly practice solidarity. It is worth noting that all although Catholic women significantly have good relationship with the natives, they also significantly have a very difficult relation with them because they significantly are in conflict with them or may significantly decide not to contact the natives. There is a very significant relationship between the gender of a religious person and their social relationship with their neighbors. (Pearson Chi-Square: Value = 188,381b Diff = 25, Asymp Sig. (2-sided) = .000) for men and (Pearson Chi-Square: Value = 45,515c Diff = 20, Asymp Sig. (2-sided) = .001).
| Sex | Religion | Types of Relations with neighbors | Total | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Good Relation | Simple Acquintainces | Solidarity | Professionnal Relation | Conflicting Relation | NO contact | |||
| Men | Muslims | 27 | 15 | 17 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 60 |
| 43,5% | 34,1% | 40,5% | 16,7% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 38,2% | ||
| Catholics | 16 | 10 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 34 | |
| 25,8% | 22,7% | 16,7% | 16,7% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 21,7% | ||
| Pentecostals | 0 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 12 | |
| 0,0% | 13,6% | 9,5% | 16,7% | 50,0% | 0,0% | 7,6% | ||
| Animists | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6 | |
| 1,6% | 2,3% | 7,1% | 0,0% | 50,0% | 0,0% | 3,8% | ||
| Protestants | 18 | 12 | 11 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 44 | |
| 29,0% | 27,3% | 26,2% | 50,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 28,0% | ||
| Others | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 100,0% | 0,6% | ||
| Total | 62 | 44 | 42 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 157 | |
| 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | ||
| Women | Muslims | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 |
| 12,8% | 18,2% | 20,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 13,6% | ||
| Catholics | 17 | 8 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 29 | |
| 36,2% | 36,4% | 0,0% | 40,0% | 100,0% | 33,3% | 33,0% | ||
| Pentecostals | 3 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 12 | |
| 6,4% | 18,2% | 20,0% | 40,0% | 0,0% | 33,3% | 13,6% | ||
| Animists | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 33,3% | 1,1% | ||
| Protestants | 21 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 34 | |
| 44,7% | 27,3% | 60,0% | 20,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 38,6% | ||
| Total | 47 | 22 | 10 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 88 | |
| 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | ||
Table 4.
Gender, religion and types of relation with neighbors.
Futhermore, we also examine the relationship that exists between religion and number of visitors that internally migrated persons received in Maroua. We discovered that, their integrations is influenced by religion because the number of visitors they have varies with religion. About 46.93% receive 1–3 visitors, 27.34% receive 4–6 visitors at their homes. 17.14% have more than 10 visitors and finally 7.75% receive 7–9 visitors. Averagely, migrants receive 1–3 visitors in most cases. However, with the influence of religion, we notice that a Muslim has the highest number of visitors which varies between 7 and 9 and more than 10 per day. Catholic internally migrants significantly receive a number of 1–3 visitors and Pentecostals significantly receive about 4–6 visitors. Animists significantly receive 1–3 visitors and sometimes more than 10 visitors and a Protestant significantly receives about 1–3 and 7–9 visitors.
4.2 Religion and socio-economic activities
In this section, we examine whether ones’ socio-economic activities is influenced by religion and then we proceed to find whether their ages and gender make a difference in their socio-economic activities.
Table 5 shows that Muslims have a stable and progressing business unlike the Catholics who have a regressing and instable economic activities in the town of Maroua. This certainly is because as we have seen above, if one is a Muslim, the more one will maintain a good relationship with ones neighbors and one will also practice a relationship of solidarity. That of the Catholics regress because their social inclusion is not as smooth as that of Muslims because Catholics do not only have a good neighborly relationship with natives but also a conflicting one too which certainly hampers their business activities.
| Religion | Internal migrant socio- economic state | Total | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Progressing | Stable | Regressing | Instable | Other | ||
| Muslims | 17 | 28 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 56 |
| 33,3% | 31,5% | 23,1% | 17,9% | 0,0% | 28,7% | |
| Catholics | 11 | 23 | 8 | 11 | 0 | 53 |
| 21,6% | 25,8% | 30,8% | 39,3% | 0,0% | 27,2% | |
| Pentecostals | 6 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 18 |
| 11,8% | 5,6% | 7,7% | 17,9% | 0,0% | 9,2% | |
| Animists | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| 2,0% | 3,4% | 3,8% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 2,6% | |
| Protestants | 16 | 29 | 9 | 7 | 1 | 62 |
| 31,4% | 32,6% | 34,6% | 25,0% | 100,0% | 31,8% | |
| Other | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 0,0% | 1,1% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,5% | |
| Total | 51 | 89 | 26 | 28 | 1 | 195 |
| 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | |
Table 5.
Religion and socio-economic activities in Maroua.
Although Pentecostals do not significantly have a good relationship with the natives, they slightly have progressing socio-economic activities but their economic activities are to a greater extent significantly instable. However, Pentecostals significantly maintain a professional and conflicting relationships which certainly affect their economic activities. Animists and protestants have economic activities which are averagely doing well because they significantly have businesses that are stable and regressing. Then we draw the following conclusion from the table: if one is a Muslim, one will have a stable and pregrssing business because one is well-integrated in the town of Maroua. If one is not well-integrated in the town of Maroua, hardly will one have a well-established economic activity.
Table 6 is quite revealing because it shows that the economic activities of male is not really same with that of the female. For example Muslims who generally significantly have a well-established activities, that is, activities which are progressing and stable, seems not to be so with Muslims males and females. The health of the economic activities of male Muslims is diverse. Similarly, women who are animists seem to significantly have progressing business than men who are animists because male animists have stable and regressing economic activities. Equally, Protestants males have instable economic activities while Protestant females have diverse forms of economic activities: they are significantly progressing, stable and regressing. Contrarily to the Muslims, animists and Protestants where the female Muslims economic activities strive better than that of the male, it is instead the economic activities of the male Pentecostals that are doing better because their activities are significantly progressing and instable while that of female Pentecostals are regressing and instable. Therefore the economic activities of Pentecostal males are better than Pentecostal female. They are also somehow significantly regressing when the males are singled out from the females while the female Muslims seem to significantly have flourishing socio-economic activities. This is not so with the Catholics where both male and female Catholics significantly have regressing and instable economic activities.
| Sex | Religion | The situation of migrants’ activities | Total | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Progressing | Stable | Regressing | Instable | Other | |||
| Male | Muslims | 13 | 24 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 48 |
| 39,4% | 40,7% | 42,9% | 21,7% | 0,0% | 36,9% | ||
| Catholics | 6 | 12 | 3 | 7 | 0 | 28 | |
| 18,2% | 20,3% | 21,4% | 30,4% | 0,0% | 21,5% | ||
| Pentecostals | 5 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 11 | |
| 15,2% | 3,4% | 0,0% | 17,4% | 0,0% | 8,5% | ||
| Animists | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | |
| 0,0% | 5,1% | 7,1% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 3,1% | ||
| Protestants | 9 | 17 | 4 | 7 | 1 | 38 | |
| 27,3% | 28,8% | 28,6% | 30,4% | 100,0% | 29,2% | ||
| Other | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| 0,0% | 1,7% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,8% | ||
| Total | 33 | 59 | 14 | 23 | 1 | 130 | |
| 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | ||
| Female | Muslims | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 8 | |
| 22,2% | 13,3% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 12,3% | |||
| Catholics | 5 | 11 | 5 | 4 | 25 | ||
| 27,8% | 36,7% | 41,7% | 80,0% | 38,5% | |||
| Pentecostals | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 7 | ||
| 5,6% | 10,0% | 16,7% | 20,0% | 10,8% | |||
| Animists | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 5,6% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 1,5% | |||
| Protestants | 7 | 12 | 5 | 0 | 24 | ||
| 38,9% | 40,0% | 41,7% | 0,0% | 36,9% | |||
| Total | 18 | 30 | 12 | 5 | 65 | ||
| 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | |||
Table 6.
Religion/gender and socio-economic activities.
It is worth-noting that 64.7% internally migrated Catholic women in Maroua are civil servant and they formed about 78.6% of total internally migrated women who are civil servants. The female Muslims are hardly civil servants. Equally, 66.7% of female Pentecostals are civil servants and form about 14.3% of total females who are civil servants. Only about 11.1%, 100%, 0% and 60% of female Muslims, Catholics, Pentecostals and Protestants do business respectively. Therefore more Catholic internally migrated women do business follow by Protestant women. Considering women as a whole, 10%, 30%, 0% and 60% of Muslims, Catholics, Pentecostals and Protestants do business. Generally, more women who do business are Protestants.
Generally, 61.5%, 0%, 7.7% and 30.8% of men who do business in Maroua are Muslims, Catholics, Pentecostals and Protestants respectively. Despite the differences, there is no correlation between the activities of migrants and the gender/religion connection (Pearson Chi-Square for men: Value = 16.723, Diff = 20, Asymp Sig. (2-sided) = .671) and for women it is (Pearson Chi-Square: Value = 12,270c Diff = 12, Asymp Sig. (2-sided) = .424).
Table 7 shows that when internally migrated Muslims start their business, it is stable but as time goes on or as they become older their socio-economic activities will not only be stable, it will also progress, that is when they are about 25–54. However, when they are old, their socio-econmic activities will dwindle.
| Age | Religion | The Situation of migrant’s Activities | Total | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Progressing | Stable | Regressing | Instable | Other | |||
| 15-24 | Muslims | 4 | 11 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 19 |
| 28,6% | 45,8% | 25,0% | 37,5% | 0,0% | 37,3% | ||
| Catholics | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 6 | |
| 14,3% | 4,2% | 25,0% | 25,0% | 0,0% | 11,8% | ||
| Pentecostals | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5 | |
| 7,1% | 12,5% | 0,0% | 12,5% | 0,0% | 9,8% | ||
| Animists | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| 7,1% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 2,0% | ||
| Protestants | 6 | 9 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 20 | |
| 42,9% | 37,5% | 50,0% | 25,0% | 100,0% | 39,2% | ||
| Total | 14 | 24 | 4 | 8 | 1 | 51 | |
| 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | ||
| 25-34 | Muslims | 8 | 9 | 1 | 2 | 20 | |
| 32,0% | 24,3% | 9,1% | 18,2% | 23,8% | |||
| Catholics | 6 | 15 | 3 | 7 | 31 | ||
| 24,0% | 40,5% | 27,3% | 63,6% | 36,9% | |||
| Pentecostal | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 8 | ||
| 16,0% | 2,7% | 18,2% | 9,1% | 9,5% | |||
| Animists | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 0,0% | 2,7% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 1,2% | |||
| Protestants | 7 | 11 | 5 | 1 | 24 | ||
| 28,0% | 29,7% | 45,5% | 9,1% | 28,6% | |||
| Total | 25 | 37 | 11 | 11 | 84 | ||
| 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | |||
| 35-44 | Muslims | 4 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 12 | |
| 40,0% | 26,1% | 22,2% | 0,0% | 24,5% | |||
| Catholics | 3 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 14 | ||
| 30,0% | 26,1% | 44,4% | 14,3% | 28,6% | |||
| Pentecostals | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | ||
| 10,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 28,6% | 6,1% | |||
| Animists | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | ||
| 0,0% | 8,7% | 11,1% | 0,0% | 6,1% | |||
| Protestants | 2 | 8 | 2 | 4 | 16 | ||
| 20,0% | 34,8% | 22,2% | 57,1% | 32,7% | |||
| Other | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 0,0% | 4,3% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 2,0% | |||
| Total | 10 | 23 | 9 | 7 | 49 | ||
| 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | |||
| 45-54 years | Muslims | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 | ||
| 100,0% | 50,0% | 0,0% | 42,9% | ||||
| Catholics | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |||
| 0,0% | 0,0% | 50,0% | 14,3% | ||||
| Pentecostals | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||
| 0,0% | 25,0% | 50,0% | 28,6% | ||||
| Protestants | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |||
| 0,0% | 25,0% | 0,0% | 14,3% | ||||
| Total | 1 | 4 | 2 | 7 | |||
| 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | ||||
| >55 years | Muslims | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | ||
| 0,0% | 0,0% | 100,0% | 50,0% | ||||
| Catholics | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |||
| 0,0% | 100,0% | 0,0% | 25,0% | ||||
| Protestants | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |||
| 100,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 25,0% | ||||
| Total | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | |||
| 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | ||||
Table 7.
Religion/age and socio-economic activities.
As for the Catholics when they set up a socio-economic activity, the activity will significantly be either slightly progressive, and mostly regressive or instable. Those at middle age have mostly regressing activities and those above 54 have stable activities.
As for Pentecostals, their youth significantly have stable and instable socio-economic activities meaning that only half of the activities that they set up at this age succeed and the activities set up by those who are about 25–34 and 35–44 years are either significantly progressing or regressing or instable. Those in the middle age have activities that are regressing and they decide to abandon them when they get older.
Animists usually set up progressing socio-economic activities when they are about 15–24 years old when they reach 25–34 year old the activity becomes stable but in their middle age the activity will either be significantly stable or regressive. Most often, they hardly continue the activities as they get older.
The Protestants do have significantly progressive and regressive activities when they are about 15–24 years old. Although when they are about 25–34, their activities become either regressive and instable, they put in an effort when they are about 35–44 and it becomes significantly either stable and instable. It is worth-noting that it progresses when they get older. The difference that the internally migrated Protestants made is that they do not give up their activities like the animists do, neither do their activities regress like for the Muslims who start up very well but relax as they get older and their activity regresses, neither are they like the Catholics who have stable activities rather theirs make progress. However, despite these differences, there is no correlation between age/Religion and socio-economic activities.
Table 8 shows that for all the age groupings, there is no significant relationship.
| Respondents’ age | Value | df | Asymp. Sig. (2-sided) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15–24 years | Pearson Chi-Square | 9,459b | 16 | ,893 |
| 25–34 years | Pearson Chi-Square | 13,148c | 12 | ,358 |
| 35–44 years | Pearson Chi-Square | 16,950d | 15 | ,322 |
| 45–54 years | Pearson Chi-Square | 5,542e | 6 | ,476 |
| > 55 years | Pearson Chi-Square | 8,000f | 4 | ,092 |
Table 8.
Different Levels of Asymptotic 2-sided significance.
4.3 Religion and income
In this section we examine whether internally migrated people’s level of integration and socio-economic stability influence the amount they earn per month. Then we consider the age/gender structure of religion influence on the income that people earn in the city of Douala.
The below table (Table 9) shows that the Muslims and the Protestants significantly earn the highest income in the town of Maroua. This is not surprising especially for the Muslims because as compared to the other religious denominations, the Muslims significantly have stable socio-economic activities. Equally, they are well-integrated in Maroua and live in solidarity with the natives of the town probably because Maroua is predominantly a Muslim community. Equally what is interesting about the Protestants is their resistance in socio-economic activities because as the others abandon their activities or their activities regress or become instable, the Protestants put in more efforts and his socio-economic activities flourishes. The difference between the two is that the Protestants only slightly earn higher whereas the Muslims make a stronger impact significantly. Furthermore, the Protestants also alongside with the animist significantly earn the lowest salary. This is because their activities fluctuate between stability and instability. That is among them, one can find people who significantly have stable activities and equally people who have unstable jobs.
| Religion | Migrants’ monthly earnings | Total | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 38 000–87 000F | 88 000F- 138 000F | 139 000–189 000 | 190 000–240 000 | 250 000–300 000 | 310 000–360 000 | ||||
| Muslims | 28 | 13 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 60 |
| 25,9% | 38,2% | 34,8% | 15,4% | 11,1% | 41,7% | 40,0% | 25,0% | 28,8% | |
| Catholics | 27 | 9 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 57 |
| 25,0% | 26,5% | 34,8% | 38,5% | 33,3% | 25,0% | 20,0% | 25,0% | 27,4% | |
| Pentecostal | 9 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 17 |
| 8,3% | 2,9% | 8,7% | 15,4% | 33,3% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 8,2% | |
| Animists | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| 3,7% | 2,9% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 2,4% | |
| Protestants | 40 | 10 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 68 |
| 37,0% | 29,4% | 21,7% | 30,8% | 22,2% | 33,3% | 40,0% | 25,0% | 32,7% | |
| Others | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 25,0% | 0,5% | |
| Total | 108 | 34 | 23 | 13 | 9 | 12 | 5 | 4 | 208 |
| 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | |
Table 9.
Religion and monthly income.
The Pentecostals and the Catholics are significantly middle income earners. However, Pentecostals earn more than the Catholics because the Catholics also significantly earn lower salary than the Pentecostals. This is because the Catholics significantly have regressive and unstable activities although they are significantly civil servants. Those who have a major salary deficiency are the animists who significantly earn the lowest salary. It is worth-noting that the Catholics, animists and the Pentecostals have a conflicting relation with the native (Pearson Chi-Square: Value = 71,984a Diff = 35, Asymp Sig. (2-sided) = .000).
The Protestants male significantly earn very high salary significantly above 370, 000frs CFA certainly due to their resistance in business as seen above. More so, the Catholic men significantly earn the second highest salary followed by the Muslim males. Therefore although the Muslims are much more integrated in Maroua, and they have stable and progressing activities, they do earn as much as the Catholics and the Protestants who are less integrated like them. However, more Catholic men than Muslim are civil servants.
This is puzzling because the Muslims have a stable and progressive job as compared to the other groups. The Pentecostals do not earn as high as the Muslims and those with the least earned incomes are animists. Table 10 shows a huge income inequality among the various religious denominations and especially among the Catholics with the highest number of significant levels. Income inequality is found among the Protestants. The income inequality among the Muslims and the Pentecostals is lower than among the Catholics and the Protestants. The animist have the lowest income inequality because the earn the lowest too.
| Sex | Religion | Migrants’ monthly income | Total | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 38 000–87 000F | 88 000F- 138 000F | 139 000–189 000 | 190 000–240 000 | 250 000–300 000 | 310 000–360 000 | |||||
| Men | Muslims | 21 | 13 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 51 |
| 28,4% | 59,1% | 53,8% | 25,0% | 25,0% | 55,6% | 33,3% | 33,3% | 37,5% | ||
| Catholics | 17 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 30 | |
| 23,0% | 22,7% | 23,1% | 25,0% | 25,0% | 11,1% | 33,3% | 0,0% | 22,1% | ||
| Pentecostal | 7 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | |
| 9,5% | 0,0% | 7,7% | 12,5% | 25,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 7,4% | ||
| Animists | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | |
| 4,1% | 4,5% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 2,9% | ||
| Protestants | 26 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 40 | |
| 35,1% | 13,6% | 15,4% | 37,5% | 25,0% | 33,3% | 33,3% | 33,3% | 29,4% | ||
| Other | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 33,3% | 0,7% | ||
| Total | 74 | 22 | 13 | 8 | 4 | 9 | 3 | 3 | 136 | |
| 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | ||
| Women | Muslims | 7 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 9 |
| 20,6% | 0,0% | 10,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 50,0% | 0,0% | 12,5% | ||
| Catholics | 10 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 27 | |
| 29,4% | 33,3% | 50,0% | 60,0% | 40,0% | 66,7% | 0,0% | 100,0% | 37,5% | ||
| Pentecostal | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | |
| 5,9% | 8,3% | 10,0% | 20,0% | 40,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 9,7% | ||
| Animists | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| 2,9% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 1,4% | ||
| Protestants | 14 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 28 | |
| 41,2% | 58,3% | 30,0% | 20,0% | 20,0% | 33,3% | 50,0% | 0,0% | 38,9% | ||
| Total | 34 | 12 | 10 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 72 | |
| 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | ||
Table 10.
Gender/religion and monthly income.
About 11.8%, 27.4%, 13.6%, 0%, 10.5%, of Muslims, Catholics, Pentecostals, animists and Protestants are civil servants while 13.2%, 4.8%, 4.5%, 0%, 13.2% of Muslims, Catholics, Pentecostals, animists and Protestants are business men. What is interesting here is that Catholics are not significantly business men but they significantly earn more than Muslims and that less Protestants work in the civil service but significantly earn more than the Catholics and the Muslims. Therefore, we can infer that the Protestants have a more business acumen than the Muslims and that the civil service pays better than business when one lacks business skills.
Among the women we discovered that the Muslim and Protestants women earn the highest income followed by the Catholics and then Pentecostals and as usual animist earn the lowest income among the internally migrated people in Maroua. Also interestingly, there is a significant huge income gap between the Muslim women, followed by Protestant women because they significantly earn the highest and the lowest salary as well and then Catholic and Pentecostal women and lastly women who are animists. Compared to the men (Pearson Chi-Square: Value = 63,026b Diff = 35, Asymp Sig. (2-sided) = .003) the income inequality among the men is much higher than that among women (Pearson Chi-Square: Value = 21,859c Diff = 28, Asymp Sig. (2-sided) = .788).
Table 11 below indicates that young Muslims significantly earn very high income (they significantly earn 250 000–300 000) distinguishing themselves from the youth of the other religious groupings and they are followed far behind by the Protestants (who significantly earn 139,000–189, 000). Young Pentecostals significantly earn 88 000frs- 138 000frs. The Catholic youth significantly earn between 38 000–87 000frs while the animists earn below 37,000frs CFA. Compared to the other youth, there is a high income inequality among Muslims than among the other age groups.
| Age | Religion | Migrants’ Monthly Income | Total | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 38 000–87 000F | 88 000F- 138 000F | 139 000–189 000 | 190 000–240 000 | 250 000–300 000 | 310 000–360 000 | |||||
| 15–24 | Muslims | 13 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 21 | |||
| 28,9% | 55,6% | 66,7% | 0,0% | 100,0% | 35,6% | |||||
| Catholics | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | ||||
| 8,9% | 33,3% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 11,9% | |||||
| Pentecostal | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6 | ||||
| 11,1% | 0,0% | 33,3% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 10,2% | |||||
| Animists | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||||
| 4,4% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 3,4% | |||||
| Protestants | 21 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 23 | ||||
| 46,7% | 11,1% | 0,0% | 100,0% | 0,0% | 39,0% | |||||
| Total | 45 | 9 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 59 | ||||
| 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | |||||
| 25–34 | Muslims | 10 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 22 |
| 25,0% | 37,5% | 36,4% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 16,7% | 50,0% | 0,0% | 25,3% | ||
| Catholics | 16 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 32 | |
| 40,0% | 18,8% | 36,4% | 57,1% | 25,0% | 50,0% | 0,0% | 100,0% | 36,8% | ||
| Pentecostal | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | |
| 5,0% | 0,0% | 9,1% | 14,3% | 50,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 6,9% | ||
| Animists | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| 0,0% | 6,2% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 1,1% | ||
| Protestants | 12 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 26 | |
| 30,0% | 37,5% | 18,2% | 28,6% | 25,0% | 33,3% | 50,0% | 0,0% | 29,9% | ||
| Total | 40 | 16 | 11 | 7 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 87 | |
| 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | ||
| 35–44 years | Muslims | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 12 |
| 11,1% | 22,2% | 14,3% | 33,3% | 25,0% | 60,0% | 50,0% | 50,0% | 24,0% | ||
| Catholics | 5 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 15 | |
| 27,8% | 33,3% | 42,9% | 33,3% | 50,0% | 0,0% | 50,0% | 0,0% | 30,0% | ||
| Pentecostal | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | |
| 11,1% | 11,1% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 6,0% | ||
| Animists | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | |
| 11,1% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 4,0% | ||
| Protestants | 7 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 17 | |
| 38,9% | 33,3% | 42,9% | 33,3% | 25,0% | 40,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 34,0% | ||
| Other | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 50,0% | 2,0% | ||
| Total | 18 | 9 | 7 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 50 | |
| 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | ||
| 45–54 years | Muslims | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | |||
| 100,0% | 50,0% | 50,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 42,9% | |||||
| Catholics | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||||
| 0,0% | 50,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 14,3% | |||||
| Pentecostals | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | ||||
| 0,0% | 0,0% | 50,0% | 100,0% | 0,0% | 28,6% | |||||
| Protestants | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 100,0% | 14,3% | |||||
| Total | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 7 | ||||
| 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | |||||
| > 55 years | Muslims | 2 | 0 | 2 | ||||||
| 50,0% | 0,0% | 40,0% | ||||||||
| Catholics | 2 | 0 | 2 | |||||||
| 50,0% | 0,0% | 40,0% | ||||||||
| Protestants | 0 | 1 | 1 | |||||||
| 0,0% | 100,0% | 20,0% | ||||||||
| Total | 4 | 1 | 5 | |||||||
| 100,0% | 100,0% | 100,0% | ||||||||
Table 11.
Age/religion and monthly income.
Between 25 and 34, there is no significant change in what young Muslims earn as compared to those who are much younger. Those who make a major change are the Catholics who significantly earn higher than the Muslims adolescents significantly followed by the Muslims and Protestants. There is also change with Pentecostals who significantly are middle income earners and the animists significantly earn the lowest salary. We also noticed that there is a significant income inequality among the Protestants followed by the Protestants and the Catholics.
As the Muslims reach adulthood, they significantly make more money than the other religious denomination. They do not significantly earn low salary as compared to the other religious groupings. It is interesting to note that the Pentecostals and the animists stagnate while the Muslims make leaps ahead of them. We equally noticed a high income gap between the Muslims, Catholics and Protestants. A major change takes place among the youth when they are 45–54 years old, the income of the internally migrated Muslims and Catholics drastically significantly decline while that of the Pentecostals and Protestants increased. Older Muslims and Catholics earn basically very low income unlike the Protestants who earn very high salary.
Table 12 shows that there is no significant relationship among the various age groupings and income. Therefore age does not play any significant role to influence income difference.
| Respodents’ Age | Value | Df | Asymp. Sig. (2-sided) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15–24 years | Pearson Chi-Square | 16,689b | 16 | ,406 |
| 25–34 years | Pearson Chi-Square | 28,969c | 28 | ,414 |
| 35–44 years | Pearson Chi-Square | 40,739d | 35 | ,233 |
| 45–54 years | Pearson Chi-Square | 13,417e | 12 | ,339 |
| Pearson Chi-Square | 5,000f | 2 | ,082 |
Table 12.
Age/religion and monthly income level of Asymptotic 2-sided significance
4.4 Theoretical implication
Here we use the concept of social capital developed by Pierre Bourdieu [23] to analyze our results. According to him, social capital is the total of actual or personal assets which are related to having a long-lasting network of more or less institutionalized relationship of mutual acquaintance and identification –or in other words to membership in a group which offers each of its members with the support of the collectivity-owned capital a qualification which make them eligible to credit in the various senses of the word. Therefore, social capital refers to individuals’ networks, the social relationships and alliances that attach them in all kinds of direct as well as indirect and informal ways to opportunities that can improve their stock of capital (whether economic, social or cultural capital or any combination thereof.
Fulani (Peuhl) ethnic group is mostly made up of Muslims and they live primarily in the northern Francophone regions. We discovered that if one is a Muslim, the more one will maintain a good relationship with ones neighbors and one will also practice a relationship of solidarity with them. Furthermore, we discovered that Muslims have a stable and progressing business unlike the Catholics who have a regressing and instable economic activities. This certainly is because, if one is a Muslim, the more one will maintain a good relationship with ones neighbors and one will also practice a relationship of solidarity. That of the Catholics regress because their social inclusion is not as smooth as that of Muslims because Catholics do not only have a good neighborly relationship with natives but also a conflicting one too which certainly hampers their business activities. Therefore since Maroua has a strong Muslim community, therefore other Muslim migrating to Maroua readily find a network because he can easily integrated in the predominant belief system which is the Islamic faith and as such they are easily integrated unlike those who are Catholics. That is why the Muslims immigrants hardly have any conflict with their neighbors unlike those from other religious denominations. The Muslims benefit from a social capital that the other do not have and consequently these Muslim migrants earn higher than the other immigrants of other denominations.
Elco van Burg [24] show that Protestant entrepreneurs have a stronger belief than employees that their work is a calling from God and that they have as a duty to add value to society through their work which better fit entrepreneurship than wage work. Equally, [25], established that US entrepreneurs are more likely to see God as personal and to pray, although they did not find differences in religious affiliation, belief in God, or religious service attendance between entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs. All these are related to Weber’s thesis (1930) [26] that Protestantism positively affects economic behavior.
Equally in this work we found out that The Protestants do have significantly progressive and regressive activities when they are about 15–24 years old. Although when they are about 25–34, their activities become either regressive and instable, they put in an effort when they are about 35–44 and it becomes significantly either stable and instable. It is worth-noting that it progresses when they get older. The difference that the internally migrated Protestants made is that they do not give up their activities like the animists do, neither do their activities regress like for the Muslims who start up very well but relax as they get older and their activity regresses, neither are they like the Catholics who have stable activities rather theirs make progress. They resist in business, they do not give up like the others despite their very difficult starting.
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5. Conclusion
The major objective of this chapter was to find out how the religious affiliations of the population that have migrated and settled in Maroua for varied reasons influence either their exclusion or inclusion in the socio-economic activities of Maroua. We also set out to find how the sex-age structure of religion influences participants’ integration and socio-economic activities.
We discovered that if one is a Muslim, the more one will maintain a good relationship with ones neighbors and one will also practice a relationship of solidarity with them. Equally, if one is a Catholic, one will have a good neighborly and conflicting relationship with ones neighbors. Pentecostals significantly maintain a professional and conflicting relationship with their neighbors. The animists on their part either have a conflicting relationship or no relationship with their neighbors and finally the Protestants maintain either normal relations with their neighbors or a purely professional one. Therefore, Pentecostals, animists and Catholics have conflicting relationship with their neighbors.
As a result, Muslims have a stable and progressing business unlike the Catholics who have a regressing and instable economic activities in the town of Maroua. This certainly is because, if one is a Muslim, the more one will maintain a good relationship with ones neighbors and one will also practice a relationship of solidarity. That of the Catholics regress because their social inclusion is not as smooth as that of Muslims because Catholics do not only have a good neighborly relationship with natives but also a conflicting one too which certainly hampers their business activities.
Although Pentecostals do not significantly have a good relationship with the natives, they slightly have progressing socio-economic activities but their economic activities are to a greater extent significantly unstable. However, Pentecostals significantly maintain a professional and conflicting relationships which certainly affect their economic activities. Animists and Protestants have economic activities which are averagely doing well because they significantly have businesses that are stable and regressing. Then we draw the following conclusion from the table: if one is a Muslim, one will have a stable and progressing business because one is well-integrated in the town of Maroua. If one is not well-integrated in the town of Maroua, hardly will one have a well-established economic activity like the Catholics.
Muslims and Protestants significantly earn the highest income in the town of Maroua. This is not surprising especially for the Muslims because as compared to the other religious denominations, the Muslims significantly have stable socio-economic activities. Equally, they are well-integrated in Maroua and live in solidarity with the natives of the town probably because Maroua is predominantly a Muslim community. Equally what is interesting about the Protestants is their resistance in socio-economic activities because as the others abandon their activities or their activities regress or become instable, the Protestants put in more efforts and his socio-economic activities flourishes. The difference between the two is that the Protestants only slightly earn higher whereas the Muslims significantly make a stronger impact. Furthermore, the Protestants also alongside with the animists significantly earn the lowest salary. This is because their activities fluctuate between stability and instability. That is among them, one can find people who significantly have stable activities and equally people who have unstable jobs.
The Pentecostals and the Catholics are significantly middle income earners. However, Pentecostals earn more than the Catholics because the Catholics also significantly earn lower salary than the Pentecostals. This is because the Catholics significantly have regressive and unstable activities although they are significantly civil servants. Those who have a major salary deficiency are the animists who significantly earn the lowest salary. It is worth-noting that the Catholics, animists and the Pentecostals have a conflicting relation with the native.
Those who significantly have conflicting relationship among the Pentecostals, are younger people between 15 and 24 year. Just like the Catholics, they practice more solidarity when they become old. The age and religion of a migrant play an important part in his or her social integration in a community. Generally, there is a very significant relationship between age, religion and relationship with ones neighbors.
The Protestants do significantly have progressive and regressive activities when they are about 15–24 years old. Although when they are about 25–34, their activities become either regressive and unstable, they put in an effort when they are about 35–44 and it becomes significantly either stable and instable. It is worth-noting that it progresses when they get older. The difference that the internally migrated Protestants made is that they do not give up their activities like the animists do, neither do their activities regress like for the Muslims who start up very well but relax as they get older and their activity regresses, neither are they like the Catholics who have stable activities rather theirs make progress. However, despite these differences, there is no correlation between age/Religion and socio-economic activities.
Muslims significantly make more money when they reach adulthood than the other religious denomination. They do not significantly earn low salary as compared to the other religious groupings. It is interesting to note that the Pentecostals and the animists stagnate while the Muslims make leaps ahead of them. We equally noticed a high income gap between the Muslims, Catholics and Protestants. A major change takes place among the youth when they are 45–54 years old, the income of the internally migrated Muslims and Catholics drastically significantly decline while that of the Pentecostals and Protestants increased. Older Muslims and Catholics earn basically very low income unlike the Protestants who earn very high salary.
Generally internally migrated women decide not to have any contacts with the natives who are their neighbors and this is significantly so with the Catholic women, Pentecostal women and women who are animists. Generally, men have a conflictual relationship with their neighbors significantly men who are Pentecostals and animists. Muslims generally practice solidarity whether men or women. Women seem to diversify their relationship with their native neigbours than men significantly Catholic and Pentecostals women. While Catholic women significantly have good relation with the natives, Pentecostals women significantly practice solidarity with them. It is worth noting that all although Catholic women significantly have good relationship with the natives, they also significantly have a very difficult relation with them because they significantly are in conflict with them or may significantly decide not to contact the natives. There is a very significant relationship between the gender of a religious person and their social relationship with their neighbors.
Contrarily to the Muslims, animists and Protestants where the female Muslims economic activities strive better than that of the male, it is instead the economic activities of the male Pentecostals that are doing better because their activities are significantly progressing and instable while that of female Pentecostals are regressing and unstable. Therefore the economic activities of Pentecostal males are better than Pentecostal female. They are also somehow significantly regressing when the males are singled out from the females while the female Muslims seem to significantly have flourishing socio-economic activities. This is not so with the Catholics where both male and female Catholics significantly have regressing and unstable economic activities.
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Acknowledgments
I am grateful to my 2018-2019 master 2 students at the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Social Sciences for Development at the Faculty of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences, University of Maroua who carried out this research.
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Notes
- Complementary Research: Cameroon Household Research.