Jan-Philip Steinmann

Postdoctoral researcher

Criminological Research Institute of Lower Saxony (KFN)

My name is Jan-Philip Steinmann and I am head of the research unit “Aetiology of Deviance” at the Criminological Research Institute of Lower Saxony (KFN) and affiliated postdoctoral researcher at the Research Institute Social Cohesion (RISC) at the University of Bremen, Germany. I consider myself a sociologist, on the edge of social structure analysis and cultural sociology. My research interests, in the broadest sense, relate to causes and consequences of (decreasing or increasing) social cohesion. Thereby, I mainly focus on social inequalities, migration processes and immigrants’ integration, right-wing populism, and deviant behavior. Across all these topics, I investigate paradoxical effects of religion. Although I am mostly using quantitative empirical methods, I am also conducting mixed methods research.

I hold a doctoral degree from the University of Goettingen, Germany. I have been visiting student/researcher at Utrecht University and the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI) in The Hague.

My work appeared in several journals including International Migration Review, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, and Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie.

I am a reviewer for several journals, such as Ethnicities, European Sociological Review, Frontiers in Sociology, International Migration Review, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies, Race and Social Problems, Social Science Research, Zeitschrift für Religion, Gesellschaft und Politik, and Zeitschrift für Soziologie.

Recent Publications

(K)eine immunisierende Wirkung? Eine binnendifferenzierte Analyse zum Zusammenhang zwischen christlicher Religiosität und der Wahl rechtspopulistischer Parteien

Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie

Jan-Philip Steinmann

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Do gender-role values matter? Explaining new refugee women’s social contact in Germany

International Migration Review

Jörg Hartmann, Jan-Philip Steinmann

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Religiosity and natives’ social contact with new refugees. Explaining differences between East and West Germany

International Journal of Intercultural Relations

Jan-Philip Steinmann

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The paradox of integration: why do higher educated new immigrants perceive more discrimination in Germany?

Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies

Jan-Philip Steinmann

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One-way or return? Explaining group-specific return intentions of recently arrived Polish and Turkish immigrants in Germany

Migration Studies

Jan-Philip Steinmann

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See all publications

Work in Progress

Faithful and fearful. Does religion promote or reduce fear of crime in Germany?

Jan-Philip Steinmann Mar 2023

This article complements existing victimological studies on religion by investigating whether religion promotes or reduces fear of crime in Germany. According to the generalized insecurity approach and the theory of social production functions, religion and fear of crime are linked via secularization-induced diffuse insecurities. It is expected that different facets of religion are tied to fearing crime in different ways because the projection of secularization-induced diffuse insecurities occurs only among those individuals whose religious capital is devaluated. Based on empirical analyses of data from the 2021 German General Social Survey (GGSS), there is evidence that some religious minority groups are particularly likely to fear crime, religious belief is positively related to fearing crime, religious behavior is negatively associated with fearing crime, and religion can promote fear of crime equally in East and West Germany. In conclusion, the study shows the importance of religion for the fear of crime and highlights the advantages of a general theoretical approach.

Religious well-being benefits in times of crisis. Religiosity, social integration, and changes in subjective well-being during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

Jan-Philip Steinmann, Theresa Entringer, Jörg Hartmann, Hannes Kröger Jan 2023

A large body of literature highlights the benefits of being religious in terms of subjective well-being. We examine changes to these so-called religious well-being benefits during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany and address the role of (formal and informal) social integration when explaining these changes. We empirically test two contrasting scenarios: The first scenario predicts a decrease in religious well-being benefits (convergence hypothesis), while the second scenario predicts an increase in religious well-being benefits (divergence hypothesis). We apply marginal structural models and inverse probability of treatment weighting to nationally representative, longitudinal data including both pre- and during-pandemic periods, Thereby, we show that initial religious well-being benefits declined during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany. This decline was partly due to religious individuals’ perception of decreasing social integration. Our results challenge the widespread idea that religious individuals are better protected against crises.

Misperceptions of the foreign-born population size in European societies. The role of immigration-related national discourses

Jan-Philip Steinmann, Marcel Lubbers Sep 2022

In this article, we contribute to the question on how cross-national differences in misperceptions of the foreign-born population size come about by adding national discourses on immigration to the explanation. We provide theoretical reasoning why such discourses articulated by politics and media should have an effect on individual (mis)perceptions. Thereby, we differentiate between salience and valence of national discourses and consider the interplay between such discourses and individuals’ actual exposure to political and media debates. Based on 2014 European Social Survey (ESS) data, multilevel analyses are conducted. Empirical findings indicate that mere salience of national discourses on immigration is not decisive when explaining (mis)perceptions of the foreign-born population size. Instead, overestimating the number of foreign-born people is less likely to occur when discourse by politicians is more inclusive towards immigrants. However, such discourses may also lead to more pronounced underestimation. Effects of immigration-related national discourse on individual misperceptions are not conditional on people’s exposure to politics and media. We conclude that politicians may prevent Europeans’ overestimation of the foreign-born population size by addressing immigration in a positive way.

Hochreligiös und migrantenfreundlich? Der nichtlineare Zusammenhang zwischen Religiosität und Fremdenfeindlichkeit in Deutschland

Jan-Philip Steinmann Jul 2022

Der Artikel widmet sich dem Zusammenhang von Religiosität und Fremdenfeindlichkeit im deutschen Kontext und stellt die in bisheriger Forschung dominante Annahme infrage, zwischen den beiden Konstrukten herrsche ein linearer Zusammenhang. Stattdessen werden theoretische Argumente für einen nichtlinearen Zusammenhang zwischen Religiosität und Fremdenfeindlichkeit präsentiert. Die Sonderrolle hochreligiöser Christinnen und Christen, ihr erhöhtes Niveau an fremdenfeindlichen Einstellungen, wird über die wahrgenommene Benachteiligung der Eigengruppe gegenüber Eingewanderten begründet. Durch die Bezugnahme auf die Theorie sozialer Produktionsfunktionen kann die Argumentation zudem in einen allgemeinen theoretischen Rahmen eingebettet werden. Auf Basis der „Allgemeinen Bevölkerungsumfrage der Sozialwissenschaften“ (ALLBUS) aus den Jahren 2006 bis 2021 wird der vermutete nichtlineare Zusammenhang untersucht. Es zeigt sich empirisch, dass in Ostdeutschland eine lineare, in Westdeutschland jedoch eine nichtlineare Verknüpfung zwischen Religiosität und Fremdenfeindlichkeit vorliegt. Während im ostdeutschen Kontext ein Mehr an Religiosität mit einem geringeren Niveau fremdenfeindlicher Einstellungen einhergeht, zeigt sich im westdeutschen Kontext, dass Hochreligiöse von der Linearitätsannahme früherer Forschung abweichen, also mitnichten migrantenfreundlich, sondern vergleichsweise migrantenfeindlich sind. Abschließend werden die Kontextspezifität der Ergebnisse sowie deren Verallgemeinerbarkeit diskutiert.

‘With a little help from my educated friends’: Revisiting the role of social capital for immigrants’ labour market integration in Germany

Julia Rüdel, Jan-Philip Steinmann May 2022

This article examines the link between immigrants’ social capital and their labour market integration in Germany and is dedicated to contributing to previous research in two ways. First, based on insights of theories of social capital and immigrant integration, we overcome the mere distinction between inter- and intra-ethnic ties. Instead, we approximate resources immigrants can access and mobilize by considering the ethnic and the social composition of their networks. Second, by using autoregressive cross-lagged panel models, we properly deal with the methodological challenge of endogeneity inherent to studies concerned with the relation between social capital and labour market outcomes. Based on the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) the empirical findings indicate the necessity to consider both immigrants’ ethnic and social composition of their networks—since a contact’s social position partially mediates the effect of a contact’s ethnicity on immigrants’ labour market integration. We conclude that instead of treating immigrants’ social capital as unidimensional, future research might deploy a multidimensional perspective, considering that the ethnicity and the social position of immigrants’ contacts seem to matter for their labour market outcomes.