The Social Construct of Religious Identity and Its Implications on the Integration Experience of Immigrant Muslim Youth in Canada

As Islam is the second largest and fastest growing religion in Canada, the strong prevalence of Muslims requires the field of immigration to adequately address the community's issues. Consequently, this research explored the key social constructions of Muslim identities and considered their implications on religious identity and the integration experiences of immigrant Muslim youth in Canada. Following an academic literature review, and guided by a theoretical framework of social constructionism, orientalism, identity process theory, content analysis methods analyzed 49 selected articles from the Toronto Star and National Post between January 2015 to July 2022. Results show that Muslim immigrant youth are negatively constructed by these news media where: Islam is socially constructed as a violent religion, Muslim youth as victims of their faith, and Muslims are seen incompatible with the Canadian context. The results suggest that greater research and supports are needed for Muslim immigrant youth for positive integration.