The Role of Religion in Social and Cultural Integration: A Case Study of the Chinese Diaspora in Thailand and Malaysia. Comparing 2 countries in Southeast Asia on the matter of Chinese cultural integration and ethnic assimilation. The research question would be “Why social and cultural integration of the Chinese have resulted differently in Thailand and Malaysia despite the similarities among these two countries.” I’d like to build a theory claiming that “Buddhism facilitates social and cultural integration.” I plan to do so by process-tracing 2 countries that have similar characteristics (multi-ethnic, economics, history of Chinese immigration, etc) except for their dominant religion (Buddhist: Thailand; Muslim: Malaysia). The reasons why I chose these 2 countries are because there hold the major overseas Chinese population in the world, also dominant religions (Buddhism, Islam). The Chinese have integrated well into Thailand but the Chinese have been heavily discriminated against in Malaysia. I would like to argue that it’s because of the characteristics of the Buddhist religion that put a heavy emphasis on tolerance and no requirement for the change in religion in a marriage that allows the Chinese to be absorbed into the society instead of being set apart from other ethnic groups like those in countries where Buddhist is not the dominant religion.
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