Migrant Families And Religious Belonging

Over the past three decades, migration has become the main driver of population growth (or of preventing its decrease) in many EU countries. The presence of so many families with a migrant background is, however, to some extent, an unexpected phenomenon arising from the permanent settlement of migrant guest workers expected to be temporary residents and from other unplanned processes such as decolonization and the influx of asylum seekers. Moreover, family reunification is today one of the main legal channels by which migrants come to Europe, so it is no coincidence that the main issues animating European public debate on inter-ethnic coexistence involve family, religion, and the relationships between genders and generations. Finally, the migrant family has to some extent, become a lens through which to analyze many key topics connected with the present and future of European societies. This work, Migrant Families and Religious Belonging, is a collection of nine essays exploring the relationship between family, religion, and immigration. These essays mainly focus on the integration process, with particular attention to the experience of migrants’ offspring. The book consists of an introductory chapter and four thematic sections, and topics covered include gender equality, forced marriages, child fostering care, and religious radicalization. The relationship between family, religion and immigration provides a fascinating perspective to explore and shed light on European society today. The book will be of interest to a wide range of academics, researchers, and practitioners.

Stories of Identity reflects on the way that migration affects personal identity and offers educators and students resources to examine this migration through methods of storytelling. It shares the experiences of immigrants in America and Europe from the individual to the collective through memoirs, journalistic accounts, and interviews. The book uses stories about family and upbringing, faith and doubt, religion, school and community, history and scholarship, interviews with young people and meditations from novelists and authors, including author Jumpa Lahiri (The Namesake), Ed Husain (The Islamist), Eboo Patel (Founder of the Interfaith Youth Core), and many more. These experiences reflect a recent and global phenomenon where identity and citizenship are challenged by the greater blurring of national boundaries. Exploring the stories of young migrants and their changing communities, Stories asks readers to reflect on the fluidity of identity.

Gender, Religion, and Migration is the first collection of case studies on how religion impacts the lives of (im)migrant men, women, and youth in their integration in host societies in Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America, and North America. It interrogates the populist ideology that religion is anathema to social integration in the post-9/11 era.

Immigrant Faith examines trends and patterns relating to religion in the lives of immigrants. The volume moves beyond specific studies of particular faiths in particular immigrant destinations to present the religious lives of immigrants in the United States, Canada, and Europe on a broad scale. Religion is not merely one aspect among many in immigrant lives. Immigrant faith affects daily interactions, shapes the future of immigrants in their destination society, and influences society beyond the immigrants themselves. In other words, to understand immigrants, one must understand their faith. Drawing on census data and other surveys, including data sources from several countries and statistical data from thousands of immigrant interviews, the volume provides a concise overview of immigrant religion. It sheds light on whether religion shapes the choice of destination for migrants, if immigrants are more or less religious after migrating, if religious immigrants have an easier adjustment, or if religious migrants tend to fare better or worse economically than non-religious migrants. Immigrant Faith covers demographic trends from initial migration to settlement to the transmission of faith to the second generation. It offers the perfect introduction to big picture patterns of immigrant religion for scholars and students, as well as religious leaders and policy makers.

How evangelical churches in the United States convert migrant distress into positive religious devotion Why do migrants become more deeply evangelical in the United States and how does this religious identity alter their self-understanding? In the Hands of God examines this question through a unique lens, foregrounding the ways that churches transform what migrants feel. Drawing from her extensive fieldwork among Brazilian migrants in the Washington, DC, area, Johanna Bard Richlin shows that affective experience is key to comprehending migrants’ turn toward intense religiosity, and their resulting evangelical commitment. The conditions of migrant life—family separation, geographic isolation, legal precariousness, workplace vulnerability, and deep uncertainty about the future—shape specific affective maladies, including loneliness, despair, and feeling stuck. These feelings in turn trigger novel religious yearnings. Evangelical churches deliberately and deftly articulate, manage, and reinterpret migrant distress through affective therapeutics, the strategic “healing” of migrants’ psychological pain. Richlin offers insights into the affective dimensions of migration, the strategies pursued by evangelical churches to attract migrants, and the ways in which evangelical belonging enables migrants to feel better, emboldening them to improve their lives. Looking at the ways evangelical churches help migrants navigate negative emotions, In the Hands of God sheds light on the versatility and durability of evangelical Christianity.

This volume explores ideas of home, belonging and memory in migration through the social realities of leaving and living. It discusses themes and issues such as locating migrant subjectivities and belonging; sociability and wellbeing; the making of a village; bondage and seasonality; dislocation and domestic labour; women and work; gender and religion; Bhojpuri folksongs; folk music; experience; and the city to analyse the social and cultural dynamics of internal migration in India in historical perspectives. Departing from the dominant understanding of migration as an aberration impelled by economic factors, the book focuses on the centrality of migration in the making of society. Based on case studies from an array of geo-cultural regions from across India, the volume views migrants as active agents with their own determinations of selfhood and location. Part of the series Migrations in South Asia, this book will be useful to scholars and researchers of migration studies, refugee studies, gender studies, development studies, social work, political economy, social history, political studies, social and cultural anthropology, exclusion studies, sociology, and South Asian Studies.

This is a timely book that fills the gap in the study of Chinese overseas and their religions in the global context. Rich in ethnographic materials, this is the first comprehensive book that shows the transnational religious networks among the Chinese of different nationalities and between the Chinese overseas and the regions in China. The book highlights diverse religious traditions including Chinese popular religion, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam, and discusses inter-cultural influences on religions, their localization, their significance to cultural belonging, and the transnational nature of religious affiliations and networking. Contents:Chinese Religious Traditions and Living in the Diaspora:The Mazu Worship on the Island of Java (Myra Sidharta)State and "Chinese Religions" in Indonesia: Confucianism, Tridharma and Buddhism During the Suharto Rule and After (Leo Suryadinata)Under the Buddha's Shadow: Buddhism and the Chinese in Myanmar (Duan Ying)Teaching about Qi: Knowledge Transmission among Chinese Ethnic Practitioners of Traditional Chinese Medicine in the United States (Emily S Wu)Localization and Chinese Religious Traditions:Syncretism as Religious Identity: Chinese Religious Culture in the Philippines (Aristotle C Dy and Teresita Ang See)Datuk Kong Worship and Chinese Religion in Malaysia: Reflections of Syncretism, Pragmatism and Inclusiveness (Lee Yok Fee and Chin Yee Mun)Christianity, Islam and the Chinese Overseas:Religious Affiliation and Propensity to Christianity of Chinese in Canada (Eva Xiaoling Li and Peter S Li)Between Catholicism and Evangelism: The Peruvian Chinese Community (Isabelle Lausent-Herrera)Overseas Chinese Protestant Churches in Japan: Changes as Witnessed from Their Stance Toward Christian Mission Activities (Kainei Mori)Junus Jahja and Chinese-Indonesian Muslims in Indonesia (Chiou Syuan-yuan)Religious Affiliations and Transnational Networks:Japanese Buddhism and Chinese Sub-ethnic Culture: Instances of a Chinese Buddhist Organization from Shantou to Vietnam (Satohiro Serizawa)Transnational Ritual Practices among the Chinese Migrants in Spain (Irene Masdeu Torruella)Ancestral God, Locality God, and Chinese Transnational Pilgrimage (Tan Chee-Beng) Readership: Scholars, postgraduate students and general public who are interested in the study of Chinese overseas, particularly with reference to religious affiliation. Key Features:First comprehensive book that describes Chinese overseas from the perspective of religious affiliationShows the connection between China and the Chinese overseas through religious networksKeywords:Chinese Overseas;Overseas Chinese Religions;Migration and Religious Affiliation;Transnational Religious Networks;Chinese and Christianity

Despite the worldwide dramatic spread of religious-based discriminations, persecutions, and conflicts, both official data and academic literature have underestimated their role as a root cause of contemporary migrations. This multidisciplinary study aims to overcome this gap. Through an unprecedented collection of theoretical analysis and original empirical evidence, the book provides unique data and insights on the role of religion in the trajectories of asylum seekers and migrants – from the analysis of the religious geography of sending countries to the role of spirituality as a factor of resilience and adaptation. By enhancing both academic and political debate on these issues, the book offers the possibility of regaining awareness of the close link between religious freedom and the quality of democracy. Contributors include: Paolo Gomarasca, Monica Martinelli, Monica Spatti, Andrea Santini, Andrea Plebani, Paolo Maggiolini, Riccardo Redaelli, Alessia Melcangi, Giancarlo Rovati, Annavittoria Sarli, Giulia Mezzetti, Lucia Boccacin, Linda Lombi, Donatella Bramanti, Stefania Meda, Giovanna Rossi, Beatrice Nicolini, Cristina Giuliani, Camillo Regalia, Giovanni Giulio Valtolina, Paola Barachetti, Maddalena Colombo, Rosangela Lodigiani, Mariagrazia Santagati, Fabio Baggio, Vera Lomazzi, Paolo Bonetti, Laura Zanfrini, Mario Antonelli, Luca Bressan, Alessandro Bergamaschi, Catherine Blaya, Núria Llevot-Calvet, Olga Bernad-Cavero, and Jordi Garreta-Bochaca.