Chapter 20- Immigration

Religion introduces a unique set of questions about the immigrant experience guided by
different ontological and epistemological assumptions. Religion provides followers with
symbols, rituals and narrative that help to create an alternative landscape that would fit
within, transcend or supersede national boundaries. Thus, religion can facilitate host
country assimilation, encourage enduring Homeland ties or render such orientations
meaningless because what matters to the individual is belonging to a religious space.
Religion helps people:
 How people use religion to become a part of other countries
 How people use religion to remain a part of their countries
 How they use religion to imagine themselves transcending all political boundaries

What is religion?
Definition of religion generally revolves around two themes. Some scholars favour functional
definition while others favor more substantive approach.
What religion is? restrictive- Substantive definition focuses on what religion is, and tends to
be restrictive. Scholars in restrictive side want to limit the study of religion to belief,
institutions and practices. For them the defining characteristic of religion is the reference to
supernatural.
What religion does? expansive- Functional definition focuses on what religion does, and
tends to more expansive. The inclusivists argue for a definition of religion that embraces
activities, ideologies and structure. They define religion as a category of social interaction
and discourse whose meaning are constantly negotiated. The core of religion lies in the
subjective experience and system of discourse of the practitioner.

Study of lived religion directs attention to institutions, persons, texts and rituals, practice and
theology etc. The religious experience produces both hybrid individual and collective
identity because it lies at the intersection of multiple life worlds and the ongoing
interplay of delocalisation and relocalisation. Religious experience transforms the notion
of belonging to not only space but also of time. In globalized world religion reorders time
and social boundaries.
In many traditions syncretism, in-betweenness and hybridity are the rule rather than
exception. If we look at the officially sanctioned religious traditions we would miss out on
many parts. Home based folk practices that combine official practices with other traditions
are at the heart of many religious experiences.
What people do and say in the privacy of their own homes or in small groups and how
they understand and interpret these activities lies in the core of religion.

Religion and the “old and new immigrants"

Study of immigrant Religion in US
Most of the newcomers arrived during first great wave of immigration to US, came from
Europe. The immigration transformed the national religious structure. The state moved from
only being a Protestant state to gradually incorporate Catholics and Jews. After several
decades the principal sending regions shifted from Europe to Latin America and Asia. As a
result Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam assumed places among US religious communities.

Conceptual and methodological imperatives for studying new immigrants

The new Immigrant survey takes Herberg's Protestant, Catholic, Jew as the point of
departure. According to Herberg, immigrants were expected to retain their religion but
abandon their culture and linguistic characteristics. But Herberg underestimated the enduring
silence of ethnicity and race. He also mistakenly focused on religion solely as a means of
channeling host country incorporation.

An enhanced set of Methodological and conceptual tools is needed to capture the changing
nature of contemporary migration and religious life. The first ontological shift is to locate a
study of migrants and their religious practices within the social fields in which they are
embedded. Social fields are multiple interlocking networks of social relationships
through which ideas, resources etc are exchanged. National social fields are fields that
stay within national boundaries. Transnational social field connects actors, through direct and
indirect relations across borders.

Locating migrants within social field is important for several reasons:

 As it moves the analysis beyond direct experience of migration to include those who
do not actually move themselves but who maintain social relations across border.
Actual movement is not required for engaging in transnational practices. That is
 religious lives of those who stay behind and their religious institution may assume
transnational properties in response to continuing ties between migrants and non-
migrants.
 Social field perspective also brings forward multiple layers and multiples settings that
influence social experience. Global values and institutions such as democracy, free
market, NGOs etc influence the transnational social field.

Religion as a transnational perspective before emergence of contemporary nation-state

systems: Not all religious cross-border connection is linked to migration. Many religions
were organized across territories long before the emergence of the contemporary nation state
system. Merchants, traders, missionary etc always carried religious visions, texts and ideas
across sea and over boundaries.

Religion as tool for producing, reproducing and inventing identity

Religion provides symbols, rituals and scripts that are used by individuals and religious
organizations to affirm, pass on or invent who they are. For example, the overlap between
Catholic religion and Latin American immigrant culture is strong that when the families
participate in baptism, first communions, marriages etc they reassert their religious and
cultural identities at the same time.
 Some religious communities function like the extended families that is the members
fill in for the distant relatives who cannot be present during illness or death.
 For example churchgoing strengthens families by changing behavior and
providing moral compass.
 Churchgoing also integrates members into ethnic and nonethnic social networks
that provide information about job, housing etc.
 Many religious communities provide social services, financial assistance etc.
 Some also provide language assistances, graduate and diploma education courses

There is a shift in the orientation of the Catholic Church:

 In early 1900s, the Catholic Church established ethnic and national parishes (small
adiministrative districts having their own church) as a stopgap measure where
migrants can pray in their own language and style but were expected to adopt Anglo-
Catholic practices later.
  The second Vatican council of 1960s expanded the space for ethnic diversity within
the Catholic Church as a whole. It modernized the church, democratized the
rituals, encouraged tolerance of variation in faith and expression. As a result
Catholicism was not seen as a European Religion. The church is not bounded to any
race, nation customary patterns of living etc. These reforms coincided with the civil
rights and black power movement in US that drew attention to immigrant
causes.
 Permanent institutional spaces have been created for the maintenance and
preservation of diverse language and cultural expressions.
 As a result the Latino American group no longer is considered inferior to Euro-
American group.

Participation in religious rituals and institutions not only fostered host country
incorporation but also stimulated enduring Homeland attachments.
Some migrants use religion as a site for asserting transnational belonging through their
continued membership in the religious organizations that they belonged to prior to
migration. Eg- Isckon in India and Iskcon in US
 They make major financial contributions to these groups, seek long-distance spiritual
guidance from their programs, host visiting religious leaders, raise funds and support
their activities in the new country.
Participation in transnational rituals also reinforced family and household membership
across borders. For example wedding brought together large, globally dispersed family
networks.
 For eg an indian traditional wedding in US will bring together many indian families
together as well as showcase many indian traditions thereby brewing religious
oneness in alien country.

Transnational membership
Individual transnational religious practices are reinforced by organisational context in which
they take place.
 Some migrants belong to host-country religious institutions with formal ties to host
country congregations. These groups operate like a franchise and the migrants receive
regular supervision and financial support from Homeland religious leaders
Or
 migrants religious group can be part of worldwide religious institution that treats them
as members wherever they are

Migrants also use religion to create alternative geographies of belonging that either fit within,
transcend, or take precedence over national boundaries. For example, Haitian migrants in
New York added Harlem to the roster of places where their spiritual work is enacted. By
doing this they extend the boundaries of their rituals and super inscribed them onto the actual
physical landscape where they are settled.
Many countries allow dual nationality or citizenship. By doing this the state also
legitimizes other kinds of dual membership. Furthermore the global norms and institutions
also shape and help to shape transnational social fields. Religious institutions encounter
global culture and it selectively incorporates its elements or push back against them. For
example, in response to global norms regarding women's rights some religious groups
permitted women to perform functions that we're unheard in the past, whereas other religions
reasserted gender differences.

Emergent institutional forms

Several kinds of changes occur in religious organisation in response to migration:
 Existing congregation transform themselves to accommodate newcomers- add foreign
language services, add a new set of symbols and rituals. For example the American
Baptist church in New England was responsive to Brazilian immigrants despite major
differences in theology and worship style.
 Migrants religious activities aimed at their homeland also produced transnational
organizational forms.
Levity identifies three types of transnational religious organizational patterns
● Extended transnational religious organization- when transnational migrants
circulate in and out of parishes or religious movement groups, they extend and tailor
the already global Catholic Church system into a site where simultaneous belonging
in both sending and receiving Nation can be expressed.
● Negotiated transnational religious organization- these groups also extend and
deepen organizational ties but in the context of less hierarchical, decentralized
institutional structures. Example Protestant churches with affiliates in US and in Latin
America
 ● Recreated transnational religious organization- migrants establish their own
religious groups. Example, Gujarati Hindus from the baroda district formed a
Hindu community in US. Indian Diaspora. Sometimes they serve as franchises of
their mother organisations in India, eg ISKCON

Religion and politics

Religious institutions strongly influence politics. Religious institutions fulfilled three separate
but complementary roles in politics.
● As incubator for Civic skills
● As agent for mobilization
● As information provider
Church leaders stay takes stance on political issues, they endorse candidates and they allow
their churches to be site where debate and mobilization can occur. Religious leaders also
influence politics. Networks and quasi-official organisation of priests, members of religious
orders, laypersons etc made significant contributions to the cause of immigration reform,
workers rights and education.

National and transnational Religious cultures

Transnational migrants respond to the context and the set of institutional arrangements. For
example, Turkish migrants in Germany. Their religious life results from home and host
country imperatives. Immigrants are encouraged to organise as Muslims both because the
Turkish government provides them with resources and the German government extends tax
benefits and support to officially recognised religious groups.

Migration and religion are not the only social processes that transcend national boundaries;
numerous social movements, businesses, media and forms of governance crossborders.
People living in transnational social fields engage in multiple transnational processes at the
same time.

Chapter 21- Globalization

Globalization refers to the historical process by which all the world's people
increasingly come to live in a single social unit. Looking at religion as a social institution
in global perspective means to look at and ask about the nature of religion as a global
institution. We focus on the historical emergence of religion as a globalized category, along
with its subcategories of particular religion; multilocal institutionalization of these socially
re-constructed reality, and what these institution exclude from their domain. All these three
are interconnected.

Historical emergence of modern religion and religions

Western Europe:
● Religion as Separate from life: Highly organised, centralized and powerful
religious institution in the form of Roman Catholic Church
● Religion as a quality of life (inseparable)- religion understood more as a quality
of life conduct

During this period complex transformation took place such as rise of plural territorial
political power, increase in intellectual and artistic activities etc along with the
strengthening of church as the single institution overarching the entire territory. This
unfolded into a number of developments such as the European voyage that set off imperial,
economic and religious expansion; and the highly conflictual protestant reformation
which led to the intensification of religious activity as well as old institutionally
recognized forms of Christian unity. These transformations led to religion being considered
as distinct from everyday life.

There was the semantic shift in the meaning of religion and change in the concrete
institutional realities:
 Roman Catholic Church is no more the single overarching European institution as
various protestant churches arose.
 Beginning of 19th century almost all Christian churches shifted to voluntaristic basis.
 Slowly the institutional expression of European Christianity became differentiated in
their role, function and from other institutions.

The imperial expansion of European power introduced both the idea of religion and its
corresponding institutional structures to various other parts of the world:
 In the area of New World colonization, it was introduced European migrants and their
descendents.
  In sub-Saharan Africa- Dominance of two world religions- Christianity & Islam
 In West- South Asia and North Africa- it was long standing tradition of Islam
 In South Asia- people resisted or deflected the European imperial presence because of
it's complex institutional and ideational base. They reconstructed their diverse religio
cultural traditions such as Hinduism, Sikhism and Jainism.
 The East Asians pursued a complex combination of acceptance and resistance.

The historical development of modern religion and globalized idea of religion includes three
aspects:
● There are peculiar sorts of activities that make up religion, in particular
religious ritual and other forms of religious practices like meditation, preaching,
reading of sacred text etc.
● Doing religion- the sorts of activities have to be carried out like preaching,
meditation, rituals etc.
● Religious activity is communal. It includes a meaningful sense of belonging to a
larger social whole.

The modern idea of religion is not enough to bring about the social differentiation of religion
as a distinct domain. There are also two dimensions that are also essential:
● Religious organizations ranging from local churches and temples to
transnational organizations and also a more fluid form of this is- Religious social
movements (ISHA, Brahma Kumaris)
● Also the motive is only complete when the twin factors are met by religious
institutions- self-representation and other-recognition. The institutions have to
represent themselves as religious. Further the general public outside the institution
and the state authority have to treat the institutions as religious institutions.

Christian Pentecostalism
Contemporary Christianity, as a global religion relies heavily on organization to give it
a distinct and differentiated social form. Christianity identifies with and participate in
organized churches both locally in the form of congregation or parishes and through
denomination or confession. This denominational organization allows different degree
of centralized religious authority and allows controlled multi localization. Churches in
different countries and regions are similar to one another, for instance in ritual practices,
ecclesiastical structure and theology. But these churches can also be different in style and
emphasis based on different cultural setting and local religious understanding.

Contrary to above Christian Pentecostalism is highly decentralized. It refers to a style of

Christianity that places great emphasis on trance rituals and on individual religious
experience. By the early 20th century, a worldwide self-identified Pentecostal movement
developed. Pentecostalism spread around the world through individuals rather than through
organizationally initiated and controlled missionary efforts. It recognizes no single central
authority, nonetheless shares a sense of belonging to the same thing. Because of this feature
there are a variety of different manifestations of Pentecostalism around the world. Though
Pentecostalism is diverse, all these variations take part of their identity from the common
model.

Islamic Singularity and Diversity

In regions such as North America, Australia or Europe, the pressure of Christian
organizational patterns led Muslims to form congregation like structures centered on
mosques. Mosque are like local religious service center with both regular clients and
occasional visitors. Muslims go to mosque, participate, and get involved in the activities of
the mosque. Mosque along with other institutions such as madrassas, universities, Sufi
brotherhood and various Islamic social movements help profile Islam as a religion and
gives it a differentiated institutional face. The different versions identify themselves and
relate to one another through the terms of interrelated “text” or " tradition” of Quran,
Hadith, prayer, pilgrimage etc and not through any sort of centralized authority.

Buddhist Globalization
Institutionally it also manifests itself through organizations like temple, monasteries and
defined movements such as Fo Guang Shan etc. There are two features that make
Buddhism seem less institutional than others religion. One is programmatic, having to do
with the content of Buddhist practices and beliefs. The other is historical.
Programmatically, Buddhism presents a less exclusivist face. Buddhism has rarely adopted a
strategy of defining Buddhism in terms of who is or is not a Buddhist. This aspect adds an
element of fluidity. This fluidity introduced can be found in Japan. Historically Buddhism
concerns China. Chinese has historically exhibited both clearly defined institutions like
monasteries and Buddhist institutional and programmatic fluidity.
Hindu Construction
Only after the beginning of British colonial dominance in the late 18th century the idea
of singular religion called Hinduism come together. Two things
It has elaborated institutionalization in the form of organizations, movements etc. Eg. VHP
Low level of clear programmatic singularity- there appears to be no clearly dominant vision
of what constitutes and counts as Hinduism. Although the most influential is neo-vedantic
vision.

Non-institutional religiousness in Global context

In case of religion, there are many aspects that escape incorporation into the institutionalized
religious system. Two important dimensions:
● there are those institutionalized arrangements that for one reason or another do not
count as religion, whether because they are not differentiated as such or are
differentiated through another non-religious system. Here one is dealing with a
combination of lack of structuring as religion including self-presentation and other
recognition as religion. Example Falun Gong in India
● there are those social phenomenon that seem to be religious but are too fluid and
irregular to constitute actual institutions. Example the idea of worldview and
sacredness.
Falun Gong is an organized social movement with centralized authority, adherents and elaborate
ideology. The activities look like religious practices, yet Falun Dafists are often denied that what they
do is religion. Rather they claim the title of cultural practice or psychological and physical discipline.

Local religious culture in many areas of the world presents a different kind of religious manifestation.
Example the Religious cultures of villages. People in village perform puja, conduct cyclical
ceremonies, ritual etc on daily basis. These people usually don't make an operative distinction
between this sort of activities and other aspects of life: economic and political aspects. Local people
don't call these activities by a distinct name. Such Indian religious activities are rendered marginal to
larger global and local institutional religious system because it lacks self-identification as a religion.

Durkheim's notion of sacred refers to things that are set apart and forbidden. In today's world there are
many non-religious things that are treated as sacred. For instance technology, human rights,
democracy, equality etc.