Chapter 20
Immigration
Peggy Levit
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 helps 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 etc.
What is religion?
Definition of religion generally revolves around two themes. Some scholars favour functional
definition while others favor more substantive approach. Substantive definition focuses on what
religion is, and tends to be restrictive. Scholars in restrictive side want to limit the study of religion to
believe, institutions and practices. For them the defining characteristic of religion is the reference to
supernatural. On the other hand functional definition focuses on what religion does,and tends to
more expansive. The inclusivist argue for a definition of religion that embraces activities, ideologies
and structure. Griel and Bromley define religion as a category of social interaction and discourse
whose meaning and implications 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 and space but also of
time. In globalized world religion reorders time and social boundaries.
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 Herzberg's, 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.
The enhanced set of Methodological and conceptual tools 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. It is also multidimensional, encompass interaction of different forms,depth such as
organization, institutions and movements. 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.
Not all religious cross-border connection are linked to migration. Many religions were organized
across territories long before the emergency 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 reasset their religious and cultural identities. 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.
There is a shift in the orientation of the Catholic Church. In early 1900s ,the Catholic Church
established ethnic and national parishes 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.
Participation in religious rituals and institutions not only fostered host country incorporation but also
stimulated enduring Homeland attachments. Participation in transnational rituals also reinforced
family and household membership across borders. For example weddy brought together large,
globally dispersed family networks.
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 religion for me reasserted gender differences.
Emergent institutional forms
Several kinds of changes in the 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 organisational forms.
Levity identifies three types of transnational religious organizational patterns
Extended transnational religious organization- 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 it in which both belonging to sending and receiving Nation can be
expressed.
Negotiated transnational religious organization- these groups extend and deepen
organizational ties 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.
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
Immigrants religious practices with respect to their new land and their homeland received by the
ideology and institutional climate in which it takes place. Many scholars and public at large shared
the belief that immigrants become more religious in US than they were in their home countries.
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.
Transnational approach brings to light important questions about the changing nature of democracy
citizenship and social economic development. Some transnational problems require transnational
answers. For example, when individuals belong to either formally or informally to two countries, they
are protected by at least two sets of rights and some are subject to at least two sets of
responsibilities. Then question arises which states are ultimately responsible for which aspects of
their lives and what should migrants be expected to contribute in return etc. Transnational migration
also rises question about how to define and address poverty.
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
Peter Beyer
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 in social institution in global perspective means to look
at and ask about the nature of religion as a global institution. This chapter focused on the historical
emergence of religion as a globalized category, along with its subcategories of particular
religion;multilocal institutionalization of these (re) constructed reality. All these three are
interconnected.
Historical emergence of modern religion and religions
Beyer starts by looking at Western Europe. Because the notion of religion in Europe was highly
consequential institutional and ideational transformations began there. Two aspects stand out
Highly organised, centralised and powerful religious institution in the form of Roman Catholic
Church
The concept of religion that was both singular and understood as a quality of life conduct
then as a separate or separable domain.
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 interdependent institutional growth 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 at the destruction of cold institutionally expressed as a function of Christian unity.
From 16th to 19th century the singular and no differentiated notion gave way to a way that saw
religion as a distinct domain of social 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, the implantation of the idea was done by the European migrants and their
descendents. In sub-Saharan Africa the idea was successfully appropriated in the form of dominance
of two world religions that is Islam and Christianity.In West- South Asia and North Africa, well
developed realities combined with long standing tradition of Muslim religious self-conception. 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 medication, preaching, reading of sacred text etc.
Doing religion it refers to specific kind of religious reality. It is often designated by terms such
as transcendent, ultimate, divine etc. Fundamental religious distinction became the defining
feature of contemporary globalized religious system.
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.
It is important to understand the Institutional arrangements that is the Religious
organizations ranging from local to transnational organizations. They represents religion,
concentrate on it's performance and variation in which it is placed. And a more fluid form of
this is religious social movements.
The institutions have to represent themselves as religious. For this they must adopt can
communicate self identity. Further the general public outside the institution and the state
authority have to treat the institutions as religious institutions.
Institutional differentiation refers to the specific and recognized social structures specialized in the
reproduction of what people understand as religion. Further because of differentiation much of non-
or quasi-institutionalized religiosity occurs in addition to institutionalized institution. It has two
consequences
The possibility of new religion forming or attempting to form all the time along with
disappearance of old religion
The presence of social activity that in many respect looks like religion but does not count as
such.
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 that is responding to different cultural setting and local religious
understanding. The multilocal modeling is found among the more tightly organized denomination for
example, in Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox etc.
No dependence on high degree of centralization is evident in Christian Pentecostalism.
Pentecostalism refers to a style of Christianity that places great emphasis on biblically warranted
possession or trance rituals and on individual religious experience. By the early 20th century, a
worldwide self-identified Pentecostal movement developed. Throughout 20th century, both the
structures of Pentecostalism maintained the form of a social movement. Pentecostalism is identified
as a particular narrative and ritual practices in terms of which those participating in the movement
identify. Because of this feature there are variety of different manifestations of Pentecostalism
around the world, in a country or a region. Pentecostalism spreaded 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.
Pentecostal around the world establish and express their singularity by adopting and adapting a
common religious model. Though Pentecostalism is diverse, all these variations take part of their
identity from the common model. Multi-Localisation is expressive of systemic singularity at the same
time as systemic singularity is the efflorescence of multi-localization.
Islamic Singularity and Diversity
In regions such as North America, Australia or Europe, the contextual pressure of Christian
organisational patterns led Muslims to form congregation like structures centered on mosques.
Mosque are like local religious service center with both regular at in regular clients. Muslims go to
mosque, participate, get involved in the activities of the mosque but they do not belong to that
mosque in the way the Christian belong to the local churches. 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.
Contemporary Islam differs from other religions in the way it is institutionalized. Currently Islam
features many movements which seek the dedifferentiation of religious and political, economic, legal
and other institutional spheres. For example, Afghan Taliban. In most regions where this religion has
significant presence, on the first glance may seem dedifferentiation but it is no more than has
religious influence in other institutional spheres.
Buddhist Globalization
Institutionally it also manifests itself through organizations like temple, monasteries and defined
movements such as Fo Guang Shan etc. Today lay-based movements and organizational are gaining
larger profile. There are two features that make Buddhism seem less Institutional singular 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. Expect in it's core monastic institutions,
it 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. In 20th century China created an
atmosphere conducive for the construction of new Buddhist institutions and revitalization of old
ones. The failed effort of reforming monk like Tai Hsu illustrates a clear vision of singular but
internally varied Buddhism model. China demographically represents the largest Buddhist population
in the world does it has a significant effect on the face of worldwide Buddhism. Buddhism has
become fairly evident worldwide and multi-localised religion. The lack of clear dominance of core
programmatic vision and clearly delineated organisational structure gives Buddhism the appearance
of less clearly differentiated and under-institutionalized religion when compared to others.
Hindi Construction
Only after the beginning of British colonial dominance in the late 18th century the idea of singular
religion called Hinduism coalesce. A combination of elaborate institutionalization in the form of
organization, movements, and social network and a low level of clear programmatic singularity is
symptomatic of the recent construction. On the programmatic side there appears to be no clearly
dominant vision of what constitutes and counts as Hinduism. Although the most influential is neo-
vedantic vision.In recent decades, highly politicized and powerful Hindu nationalist movement
addressed this issue that is the Vishwa Hindu Parishad or World Hindu organization and it various
subsidiaries. Although the representatives of this movement and this organization are making
themselves heard in India and Abroad, they have not actually succeeded in presenting convincing
and broadly shared vision of what constitutes Hindu religion beyond the vague references to Vedas.
Non-institutional religiousness in Global context
In case of religion, there are many aspects that escape incorporation into this system. There are two
related 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 it 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. It is the issue of lack of sufficient socio structural regularity
for there to be an institution. Example the idea of worldview and sacredness.
Falun Gong is an organized social movement with centralized authority, self-identified adherents,
characteristic set of activities and an elaborate ideology. The activities look like religious practices,
the ideology read like religious discourse, 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 liminal 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, whether in the form of specific institutions that concentrate the activity or
in the form of explicit self-description on the part of the people who carry it.
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. These important structures and processes in some respect ‘look’ like
religion. They do not have to characteristic features of explicit and elaborated transcendent
reference, they are not embodied in systematic programmes of belief and practices and they have
little communion manifestation.
Not everything conceivably religious is a institutionalized religion. Some institutional system have
board global and local power than others. For instance political and economic system: crisis in these
domain usually result is a great deal of destruction and even social chaos. In this regard, religion is
just one of the less powerful institutional domain: its weakness or strength in different parts of the
world does not seem to have serious repercussions. Religion differentiate itself positively through
more or less clearly identified religious programmes that is system of beliefs and practices; and
structures such as organisations, movements,networks etc that identify themselves as religion and
are so recognised by other institutions and by people involved in them. In other words Institutional
differentiation of religion depends on the secularized construction of other non-religious institutional
systems.
