Abstract
The Catholic Church, as a universal institution, is in a unique position to provide a network of support, welcome and belonging to migrants across the world. Yet, at the heart of the matter is the question of whether migrants should be ‘integrated’ into the local church in the host society or encouraged to maintain their separate linguistic identities and distinct religious ceremonies, rites and practices. The role of ethnic chaplaincies exemplifies these challenges. Have ethnic and linguistic chaplaincies reinforced the separateness of migrant communities or played a role in facilitating the integration of migrants into the host community (parish) over time? The chapter draws on the concept of ‘embedding’ to analyse findings from a research study on ethnic chaplaincies in England and Wales.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
- 2.
Under an agreement in the 1940s between the Polish and British hierarchy, the Polish Church was recognised as a Church in Exile and continue to retain their separate Church identity. They are responsible to the Polish hierarchy not the British hierarchy and have a Vicar delegate appointed directly from Poland, the headquarters are located in Islington, North London.
- 3.
I am grateful to Panos Hatziprokopiou and Adriana Castro-Ayala who worked with me on the data collection and analysis for this project.
- 4.
In the UK, but particularly in London, Catholic schools are among the most highly achieving and thus are significantly over-subscribed. Gaining admittance to a Catholic school can thus be very challenging and stressful for parents, particularly for newly arrived migrant families who may not be familiar with the school admission process (Ryan and Sales 2013). A personal recommendation from the local parish priest is a key requirement for admission to Catholic schools.
References
Abbas, Tahir. 2007. Islamic Political Radicalism: A European Perspective. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Adedibu, B. 2013. Origin, Migration, Globalisation and the Missionary Encounter of Britain’s Black Majority Churches. Studies in World Christianity 19(1): 93–113.
Akresh, Ilana Redstone. 2011. Immigrants’ Religious Participation in the United States. Ethnic and Racial Studies 34(4): 643–661.
Alba, Richard, and Victor Nee. 2009. Remaking the American mainstream: Assimilation and Contemporary Immigration. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Diehl, Claudia, and Matthias Koenig. 2013. God can Wait–New Migrants in Germany Between Early Adaptation and Religious Reorganization. International Migration 51(3): 8–22.
Erga Migrantes Caritas Christi. 2004. Pontificial Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, Vatican City.
Fortier, Anne-Marie Fortier. 2000. Migrant Belongings: Memory, Space, Identity. Oxford, UK: Berg.
Gill, Nick. 2010. Pathologies of Migrant Place-making: The Case of Polish Migrants to the UK. Environment and Planning. A 42(5): 1157–1173.
Gray, Breda, and Ria O’Sullivan Lago. 2011. Migrant Chaplains: Mediators of Catholic Church Transnationalism or Guests in Nationally Shaped Religious Fields? Irish Journal of Sociology 19(2): 94–110.
Hickman, Mary J. 1995. Religion, Class, and Identity: The State, the Catholic Church, and the Education of the Irish in Britain. Aldershot: Avebury.
Hopkins, Peter, and Richard Gale (ed). 2009. Muslims in Britain: Race, Place and Identities. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Hüwelmeier, Gertrud. 2011. Socialist Cosmopolitanism Meets Global Pentecostalism: Charismatic Christianity Among Vietnamese Migrants After the Fall of the Berlin Wall. Ethnic and Racial Studies 34(3): 436–453.
———. 2013. Bazaar Pagodas–Transnational Religion, Postsocialist Marketplaces and Vietnamese Migrant Women in Berlin. Religion and Gender 3(1): 76–89.
Jacob, Konstanze, and Frank Kalter. 2013. Intergenerational Change in Religious Salience Among Immigrant Families in Four European countries. International Migration 51(3): 38–56.
Krause, Kristine. 2014. Space in Pentecostal Healing Practices Among Ghanaian Migrants in London. Medical Anthropology 33(1): 37–51.
Letter to Episcopal Conferences on: The Church and the People on the Move, Pontificia Commissio de Spirituali Migratorum atque Itinerantium Cura. 1978. Infoform, Abbots Langley.
Levitt, Peggy. 2003. “You know, Abraham was Really the First Immigrant”: Religion and Transnational Migration. International Migration Review 37(3): 847–873.
———. 2004. Redefining the Boundaries of Belonging: The Institutional Character of Transnational Religious Life. Sociology of Religion 65: 1–18.
———. 2008. Religion as a Path to Civic Engagement. Ethnic and Racial Studies 31(4): 766–791.
Mooney, Margarita A. 2013. Religion as a Context of Reception: The Case of Haitian Immigrants in Miami, Montreal and Paris. International Migration 51(3): 99–112.
Pasura, Dominic. 2012. Religious Transnationalism: The Case of Zimbabwean Catholics in Britain. Journal of Religion in Africa 42(1): 26–53.
Rey, Jeanne. 2013. Mermaids and Spirit Spouses: Rituals as Technologies of Gender in Transnational African Pentecostal Spaces. Religion and Gender 3(1): 60–75.
Ryan, Louise, and Elena Vacchelli. 2013. Mothering Through Islam: Narratives of Religious Identity in London. Religion and Gender 3(1): 90–107.
Ryan, Louise, and Jon Mulholland. 2015. Embedding in Motion: Analysing Relational, Spatial and Temporal Dynamics among Highly Skilled Migrants. In Migrant Capital, ed. Ryan, Erel and D'Angelo, 135–153. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK.
Ryan, Louise and Panos Hatziprokopiou (with Adriana Castro-Ayala). 2010. Ethnic and Linguistic Chaplains: A Research Study, Commissioned by the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales. London: Social Policy Research Centre, Middlesex University.
Ryan, Louise, and Rosemary Sales. 2013. Family Migration: The Role of Children and Education in Family Decision-making Strategies of Polish Migrants in London. International Migration 51(2): 90–103.
Ryan, Louise, Amanda Klekowski Von Koppenfels, and Jon Mulholland. 2015. The Distance Between us’: A Comparative Examination of the Technical, Spatial and Temporal Dimensions of the Transnational Social Relationships of Highly Skilled Migrants. Global Networks 15(2): 198–216.
Singh, Gurharpal, and Darsham Singh Tatla. 2006. Sikhs in Britain: The Making of a Community. London: Zed Books.
Stanczak, Gregory C. 2006. Strategic Ethnicity: The Construction of Multi-racial/Multi-ethnic Religious Community. Ethnic and Racial Studies 29(5): 856–881.
Trzebiatowska, Marta. 2010. The Advent of the ‘EasyJet Priest’: Dilemmas of Polish Catholic Integration in the UK. Sociology 44(6): 1055–1072.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2016 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ryan, L. (2016). Building Bridges to Parishes: The Catholic Church in England and Wales and the Role of Ethnic Chaplains. In: Pasura, D., Erdal, M. (eds) Migration, Transnationalism and Catholicism. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58347-5_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58347-5_12
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-58346-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-58347-5
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)