Abstract
A substantial body of research on religion and immigration has been published during the past quarter of a century, with the result being that much has been done to redress the earlier marginalization of the religious factor in immigration studies and the relative neglect of immigration by sociologists of religion. Research foci have varied widely. One recent effort to describe the major topics that have been pursued identified four: immigrant identity work; reframing religious organizations and practices; transnational religious networks; and church/state relations and the public sphere. This chapter contends that within this larger framework five important questions have been raised: (1) Is immigration a theologizing experience? (2) Do immigrants exhibit a return to theological foundations? (3) Does de facto congregationalism capture a general reframing of immigrant religious organizations? (4) How robust is immigrant religious transnationalism? (5) Is religion a bridge to inclusion in North America and a barrier to inclusion in Western Europe?
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Acknowledgments
I appreciate the invitation and the sage counsel of David Yamane, along with the input, advice, criticism, and support of Paolo Boccagni, Kevin Christiano, Thomas Faist, Margit Fauser, Peggy Levitt, Tariq Modood, Ewa Morawska, Giuseppe Sciortino, Steve Warner, and Sirpe Wrede.
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Kivisto, P. (2016). International Migration. In: Yamane, D. (eds) Handbook of Religion and Society. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31395-5_27
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