Religion and Diasporas - Challenges of the Emigration Countries

This chapter by Jocelyne Cesari shows that the education and cultural features of the sending countries of migrants create a specific religious identity which either facilitates or hampers integration abroad. Because of the status of religion in most countries of origin, immigrants expect a religious experience that is not limited to the place of worship but also appears in the social and public spaces of the receiving countries. At the same time, the impact of the country of origin is visible in its diaspora policies (which maintain a connection with emigrants and their descendants through cultural and religious ties). This action on the diaspora competes with the influence of religious transnational networks that target the same population. For this reason, the analysis for this chapter is situated within transnational studies and the sociology of religion, which allow a broadening of the role of religion beyond state actors by looking into the actions of groups and individuals in both the sending and receiving countries. It was published in Migrant Integration Between Homeland and Host Society Volume 1 (2017, eds. Agnieszka Weinar, Anne Unterreiner, and Philippe Fargues).