Abstract
When seeking asylum in Norway, asylum seekers are usually placed in asylum centers, where their everyday life is filled with uncertainty and few meaningful activities. Despite the importance of religion for many residents, little attention is paid both by authorities as well as by scholars to the role of religious beliefs and practices in their everyday life within this context. This article is based on ethnographic research with women living in asylum centers over the course of one year. Through the lens of ‘everyday lived religion’, it explores the role and significance of their religious beliefs and practices in their everyday life in the center, as well as the changes that they experience to these. It argues that religion acts as a compass and provides a sense of continuity in the everyday life in the asylum center. The women also experience certain changes to their religious beliefs and practices due to being in a new socio-cultural environment.
Highlights
In Norway, most asylum seekers are accommodated in asylum centers while they wait for their application to be processed
This article seeks to answer the following question: what is the role and significance of religious beliefs and practices in the everyday life of women living in asylum centers and what are the changes they experience in this new context?
The everyday life in the asylum center was described by all women as challenging, primarily due to the uncertainty of their circumstances
Summary
In Norway, most asylum seekers are accommodated in asylum centers while they wait for their application to be processed. It seems that not enough attention, and effort, is placed on the religious sphere of asylum seekers’ lives, neither by the authorities nor by researchers Within this context, this article explores the role of religious beliefs and practices in the everyday lives of women living in such centers. The approach of everyday lived religion has led researchers to taking into account the lives, experiences and practices of groups that had previously been overlooked (Woodhead 2014), such as how Islam is lived in minority contexts (e.g., Jeldtoft 2011, 2013; Jouili 2015; Nyhagen and Halsaa 2017). This article seeks to answer the following question: what is the role and significance of religious beliefs and practices in the everyday life of women living in asylum centers and what are the changes they experience in this new context?. I delve into the theoretical considerations on which I draw to answer this question
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