“Doing Family” and Religious Belonging of Immigrants. Case Studies in South Italy

Abstract

This contribution is focused on the immigrant’s re-shaping identity in the integration process through the phenomena of the “doing family” and religious belonging. It provides both theoretical analysis and empirical evidence of relationships between immigrants, the role of religion as a significant dimension of contemporary family migration and integration processes. What happens when people of diverse cultures, values, religion live together? Immigrants who “arrive” continue their life in a place where they do not passively participate over time but become actors. Pressed by the hegemonic culture of the host society, immigrants do not cease to practice their religious and origin cultural expressions. They do not renounce to constitute a family in a foreign contest in which they have to adapt, assimilate lifestyles, observe local laws. Considering the impact of religion and cultural origin values on public and private expression of differences, it is important to consider their role in the integration process. These dynamics have been analyzed in a research study on immigrants’ integration process in Palermo. The analysis, focused on super-conformism and ethnic persistence of the most numerous immigrant communities in the context of analysis (Islamic Ummah and the Indian Dharma) delineated the integration declinations through syncretism and cultural contagions. Immigrants, participate in the construction of a local model of integration in which immigrants, free to express their religious and cultural differences, tend to reduce their perception of minority.