Religion and African Migration: A Survey

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to review the available literature on the intersections of religion and migration with reference to African refugees and migrants. I draw primarily on works that have emerged in the last decade to address both the under-explored role of religion in the lives of African refugees and migrants and the active role they play in shaping the religious landscape in their migratory contexts and in their countries of origin. Published research on religion and African migration varies in scope, ranging from rich descriptions of the religious beliefs and practices of refugees in rural camps in Africa to analyzes of the impact of religion on the realities of settlement faced by African migrants in urban cities in Europe. Other works investigate processes of societal change resulting from the intersection of religion and African migration, while others examine how religious institutions that have come into being to deal with the spiritual and socio-economic and political needs of African refugees and migrants and their efforts to maintain contact with people in their homeland. I argue that future research could benefit from moving beyond individual case studies that reflect particular disciplinary perspectives to more comparative and intra-disciplinary analyzes of migrant identities and experiences. Such studies have the potential to inform about conceptual and experiential differences of being an African migrant and alternately, what it entails to be European or American in the age of globalization.