Abstract

This paper is based on sociological quantitative studies carried out in 2019 on a sample of 620 Polish Catholics living in London, Swindon, or Oxford. Those studies and their findings are limited only to those Catholics who make up the communities around major Polish institutions in the UK, such as Polish parishes, Saturday schools, and community houses. The goal of this paper is to describe selected aspects of Polish migrants’ religiosity in the new social and cultural milieu. What we focus on here is how Poles themselves describe their faith, how they understand and evaluate their membership of parishes or other religious communities, and how they approach religious practices, especially Sunday Mass attendance. We address the following questions: how do the Poles living abroad describe their attitudes towards faith? How many of them are active members of Polish parishes? What do their religious practices and membership of other community organisations look like? How do specific factors affect the results across these areas?

Highlights

  • With United Kingdom leaving the European Union (Brexit), there are a number of economic and socio-cultural changes to be expected

  • Polish Catholic parishes in the UK are perceived as well-organised communities with a large number of believers, but the internal force that consolidates such communities is weaker for migrants

  • The analyses that follow are based on collective results of our study based on a group-administered questionnaire. This sociological study was conducted in late September/early October 2019, on a purposive sample of 620 Polish Catholics living in London, Oxford, or Swindon

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Summary

Introduction

With United Kingdom leaving the European Union (Brexit), there are a number of economic and socio-cultural changes to be expected. A study carried out in Hertfordshire among Polish Catholics has produced some interesting insights It found that the majority of migrants (28.7%) participated in religious practices on an irregular basis, i.e., nearly every week (11.8%) or about once a month (16.9%). Based on the results of our own sociological study conducted in three locations in England (London, Oxford, and Swindon) in the autumn of 2019, in this article we will address the following questions: how do the Poles living there and making up the Polish communities abroad describe their attitudes towards faith? What do their religious practices and membership of other community organisations look like?

Polish Catholic Parishes in England
Religiosity among Migrants
Parish Membership
Data and Methods
How Polish Catholics Abroad Describe Their Faith
Membership of Polish Parishes in the UK
Religious Practices among Polish Migrants in the UK
Findings
Discussion and Conclusions
Full Text
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