The Impact of Religious Involvement on Migration

Abstract

I draw from existing literature on migration decision-making theory and research on the importance and meaning of religion in individual lives to examine how religious involvement and membership affect the odds of migrating. In addition, I develop a concept called location-specific religious capital. Frequent church attendance and involvement in the social aspects of ones religious organization are proposed as forms of location-specific religious capital. Membership in strict and conservative religious organizations is viewed similarly for their requirement of large investments. As individuals invest more time and energy in the development and maintenance of location-specific religious capital, they will be increasingly hesitant to migrate out of their community and, thus, out of their church. The specific hypotheses are tested with data collected between 1980 and 1997 from a U.S. national sample of adults. The results are complex and provide some support for the migration-discouraging influence of location-specific religious capital. Differences correlate with age and presence of children in the household.