Transnational Politics and Settlement Practices

Abstract

Conventionally, social scientists regard immigrant churches as settlement institutions with immigrant assimilation as their goal. This study of Ukrainian immigrants who flooded to Rome in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union enhances an understanding of the role of immigrant churches by revealing their place in transnational politics. The divergent projects of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic church (UGCC) and the Russian Orthodox church (ROC) mediate relations between clergy and immigrant parishioners in Rome. The UGCC engages in an ethnonationalist project; priests see settlement practices as an opportunity to instill national and religious consciousness in Ukrainians expected to return and participate in constructing the new Ukrainian nation. By contrast, the ROC’s project is one of church revival and manifests itself in the politically charged building of a cathedral next door to the Vatican. Ukrainian parishioners are marginal and even detrimental to this political vision. Russian Orthodox priests do not engage in settlement practices or support immigrants’ transnational ties.