Christian Immigrants Research Articles

Christian Witness and Proclamation through Migration

People are constantly on the move, more so now than ever before. Crossing international borders is defi-nitely a major characteristic of our present era. No countries or regions are immune from this worldwide migration phenomenon, certainly not Asia. Statistics indicate that Christian immigrants are the largest population on the move, totaling 49 percent of all inter-national migrants on the planet. When Christian immigrants travel, they take their religion with them, or more personally, their God literally migrates with them. If every Christian migrant is a potential mission-ary, migration then could have enormous prospects and opportunities for evangelism – a commu-nicative act that involves the transmission of beliefs, ideas, or messages regarding their religious worldview. Thus, the aim of this essay is to examine the impact of and contribution to Christian witness and proclamation through today’s global phenomenon of migration. Migrants are indeed a precious gift of the Church, especially Asian Christian migrants, who normally bring their faith with them and bear witness of the Christian faith wherever they are. The effects of their plight and emigration not only alter the demo-graphic landscape and the image of Christianity, but also enhance the theology and spirituality of its host country. Keywords: migration, Christian migrants, Asian migrants, witness, proclamation

Nigerian Christians in Britain: post – migration religious change among the first generation in Edinburgh

ABSTRACT This ethnographic research examined post-migration changes in the religious affiliation and the frequency of church attendance and private praying of sixteen female and fourteen male (N = 30) Nigerian Christians who are long-term residents of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Participants reported changes in their Christian denominational affiliation, their church attendance frequency, and the regularity of their private praying following their residential migration from Nigeria to Britain. Various contextual and individual factors influenced these changes, such as conditions in British society and “work”, which was the most reported cause of a decline in participants’ religious activity. This research suggests that it is more common for first-generation Nigerian Christian immigrants in Britain to experience a decline than an increase in their religious commitment as they live in the UK, which is much less religious than Nigeria. More testing with broad samples is required to evaluate the research findings.

Same God but Different? Politico-Religious Dynamics and the New Hong Kong Christian Diaspora in the United Kingdom

This article examines the impacts of new Christian immigrants from Hong Kong on Chinese Christian churches in the United Kingdom. While the new arrivals have helped boost the vitality of Chinese immigrant churches, they also pose new challenges to the established Chinese Christian communities. Drawing on qualitative data from our fieldwork in different locations in the United Kingdom, we seek to delineate the intra-ethnic dynamics and dilemmas within the Chinese Christian communities formed by new and old Hong Kong immigrants, and immigrants from mainland China. While new immigrants from Hong Kong manifest a strong dedication to their Christian identity, many of them are also resolute in their uncompromising political stance and identity, which puts them at odds with other Chinese Christians in the United Kingdom. We argue that Christian immigrants from Hong Kong are creating a new landscape of Christianity and a distinctive religious diaspora in the United Kingdom.

TRACES OF CHRISTIAN CULTURAL INFLUENCES IN PAGAN VILNIUS: THE CEMETERY ON BOKŠTO STREET

Lithuania was the country to remain pagan longest in Europe, but it was not isolated from the rest of Europe. Although the locals in the late 13th – late 14th centuries were still mostly pagans, Lithuania’s grand dukes appreciated the benefits of Christian immigrants. These Christians brought not only their religion, but also a knowledge of crafts, their culture, and their own traditions. Although Christians, both Catholic and Orthodox, mainly wished to settle in Lithuania for economic reasons rather than from a desire to Christianise it, their presence in pagan Vilnius left traces, one of which, visible archaeologically, is the inhumation cemetery on Bokšto Street, where Orthodox Christians began to bury their dead in the last decades of the 13th century. By supplementing the historical context with this cemetery’s material, it is possible to talk about how the Orthodox community influenced the city’s urban landscape, burial traditions, and crafts. Keywords: Medieval Vilnius, Christianity, cemetery, cultural influence.

Between Greeks and Latins: Pilies Street in Medieval Vilnius

Pilies Street is one of the oldest in the city of Vilnius, the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The street’s name is connected with its starting point, the territory of the castles of the grand dukes. In the early 15th century, Vilnius City Hall was erected at the south end of Pilies Street. Pilies Street is not only an inseparable part of the city’s earliest spatial structure, but is also directly connected with the Christian communities of Vilnius, when it was still a pagan city. During the earliest period of the city’s development Christian immigrants, both Orthodox and Catholic, gathered around Pilies Street. The paradox is that very little information is available about the emergence and formation of the central street of the city. The purpose of this paper is to examine more carefully the early history of what is perhaps the main street in Vilnius and the changes over the course of time. This becomes possible after combining archaeological material with the sparse information from written sources, and also after making use of data from the investigation of the historical natural environment.

Choir transhumance in the Filipino Catholic community in Rome

The article is part of a research project (2014-2018) among Christian immigrants in Rome and focuses particularly on the Filipino community. Serena Facci presents the general context of the migrant church experience of Rome, a city historically considered as central to the wider transnational community of Catholic Christians, where, thanks to the hosting politics of the Vicariate, there are several ‘national’ and ‘multinational’ churches, characterised by liturgies in different languages and by repertoires of chants in different geocultural styles. The migrants’ position in the holy city is juxtaposed with the multicentricity of the diaspora and the mediation between the motherland and the new places of residence. Grazia Tuzi shows how the Filipinos in Rome represent this multicentricity through the liturgical services of musical groups and choirs from the peripheral churches surrounding Rome. On Sundays, the Filipino micro-communities proceed in a kind of “transhumant” movement according to a predetermined schedule, from their parishes to the Chaplaincy located in the Basilica of Santa Pudenziana, which is the gathering place of all Filipinos living in Rome. Here they accompany the Sunday liturgy and religious Festivals in performances that bear witness to a remarkable musical variety. The analysis of these musical practices and the complex organization of the choir’s "transhumance" from the periphery to the centre can facilitate the understanding of the processes used by this migrant community in the re-articulation and maintenance of their own identity in the new socio-cultural spheres.

United by Fear: The Rise of Trumpism Among First Generation Chinese Christian Immigrants

ABSTRACT Through close studies of pro-Trump Chinese Christians’ intellectual and popular writings, this paper presents a historical analysis that explains the popularity of Trump and the Christian Right agenda among Chinese American Christians. Chinese churches’ habitual reluctance to discuss politics had created a vacuum of political reflection quickly filled with the political agenda of a few pro-Trump pastors. Most of these pastors are first generation immigrants who carried with them the historical memory of Chinese house churches persevering under persecution from a powerful secular state, and they often did not re-contextualize this inherited narrative to new situations in America. The mode of spirituality they aimed to cultivate in America thrived upon the self-perception of being a persecuted minority of truth holders against an ominous force, embodied once by the Communist Party (CCP) and now by what they perceive as the American liberal cultural establishment.

‘Culture-free’ religion: new second-generation Muslims and Christians

ABSTRACT The turn to ‘pure’ Islam cleansed of the cultures of their parents’ homeland traditions by children of Muslim immigrants in Europe and North America has been widely discussed. Scholars have attributed this behavior to factors particular to younger Muslims in the contemporary period or to the nature of Islam itself. In this article, I challenge these arguments by drawing on research on children of Christian immigrants in the United States who support a ‘culture-free’ Christianity, in contrast to the ‘cultural’ Christianity of their parents, and turn to American non-denominational evangelicalism. By making this comparison, my goal is to show that the decoupling of religion and ethnicity by children of immigrants is a broader phenomenon, not just confined to Muslims. I argue that it is a consequence of larger shifts in the understanding and practice of religion and ethnicity as well as assimilative pressures, racialization, and intergenerational dynamics. The comparison also demonstrates that the religious traditions embraced by the children of immigrants are not truly ‘culture-free’, but involve shedding ethnic languages and worship cultures to adopt dominant modes of religiosity.

RELIGION AND THE SOCIAL INTEGRATION OF EAST AFRICAN PROTESTANT CHRISTIAN IMMIGRANTS IN FINLAND

Religion has been highlighted majorly in many scholarly works of sociologists as a key component of social integration. As people migrate from their countries of origin to different countries, they are often faced with difficulties of adapting into the new host society. As much as a lot of emphasis has been put on religion to be a positive influence in the process of social integration, it is not always the case. This article sought to point out the role of religion in social integration of protestant Christian immigrants in Finland as both a facilitator for social integration and a hindrance to social integration with focus on the experiences of East African Protestant Christian immigrants. Religious beliefs of the immigrants from respective countries of origin and the religiosity of the Finnish society serve as a foundation for the immigrant’s settlement and integration into the host society. This study described the process of social integration in a two dimensional approach whereby the first approach focused on the positive role of religion in immigrants integration and secondly the hindrance of religion in social integration. The study found out that religion is a major link in social integration and that it can facilitate social integration and as well hinder social integration, depending on the position it occupies within a host society. Such findings go a way to provide explanations as to why societies are different and why it is easy for religious immigrants to settle in certain societies than others.

RELIGIOUS BELIEFS AND EXPERIENCES OF PROTESTANT CHRISTIAN IMMIGRANTS IN FINLAND: AN INTEGRATING OR ALIENATING EXPERIENCE?

The contemporary Finland is more culturally diverse than previous years thanks to increased international migration. A large number of immigrants entering Finland today are religious in one way or another. This article is a case study of religious beliefs and experiences of protestant Christian immigrants in Finland with the aim of finding out the personal feelings of immigrants towards the Finnish society. A comparative analysis of Protestant Christian immigrants’ experiences in both the host country and country of origin was taken as a foundation for determining effects of the immigrants’ religious beliefs in Finland. This study takes a cross-cultural perspective in analyzing and evaluating the religious beliefs of immigrants. Even though religion is credited to have an upper hand in facilitating social integration of immigrants into host societies, this study found out that religious beliefs and experiences of protestant Christian immigrants in Finland can be integrating or alienating, depending on the degree of religiosity of the immigrants. An awareness of this observation as discussed in this article goes a long way in providing options to choose from in navigating the common problems faced by Protestant Christian immigrants in Finland.

African Christian Immigrants

The latent functions of African immigration are often overlooked. Over the years, these functions have produced scenarios worth researching. Many people migrate from Africa to the West looking for greener pastures with the goal of economic upliftment. Amid this venture, however, the African immigrants come along with skills, talents, academic potentials, and religious beliefs. Most African immigrants associate with Christianity and deem it a spiritual mandate from God to impact their sphere of influence during their expeditions. Thus, these groups of immigrants raise churches, form prayer groups, preach the gospel, and create mission fields. The focus of this article is threefold. First, to examine how the religiosity of African Christian immigrants have influenced their lives and in turn impacted the American Christian landscape. Second, how immigration legislation of the United States has revolutionized the lives of African immigrants. Third, how pull and push factors have become a source of motivation for African immigration.

Congregants and Citizens: Religion and Naturalization among US Immigrants

Scholars and pundits have long debated whether religion helps new immigrants integrate politically in the United States. Those who see religion as an integrative institution cite the country’s history of vibrant religious congregationalism that supports connections between the native and foreign born, while critics point to anti-immigrant hostility, Christian nationalism, and patterns of religious membership that can reinforce social segregation. This article aims to adjudicate this debate, using a large sample of survey data, the New Immigrant Survey (NIS), fielded among new legal residents in 2003/2004. I find that religious membership is associated with increased probability of naturalizing in a short (3.5–7 years) timeframe and is stronger for those with greater human capital and income and longer tenure in the United States. Involvement in US-origin congregations also exhibits a stronger effect on naturalization than involvement in national-origin congregations. Additionally, I find that religious minorities, though less likely to be members of congregations, are independently more likely than Christian immigrants to naturalize in the same timeframe. These results are interpreted as support for a view of organized religion as a setting for American identity formation and a basis for mobilizing resources in response to anti-immigrant sentiment. For certain groups, organized religion seems to support a type of selective acculturation that combines American citizenship with the establishment and/or retention of a distinct ethno-religious identity. The article thus affirms, with caveats, the broader relevance of a long tradition of ethnographic scholarship on immigrant religion in the United States.

A Sinful People

A Sinful People Peter Heinegg These Truths: A History of the United States. By Jill Lepore, New York, NY: Norton, 2018. xx + 942 pp. $39.95. This spirited, angry history of America is not primarily concerned with religion, though, needless to say, Lepore covers the piety of the pilgrims, the country's Great Awakenings, the Social Gospel, the growth of fundamentalism, the Moral Majority, and so forth. And her approach is secular throughout. Nevertheless, this nation was born with the Bible in its veins; the intensity of its faith makes it an outlier in the First World; its currency still proclaims “IN GOD WE TRUST”; and so, it turns out that These Truths supplies a thick body of evidence for the charge that we are indeed a sinful people. The map of America is spangled, and not by accident, by place names from the Hebrew Bible: Bethel, Canaan, Carmel, Gilead, Goshen, Hebron, Jericho, Moab, Nebo, Rehoboth, Salem (over thirty of them), Tekoa, and many others. This wasn't just a pious gesture. Christian immigrants to America famously saw themselves as heirs to a vastly superior New Covenant and a uniquely grand Promised Land. In this sense, it was only logical to presume that in their new home the ideas of the old Deuteronomic principle would come to mind: Obedience to divine law guarantees prosperity; disobedience brings disaster. Generations later, this belief would be diluted into a quasi‐religious patriotic pride: God had blessed America after all, from sea to shining sea; so evidently the nation must, for the most part anyway, have deserved it. Against this widespread and still current assumption, Jill Lepore, the only Harvard professor who also serves as a staff writer for The New Yorker, presents American history more as a series of infidelities to our supreme (though flawed) sacred texts, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. The “truths” enshrined in them, she says, are the basis of the American experiment, namely “political equality, natural rights, and the sovereignty of the people.” Jefferson's description of these truths as “sacred & undeniable” was replaced by Ben Franklin's “self‐evident”; but, given that the Founding Fathers are still considered the Apostles and Saints of our civil religion, “sacred” can stand. But when those same truths are de facto denied or made a mockery of, what you have is desecration. And Lepore concentrates on various modes of such desecration, above all on slavery. She opens her story in October 1787, after the Constitution was signed, but before it was ratified (something like a moment from the days of the Primitive Church), and quotes from an ad in New York's Columbian Almanac: “TO BE SOLD. A LIKELY young NEGRO WENCH, 20 years of age, she is healthy and had the small pox, she has a young male child.” And she ends with Black Lives Matter and the horrors that engendered it, like the white supremacist march in Charlottesville. After four centuries, the BLM movement's title remains a utopian vision, not a reality, as shown by, among other things, the failure of Reconstruction, Jim Crow, the KKK, segregation, the ongoing suppression of the black vote, and countless other forms of systematized bias. The Constitution gave slaves no rights, but let the southern states enlarge their population by counting slaves as 3/5ths of a person. Bibelfest American Christians could always fall back on the acceptance of slavery in both the Old and New Testaments, while ignoring biblical laws aimed at mitigating the harshness of slaves’ lives (Ex. 21.26‐27, etc.). Perhaps most strikingly (though Lepore doesn't mention this), slave owners flouted Dt. 23.15 (“You shall not give up to the master a slave who has escaped from his master to you”), which effectively overrules the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. On a similar note, savage, even genocidal attacks on native Americans could be, and were, justified by the principle of herem, or merciless ethnic cleansing, announced in Dt. 7.1‐7 and illustrated by Joshua's (fictionalized) annihilation of the Canaanites. But again, the Bible has countervailing themes of kindness toward aliens and “sojourners” that might have inspired a different history than the one encapsulated...

Syrian Christians and Arab-Islamic Identity: Expressions of Belonging in the Ottoman Empire and America

This essay examines the ways that Arab Christian immigrants in the late-nineteenth-century United States understood religious, cultural and national belonging. Focusing on migrants from Ottoman Syria (present day Lebanon and Syria) who referred to themselves as Syrians, it uses publications from the Arab renaissance in Beirut and early Arab American newspapers in New York to consider how these Christians grappled with their identities as subjects of the Ottoman Sultan, as Christians from various denominations, as citizens in an Islamic society and as newcomers to America. Defying Protestant missionaries’ simplistic depictions of Middle Eastern Christianity, such Syrian Christian authors expressed a sense of belonging in an interreligious environment and sought to inform American readers about the riches of Arab-Islamic heritage.

What is Islamophobia? Disentangling Citizens’ Feelings Toward Ethnicity, Religion and Religiosity Using a Survey Experiment

What citizens think about Muslim immigrants has important implications for some of the most pressing challenges facing Western democracies. To advance contemporary understanding of what ‘Islamophobia’ really is – for example, whether it is a dislike based on immigrants’ ethnic background, religious identity or specific religious behaviors – this study fielded a representative online survey experiment in the UK in summer 2015. The results suggest that Muslim immigrants are not per se viewed more negatively than Christian immigrants. Instead, the study finds evidence that citizens’ uneasiness with Muslim immigration is first and foremost the result of a rejection of fundamentalist forms of religiosity. This suggests that common explanations, which are based on simple dichotomies between liberal supporters and conservative critics of immigration, need to be re-evaluated. While the politically left and culturally liberal have more positive attitudes toward immigrants than right-leaning individuals and conservatives, they are also far more critical of religious groups. The study concludes that a large part of the current political controversy over Muslim immigration is related to this double opposition: it is less about immigrants versus natives or even Muslim versus Christians than about political liberalism versus religious fundamentalism.

The double-edged effect of intergroup similarity: Muslim and Christian immigrants’ acculturation preferences on intergroup relations in Sweden

A 2 x 2 x 2 experiment examined effects of the acculturation orientations seen to be endorsed by immigrants (of two different religions) on intergroup relations in Sweden. Swedish majority participants ( N = 448) read interviews with Iraqi immigrants in which the immigrants’ religion (Muslim vs. Christian), desired level of contact with the host society (high vs. low), and desire to maintain their own culture (high vs. low) were manipulated. Overall, immigrants who were perceived to favour contact elicited more favourable intergroup attitudes. Desire for contact also interacted with immigrants’ religion: contact among Muslim minorities increased majority members’ support for multiculturalism. In addition, majority members identified more with being Swedish when Christian minorities appeared to endorse contact and reject their heritage culture, which corresponds to an acculturation strategy of assimilation. These findings demonstrate the complex role of religious similarity in intergroup relations. Implications for future research are proposed.

What Is Islamophobia? Disentangling Citizenss Feelings Towards Ethnicity, Religion and Religiosity Using a Survey Experiment

What citizens think about Muslim immigrants is of great importance for some of the most pressing challenges facing Western democracies. To advance our understanding of what “Islamophobia” really is – i.e. whether it is a dislike based on immigrants’ ethnic background, their religious identity or their specific religious behaviour – we fielded a representative online survey experiment in the UK in the summer 2015. Our results suggest that in general Muslims are not viewed more negatively than Christian immigrants. Instead, we provide evidence that citizens’ uneasiness with Muslim immigration is first and foremost the result of a rejection of fundamentalist forms of religiosity. This suggests that common explanations, which are based on simple dichotomies between liberal supporters and conservative critics of immigration need to be re-evaluated. While the politically left and culturally liberal have more positive attitudes towards immigrants than right leaning and conservatives, they are also far more critical towards religious groups. We conclude that a large part of the current political controversy over Muslim immigration has to do with this double opposition. Importantly, the current political conflict over Muslim immigration is not so much about immigrants versus natives or even Muslim versus Christians as it is about political liberalism versus religious fundamentalism.

Majority Members’ Feelings About Political Representation of Muslim Immigrants

Abstract. In three survey experimental studies among national samples of the native Dutch, we examined feelings towards Muslim immigrants’ political party representation. The strategy of disengagement (reject political representation) was evaluated most positively, followed by the descriptive representation strategy (participate as Muslims in existing political party). The group representation strategy (participate in the existing political system with a Muslim party) was evaluated most negatively. Furthermore, participants who perceived higher group-based power threat had more negative feelings towards political representation of Muslim immigrants, but less so towards disengaged immigrants. In addition, negative feelings were stronger towards Muslim versus Christian immigrants and this difference was somewhat more pronounced for the group representation and descriptive representation strategy compared to political disengagement.

Does Islam play a role in anti-immigrant sentiment? An experimental approach

Are Muslim immigrants subjected to targeted opposition (i.e., Islamophobia) on their pathway to US citizenship? Using a list experiment and a representative sample of the US population, we compare explicit and implicit opposition to Muslim and Christian immigrants. We find that Muslim immigrants, relative to Christian immigrants, experience greater explicit resistance. However, when social desirability bias is taken into account via the list experiment, we find that opposition to Christian and Muslim immigrants is the same. The explanation is that respondents conceal a significant amount of opposition to Christian immigrants. Muslim immigrants, on the other hand, are afforded no such protection. We find that religiosity or denomination do not play a significant role in determining implicit or explicit opposition. We conclude that Islamophobia, which is only explicitly expressed, is best understood as reflective of social desirability bias from which Muslim immigrants do not benefit.

Transnational Religious Dynamics of Syrian Christians from Kerala in Kuwait

This article focuses on changes in religious practices and the rise of radical religious groups among Christian Kerala immigrants to Kuwait after the First Gulf War in 1990–1. The impact of religious revivalism shows how religion has become a site for various identity-based community-centred networks among South Asian immigrants to Gulf countries. The article analyses the ways in which the church is increasingly active among Syrian Christian immigrants of Kerala in post-liberation Kuwait. Such religious groups are transnational in nature, actively linked to both home and destination countries, and the world beyond. The article focuses specifically on the growing affinity of Syrian Christian immigrants towards Pentecostalism. At the macro level, this article also investigates the interconnection between the geopolitical dynamics in the Gulf and the expansion of what appears to be ‘religious space’ in Kuwait.