Migration and Transnational Religions: Identities and Networks

Dear Colleagues,

The dynamic relationship between religion and transnational migration is a critical lens for understanding globalization's human dimension. This collaborative project investigates the complex interplay between migratory flows and religious transformation, focusing on the pivotal roles of identity and networks. Rather than diminishing, religion often gains significance for migrants, serving as a cultural anchor and a framework for renegotiating identity in new social contexts. Religious institutions—churches, mosques, temples—function as vital transnational social fields, connecting diasporas to homelands while facilitating integration into host societies. These networks circulate resources, ideologies, and authority, creating sustained transnational spaces that challenge conventional assimilation models. Conversely, migration profoundly transforms religious landscapes and heritages in both sending and receiving countries, leading to new practices and theological interpretations. This topic employs multidisciplinary methodologies to analyze how these processes unfold across different faith traditions and migratory corridors. It hopes to show that religion is not a static heritage but a dynamic force actively shaped by and shaping the transnational social spaces migrants inhabit. Both original research articles and review articles are invited to empirically illuminate how religion provides a toolkit for identity construction and belonging, shaping the experience of mobility and connectivity in the modern world.

Prof. Dr. Nanlai Cao
Dr. Francis Khek Gee Lim
Prof. Dr. Giuseppe Giordan
Topic Editors