Migration and religion
 Role of Religion in Migratory Experience
Halina Grzymała-Moszczyńska, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology of Religion and Culture
Jagiellonian University,
Cracow, Poland

Migration and religion: relationship
•Moving faith  (S)
•                multicausation for staying and leaving
•Changing faith (P)
•               religious switch ( who is gaining who is loosing)
•Integrating faith (P)
•               religion as a bridge or barrier in the new society
•Transferring faith (S)
•                    religious heritage across generations

Theoretical  background
•Relative Acculturation Extended Model: RAEM (Navas, García, Sánchez,et.al 2005, 2007)
Both guests and hosts are involved in acculturation
•Real plane and ideal plane preferred simultaneously in differrent areas by the same person (by
both guests and hosts)
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Seven areas of acculturation
•Core Areas
•(religious beliefs and customs,
• ways of thinking)
•Intermediate Areas
•(social and family relationships)
•External Areas
•(politics, work, economic)
•Available strategies in each area: assimilation, integration, marginalization, separation

What are options i.e. acculturation space, created by dominant culture in respect of religious
diversity ?
•The first element -acculturation orientations of non-dominant group. These orientations depend on
group’s desire  to maintain its heritage culture and a wish to adopt a dominant culture.
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•The second element -preferred orientation of  members of dominant group towards presence of
culturally distinct others in their immediate vicinity.
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•The third element -the final result of the acculturation process

Different functions of religion in cultural transition of migrants
•Cultural bridging (religion retains minimal level of external expressions similar to context of
origin- open to everybody irrexpectively of nationality and country of origin)
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•Social and cultural integration ( new generation of immigrants try to integrate old traditions
with local (host) church)
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•Religion as an engine of non-adaptation  (religion serves as ethnic identity marker, helps to
forms religious enclaves)
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