Immigrant Religious Networks in Milan: Ethnic Churches as Source of Social Capital

Journal title MONDI MIGRANTI
Author/s Samuele Davide Molli
Publishing Year 2020 Issue 2020/1
Language English Pages 20 P. 97-116 File size 191 KB
DOI 10.3280/MM2020-001006
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

This article investigates migrants’ networking strategies in the case of religious involvement. Adopting a key sociological concept, namely social capital, it analyses in which ways migrants turn to religion in order to create and develop ties. It then moves on to discuss the implications of such strategies in terms of resources shared to support needs derived from settlement experiences. The paper draws from data collected within catholic ethnic churches in Milan, which is a different focus from the common target on Islam. A flourishing religious pluralism has indeed emerged in the city; this being a process that also involves Christian denominations. Thus, the article discusses the role of social capital, how it comes into being in relation to religious spaces, how it develops through communitarian experiences and finally how it evolves and produces pivotal resources able to meet migrants’ needs. Finally, this article intends to show how religion may represent an area of research useful for debating integration processes.

Keywords: Religion and immigration; social capital; integration; ethnic churches; Catholicism.

  1. Ambrosini M. (2019). Fratelli ma non troppo. La chiesa cattolica e gli immigrati in Italia. Mondi Migranti, 1: 9-27; DOI: 10.3280/MM2019-001001.
  2. Ambrosini M. (2018). Irregular Immigration in Southern Europe. Springer International Publishing.
  3. Ambrosini M. (2017). Why irregular migrants arrive and remain: the role of intermediaries. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 43, 11: 1813-1830; DOI: 10.1080/1369183X.2016.1260442
  4. Ambrosini M. (2011). Sociologia delle migrazioni. Bologna: il Mulino
  5. Ambrosini M. (2006). Delle reti e oltre: processi migratori, legami sociali e istituzioni. In: Decimo F. e Sciortino G., a cura di. Stranieri in Italia. Reti migranti. Bologna: il Mulino.
  6. Ambrosini M., Naso P. and Paravati C., a cura di (2018). Il Dio dei migranti. Pluralismo, conflitto, integrazione. Bologna: il Mulino.
  7. Bloch A., Sigona N. and Zetter R. (2014). Sans papiers: The social and economic lives of young undocumented migrants. London: Pluto Press.
  8. Boccagni P. and Baldassar L. (2015). Emotions on the move: Mapping the emergent field of emotion and migration. Emotion, Space and Society, 16: 73-80;
  9. Bonizzoni P. (2015). Here or there? Shifting meanings and practices in mother-child relationships across time and space. International Migration, 53, 6: 166-182;
  10. Bonizzoni P. (2014). Immigrant working mothers reconciling work and childcare: The experience of Latin American and Eastern European women in Milan. Social politics, 21, 2: 194-217;
  11. Broeders D. and Engbersen G. (2007). The fight against illegal migration: identification policies and immigrants’ counterstrategies. American Behavioral Scientist, 50, 12: 1592-1609; DOI: 10.1177/0002764207302470
  12. Cadge W. and Ecklund. E.H. (2007). Immigration and religion. Annual Review of Sociology, 33: 359-379;
  13. Chafetz J.S. and Ebaugh H.R. (2000). Religion and the new immigrants: Continuities and adaptations in immigrant congregations. AltaMira Press.
  14. Dobbs E., Levitt P., Parella S. and Petroff A. (2019). Social welfare grey zones: how and why subnational actors provide when nations do not?. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 45, 9: 1595-1612; DOI: 10.1080/1369183X.2018.1432343
  15. Eade J. (2012). Religion, home-making and migration across a globalising city: Responding to mobility in London. Culture and Religion, 13, 4: 469-483; DOI: 10.1080/14755610.2012.728142
  16. Ebaugh H.R. and Curry M. (2000). Fictive kin as social capital in new immigrant communities. Sociological Perspectives, 43, 2: 189-209; DOI: 10.2307/1389793
  17. Faist T. (2010). The crucial meso level. In: Martiniello M., Rath J, eds., Selected studies in international migration and immigrant in corporation, vol. 1. Amsterdam University Press.
  18. Foley M.W. and Hoge. D.R. (2007). Religion and the new immigrants: How faith communities form our newest citizens. Oxford University Press.
  19. Foner N. and Alba R. (2008). Immigrant religion in the US and Western Europe: Bridge or barrier to inclusion?. International Migration Review, 42, 2: 360-392;
  20. Gallo E. (2016). Migration and Religion in Europe: Comparative Perspectives on South Asian Experiences. Abingdon: Routledge.
  21. Guest K.J. (2003). God in Chinatown: Religion and survival in New York’s evolving immigrant community. nyu Press.
  22. Hagan J M. (2008). Migration miracle. Harvard University Press.
  23. Handy F. and Greenspan I. (2009). Immigrant volunteering: A stepping stone to integration? Non profit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 38, 6: 956-982; DOI: 10.1177/0899764008324455
  24. Hirschman C. (2004). The role of religion in the origins and adaptation of immigrant groups in the United States. International Migration Review, 38, 3: 1206-1233;
  25. Hondagneu-Sotelo P., a cura di (2006). Religion and social justice for immigrants. Rutgers University Press.
  26. Ismu Fondazione (2019). -- Report online, http://www.ismu.org/comunicato-stampa-immigrati-e-religioni-in-italia/, 23/07/2019.
  27. Istat (2019). -- Report online, https://www.tuttitalia.it/lombardia/18-milano/statistiche/cittadini-stranieri-2019/.
  28. Levitt P. (2008). Religion as a path to civic engagement. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 31.4: 766-791; DOI: 10.1080/01419870701784489
  29. Levitt P. (2006). Immigration. In: Ebaugh H.R., a cura di, Handbook of religion and social institutions. Springer Science & Business Media.
  30. Ley D. (2008). The immigrant church as an urban service hub. Urban Studies, 45, 10: 2057-2074; DOI: 10.1177/0042098008094873
  31. McIlwaine C. (2016). Latin London: Negotiating invisibility among Latin Americans in London. In: Kershen A.J., a cura di, London the promised land revisited the changing face of the London migrant landscape in the early 21st century. Routledge.
  32. Menjívar C. (2006). Liminal legality: Salvadoran and Guatemalan immigrants' lives in the United States. American journal of sociology, 111, 4: 999-1037; DOI: 10.1086/499509
  33. Mooney M. (2009). Faith makes us live: Surviving and thriving in the Haitian diaspora. University of California Press.
  34. Pace E. e Ravecca A. (2010). Religioni, genere e generazioni in movimento. Uno sguardo europeo sull’Italia. Mondi Migranti, 2: 43-59; DOI: 10.3280/MM2010-002002
  35. Pasura D. and Bivand Erdal M., a cura di (2016). Migration, Transnationalism and Catholicism. London: Palgrave MacMillan.
  36. Portes A. (1998). Social capital: Its origins and applications in modern sociology. Annual review of sociology, 24, 1: 1-24;
  37. Putnam R. (2007). E pluribus unum: Diversity and community in the twenty‐first century the 2006 Johan Skytte Prize Lecture. Scandinavian political studies, 30,2: 137-174;
  38. Putnam R. (2001). Social capital: Measurement and consequences. Canadian journal of policy research, 2, 1: 41-51.
  39. Ricucci R. (2017). Diversi dall'Islam. Figli dell'immigrazione e altre fedi. Bologna: il Mulino.
  40. Ryan L., Sales R., Tilki M. and Siara B. (2008). Social networks, social support and social capital: The experiences of recent Polish migrants in London. Sociology, 42, 4: 672-690; DOI: 10.1177/0038038508091622
  41. Scrinzi F. (2016). Latin American migration, Evangelical Christianity and gender in Italy. European University Institute: Working paper (41).
  42. Scott J.C. (1989). Everyday forms of resistance. The Copenhagen journal of Asian studies, 4, 1: 33-62.
  43. Stepick A., Rey T. and Mahler S.J. (2009). Churches and charity in the immigrant city: Religion, immigration, and civic engagement in Miami. Rutgers UP.
  44. Thomas W.I. and Znaniecki F. (1918). The Polish peasant in Europe and America: Monograph of an immigrant group. Boston: University of Chicago Press.
  45. Tilly C. (1990). Transplanted Networks. In: V. McLaughlin Y., a cura di, Immigration Reconsidered. History, Sociology, and Politics. Oxford University Press.
  46. Vásquez M.A. and Marquardt. M.F. (2002). Globalizing the sacred: Religion across the Americas. Rutgers University Press.
  47. Warner R.S. (2000). Religion and new (post-1965) immigrants: Some principles drawn from field research. American Studies, 41, 2/3: 267-286;
  48. Weber M. (2002). Le sette protestanti e lo spirito del capitalismo. In: Idem, Sociologia della religione, vol.1. Milano: Edizioni di Comunità.
  49. Yang F. and Ebaugh. H.R. (2001). Transformations in new immigrant religions and their global implications. American Sociological Review, 66, 2: 269-288; DOI: 10.2307/2657418

  • Immigrazione, Religione e Integrazione. Il caso delle comunità sikh e filippine in Lo Samuele Davide Molli, Maurizio Ambrosini, in EDUCATIONAL REFLECTIVE PRACTICES 1/2021 pp.99
    DOI: 10.3280/erp1-special-2021oa12470
  • Immigrant Women’s Protagonism: Exercising Leadership Roles in Ethnic Churches at the Time of the Pandemic in Italy Samuele Davide Molli, in Religions /2022 pp.696
    DOI: 10.3390/rel13080696
  • Migrants’ (Im)mobilities in Three European Urban Contexts Samuele Davide Molli, John Eade, pp.139 (ISBN:978-3-031-53772-1)

Samuele Davide Molli, Immigrant Religious Networks in Milan: Ethnic Churches as Source of Social Capital in "MONDI MIGRANTI" 1/2020, pp 97-116, DOI: 10.3280/MM2020-001006