Religion, Migration and Diasporas

Although religious globalization is a contemporary reality, dynamics of religious mobility and religious expansion linked to trade, imperialism, or conquest originated long before the consolidation of the modern international system. In many religious traditions, mobility is also sacralized, at the center of a theological and symbolic universe. Today, migrants and diasporas are key actors in the contemporary growth of globe?spanning religious networks. This interplay of globalization, migration, and religion has been dramatically intensified by rapid innovations in transport and electronic communications. Among migrant communities and diasporas, religion is seen as providing a moral guide and spiritual compass, operating as a sanctuary. Transnational religious networks, flows, and circulations of people, ideas, images, values, and norms also impact on sending contexts, sometimes creating new modes of cultural distinction, leading to social tensions and conflicts. These flows are multidirectional, producing polycentric geographies, a process that challenges the idea of center–periphery power dynamics often associated with the capitalist world system.