Catholic migrants in a plural society : social and religious anchoring – relimig

From a methodological point of view, the project privileges an anthropological approach (participant observation, participation in rites, celebrations, informal interviews and semi-directive interviews) while calling upon different complementary disciplines (sociology, history, geography). It thus combines different approaches: study of life trajectories, localized, multi-sited and shared ethnography, study of sources and historical-cultural contexts of countries of origin.

In addition to making visible the practices of migrant Catholics, which are otherwise largely invisibilized by society and by academic studies, this study feeds the studies conducted on religious migration in a context of increased globalization. It identifies mechanisms and principles that will find application in other migratory contexts. The study of beliefs and practices, but also of the values held by these Catholics, allows us to take into account the complexity of belonging according to the ethnic, social and cultural contexts. The «popular« dimension of this Catholicism that these migrants revalorize questions the sometimes difficult relationship with French Catholics and also certain ecclesial authorities in their disqualification of the «popular«.
Some of the project's axes are already being pursued in other research projects with the presence of several ReLiMig members: the RelimigrAntilles project on migration, religion and race (CERI Sciences Po with Gwendoline Malogne-Fer and Yannick Fer, Valérie Aubourg) and Mistic, a research project on religious authority in migration (ICM) in several religions (Cécile Campergue, Valérie Aubourg).

coming

Among the deliverables of the project, in addition to the various individual scientific articles, a collective work will be published in April 2022 by PUG (Migrants catholiques en France : Ancrages sociaux et religieux, dir. Aubourg, Barou et Campergue), which will include all the contributions of the project members. A magnificent text-photo book (Aubourg-Vanderlick) was published by Libel in 2021 and the documentary «Ola nou yé« directed by Gwendoline Malogne-Fer and Yannick Fer will be broadcast on the KTO channel in 2022.

In the context of secularization, growing religious diversity and the increased population mobility, this project looks at the transformation of religion as a social fact. It concerns Catholic migrants (African, Creole, Asian and Latin American) arriving in France . They will be studied in the cities of Lyon and Paris. In this two «global city», the presence of these migrants is largely invisible and receives little media attention. Yet Christian migrants represent more than half of those arriving in Europe from overseas.

The objective of the project is to answer the following questions: 1) the place of religion in the social anchoring of migrant populations; 2) the role of belonging to the majority religion in the integration of these populations; 3) the impact of Catholic migrants on local Catholicism.

The ethnographic approach is the most suitable for this research. Methodologically, the project will draw from complimentary research disciplines (history, sociology and ethnology) thus offering the originality of combining different ethnological approaches. These include an analysis of different life stories, localized ethnography, multi-sited ethnography and shared ethnography.

The project RELIMIIG will also shed light on a little – studied issue; i.e., on how international migration influences religion in the host society. On the social level, the study of Catholic migrants in these two historically Catholic contexts will offer a new perspective on debates around religion and the “vivre ensemble”; i.e., “conviviality” (Gilroy, 2006); that is, mutually respectful social life in common. The RELIMIG project will produce a comprehensive analysis that can serve as a model for the anthropology of religion.