Gender, Religion, and Migration Pathways of Integration

Gender, Religion and Migration is the first multidisciplinary collection on the intersection of gender and religion in the integration of different groups of immigrants, migrant workers, youths, and students in host societies in Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America and North America. It investigates the linkages and tensions between religion and integration from a gendered perspective. By examining the contemporary significance of religion in the context of global migrations, the fifteen research-based essays provide new insights and perspectives on the often missed link between the differing ways in which male and female immigrants find meanings of faith-beliefs and religious traditions to belong in foreign lands, even residents' faith-based activism involving illegal migrants. While religion provides mechanisms for negotiating immigrant life in the host countries, it also inhibits integration of immigrants especially in countries where the majority religion is different. This dual phenomenon of religion promoting and inhibiting integration is critically examined in the lives of Filipinos, Brazilians, Indians, Polish, Mexicans, Vietnamese, Kenyans, Nigerians, and Middle Eastern peoples. The book also engages various theories on gender, religion and migration and demonstrates the fluidity of gender construction as people cross borders.

Glenda Tibe Bonifacio is associate professor of women's studies at the University of Lethbridge. Vivienne S.M. Angeles is associate professor of religion at La Salle University and coeditor of Identity in Crossroads Civilisations: Ethnicity, Nationalism and Globalism in Asia.