Immigration and integration

Progress in Development Studies, 2011

Although the role of religion in the lives of immigrants has recently been a subject of interest by scholars, there has not been much focus on the importance of the religio-political activism of faith-based and community organizations in favour of immigrants. This article focuses on a religious congregation, Immanuel Presbyterian Church, and a community-organizing network, the Salvadoran American National Association, to demonstrate how religion is actively promoting and aiding political engagement on behalf of and with immigrants in Los Angeles, with a particular, although not exclusive, focus on immigrants of Latino origin, who comprise the lion’s share of immigrants in Los Angeles County. The theoretical analysis builds on concepts drawn from religious activism for immigrant rights and theories of social mobilization, interest groups, symbolic and social capital, and economic and morality politics. We use a triangulated methodological approach that includes observation and participant observation, interviews, content analysis of multimedia and intellectual advocacy for the immigrant rights movement.

2011

Although the role of religion in the lives of immigrants has recently been a subject of interest by scholars, there has not been much focus on the importance of the religio-political activism of faith-based and community organizations in favour of immigrants. This article focuses on a religious congregation, Immanuel Presbyterian Church, and a community-organizing network, the Salvadoran American National Association, to demonstrate how religion is actively promoting and aiding political engagement on behalf of and with immigrants in Los Angeles, with a particular, although not exclusive, focus on immigrants of Latino origin, who comprise the lion's share of immigrants in Los Angeles County. The theoretical analysis builds on concepts drawn from religious activism for immigrant rights and theories of social mobilization, interest groups, symbolic and social capital, and economic and morality politics. We use a triangulated methodological approach that includes observation and participant observation, interviews, content analysis of multimedia and intellectual advocacy for the immigrant rights movement.

Although the role of religion in the lives of immigrants has recently been a subject of interest by scholars, there has not been much focus on the importance of the religio-political activism of faith-based and community organizations in favour of immigrants. This article focuses on a religious congregation, Immanuel Presbyterian Church, and a community-organizing network, the Salvadoran American National Association, to demonstrate how religion is actively promoting and aiding political engagement on behalf of and with immigrants in Los Angeles, with a particular, although not exclusive, focus on immigrants of Latino origin, who comprise the lion's share of immigrants in Los Angeles County. The theoretical analysis builds on concepts drawn from religious activism for immigrant rights and theories of social mobilization, interest groups, symbolic and social capital, and economic and morality politics. We use a triangulated methodological approach that includes observation and participant observation, interviews, content analysis of multimedia and intellectual advocacy for the immigrant rights movement.

Sociology of Religion, 2003

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Undocumented immigration from Latin America has been a ubiquitous topic in United States' politics. Recently, politicians in Washington, D.C. are debating new legislation which could provide a pathway to citizenship for some 11 million undocumented immigrants. The Indianapolis Congregation Action Network (IndyCAN), a faith-based organization based in Indianapolis, is helping to mobilize the Latino community. Undocumented immigrants are rallying around religion and IndyCAN as a means to influence positive policy change. However, anti-immigrant groups are attempting to define who can be considered an "American" and are trying to block legislation due to their negative perceptions of Latinos. Despite this, Latino immigrants are conceptualizing their American identities and are actively engaging in a political system that refuses to grant them a legal status. Through la fe en acción [faith in action] rather than activism, these immigrants ground their political organizing in Catholicism and appeal to the religious background of politicians. I explore issues of race, ethnicity, political engagement, personal testimonies, and religion in my master's thesis entitled "Cuando Actuamos, Actuamos Juntos: Understanding the Intersection of Religion, Faith-Based Organizations, Social Justice, and the Latino Community in Indianapolis." I draw on notions of cultural citizenship and structural vulnerability in order to understand this intersection. Ultimately, I reveal how Latino immigrants in Indianapolis are impacting the political process regardless of their legal statuses.

to better understand the relationship between religion and immigrant political and civic engagement. Over the last half century, both American religion and the immigration landscape have changed in important ways. The LINES, which includes a number of religious questions from the American National Election Study and a rare focus on Latino newcomers, provides the opportunity to better understand the contemporary relationship between the two. We find that measures of religious belongings, beliefs, and behaviors (the Three Bs) are not generally associated with the civic and political engagements of Latino immigrants. We posit that such null results may be explained by the varying religious experiences of immigrants-some developing bridging social capital through religious institutions, but others experiencing what might be called segmented religious assimilation.

2000

In this paper I seek to examine the place of religious institutions in the lives of Salvadoran immigrants, particularly how these immigrants view their links with and participation in the church in light of the conditions in which they live. Religious rituals infuse with transcendental meaning important events in the immigrants' lives, but religious institutions also respond in practical terms to the immigrants' needs and afflictions. This observation is not exceptional in the cases I present in this piece, however, relative to the importance of religion in the immigrants' lives, contemporary immigration scholars have not focused enough on this aspect of

This review synthesizes research about religion in the lives of post-1965 immigrants to the United States. Such research consists primarily of case studies, published since 1990, focused on individual religious organizations started and attended by immigrants. We analyze these case studies to demonstrate the different ways religion influences immigrants' adaptation in the United States. We then consider how religion informs immigrants' ethnic and gender-based identities, their experiences of civic and political life, and the lives of the second generation. We argue that current research is more descriptive than analytic overall, and we highlight a series of research questions and comparisons to enrich theoretical thinking. In particular, we advocate a comparative approach to examining immigrants' religious organizations and increased attention to a "lived religion" perspective, which takes seriously the ways religion is important for immigrants outside of religious organizations in social institutions, including civic organizations, families, workplaces, schools, and health-care organizations. 359 Annu. Rev. Sociol. 2007.33:359-379. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org by ALI: Academic Libraries of Indiana on 02/18/13. For personal use only. 360 Cadge · Ecklund Annu. Rev. Sociol. 2007.33:359-379. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org by ALI: Academic Libraries of Indiana on 02/18/13. For personal use only. www.annualreviews.org • Immigration and Religion 361 Annu. Rev. Sociol. 2007.33:359-379. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org by ALI: Academic Libraries of Indiana on 02/18/13. For personal use only. Ebaugh HR, Chafetz JS, eds. 2000b. Religion and the New Immigrants: Continuities and Adaptations in Immigrant Congregations. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Ebaugh HR, Chafetz JS. 2000c. Structural adaptations in immigrant congregations. Sociol. Relig. 61:135-53 Ebaugh HR, O'Brien J, Chafetz JS. 2000. The social ecology of residential patterns and membership in immigrant churches. J. Sci. Study Relig. 39:107-16 Ebaugh HR, Pipes P. 2001. Immigrant congregations as social service providers: Are they safety nets for welfare reform? In Religion and Social Policy, ed. P Nesbitt, pp. 95-110. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Ecklund EH. 2005a. Models of civic responsibility: Korean Americans in congregations with different ethnic compositions. J. Sci. Study Relig. 44:15-28 Ecklund EH. 2005b. 'Us' and 'them': the role of religion in mediating and challenging the 'model minority' and other civic boundaries. Ethn. Racial Stud.

2014

2014

Undocumented immigration from Latin America is a heated and divisive topic in United States' politics. Politicians in Washington, D.C. are debating new legislation which would provide a pathway to citizenship for some 11 million undocumented immigrants. While several federal immigration reform bills were debated in the early 2000s, each one failed in either the House of Representatives or in the Senate. The Indianapolis Congregation Action Network (IndyCAN), a grassroots activist group in Indianapolis, is organizing the Latino community through faith and shared political goals. Undocumented Latino immigrants are utilizing IndyCAN as a method to influence progressive policy change. However, anti-immigrant groups challenge these efforts by attempting to define who can be considered an "American" and are attempting to block legislation due to their negative perceptions of Latinos. Debates about citizenship have racial discourses and reveal the embeddedness of race and eth...