Religion and Immigration
Theories and Terms Related to Immigration and Religion
Why is the U.S. one of the most religious developed nations on earth? The sociologist Peter Berger theorized in the 1960s, that secularization was the trajectory of all modernizing nations. The U.S. has long been an example that deviated from that trend. Stephen Warner's, Church of Our Own - Warner showed that disestablishment was key to the growth of religious adherence in the U.S. Religious competition increased. Marketplace of religion. Economic theories of religion. Disestablishment - lead to the stimulation of the energies of religious entrepreneurs. (Steve Warner, 2005 - 107-108)
Timothy L. Smith, "Religion and Ethnicity in America." Quote: "...the act of uprooting, migration, resettlement and community building became for the participants a theologizing experience, not the secularizing process that some historians pictured." (Smith: 1978: 1181) Immigrants have tended to be more religious after immigration than before. Immigrant languages are often lost after first generations, but religion tends to endure longer.
The notion of a melting pot has been a recurring theme to describe immigration to the U.S. Will Herberg (1955) spoke of a "transmuting pot" - three ways of becoming American - Protestant, Catholic, Jews.
Resources
Watch this video which depicts the source countries of immigration decade by decade in the form of expanding rings of a growing tree.
“The Melting Pot: American and Assimilation,” BackStory Podcast (July 5, 2019): https://www.backstoryradio.org/shows/the-melting-pot/
“Shifting Public Views on Legal Immigration,” Pew Research, (June 28, 2018): https://www.people-press.org/2018/06/28/shifting-public-views-on-legal-immigration-into-the-u-s/
“5 Facts about Illegal Immigration in the U.S.,” Pew Research, (June 12, 2019): https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/06/12/5-facts-about-illegal-immigration-in-the-u-s/
Check out this video graphic that traces flows of immigrants into the United States from 1820 to 2013.
Media
