Immigration and Religion in America: Comparative and Historical Perspectives

Religion has played a crucial role in American immigration history as an institutional resource for migrants' social adaptation, as a map of meaning for interpreting immigration experiences, and as a continuous force for expanding the national ideal of pluralism. To explain these processes the editors of this volume brought together the perspectives of leading scholars of migration and religion. The resulting essays present salient patterns in American immigrants' religious lives, past and present. In comparing the religious experiences of Mexicans and Italians, Japanese and Koreans, Eastern European Jews and Arab Muslims, and African Americans and Haitians, the book clarifies how such processes as incorporation into existing religions, introduction of new faiths, conversion, and diversification have contributed to America's extraordinary religious diversity and add a comprehensive religious dimension to our understanding of America as a nation of immigrants.

Author: Richard Alba
Publisher: New York University Press
Published: 12/01/2008
Pages: 413
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.22lbs
Size: 8.96h x 6.00w x 0.78d
ISBN: 9780814705056

Review Citation(s):
Choice 07/01/2009

About the Author
Alba, Richard: - Richard Alba is Distinguished Professor of Sociology at City University of New York and is the author of many books, including (with Victor Nee) Remaking the American Mainstream: Assimilation and Contemporary Immigration and Ethnic Identity: The Transformation of White America.Dewind, Josh: - Josh DeWind is Director of the International Migration Program of the Social Science Research Council. He is the co-editor of The Handbook of International Migration: The American Experience.Raboteau, Albert J.: - Albert J. Raboteau is Professor of Religion at Princeton University and the author of Slave Religion: The Invisible Institution in the Antebellum South and Canaan Land: A Religious History of African Americans.