The Question of Immigrant Religion - Essay Example

The making of the industrial revolution sparked a major twist in labour distribution across the world. Although nation-states are supposed to be homogeneous communities based on shared culture, identity, language, ethnicity and so on, it does not hold true of all the countries, especially the countries that are favourite destinations of the immigrants. From its very inception, the United States has been overwhelmed by immigration from across the world. However, the issues pertinent to immigration to the United States in the twenty-first century are radically different from those of in the preceding centuries. There are a number of issues such as shifts in demographic patterns, lopsided economic effects, the rights of women and children, substance use, health care and public funds covered under the umbrella topic of immigration. Second generation allegiance, citizenship and political assimilation, race and ethnicity, residential patterns, engaging in unauthorized employment too have been the ingredients of the immigration debate in the United States for the last two-three decades. Since the issues of immigration are multidimensional, there needs to be a multidimensional policy framework to address the wide-ranging issues without losing their complexity.

Illegal immigration to the United States involves an array of practices and techniques such as illegal entry, visa overstay and false representation. Amnesty has been a contested idea as there is no agreement on whether it is helpful to mitigate the grievances originating from illegal migration. Illegal migration also poses threat to social security, national security and the rule of law.

Rightly or wrongly, aspects such as financial impacts, cultural mutations, labour disturbances, demographic changes, and transnational ties have been considered as the central issues of immigration. However, the religious beliefs of the immigrants have a far-reaching impact on the welfare of society. Although, there are so many parlances on immigrant religion, its actual effect on society is seldom discussed with theoretical rigour. Foner and Alba (2008) are of the view that the matter of researching immigrant religion in the United States has “generally taken a backseat to other topics in the immigration field”. Recently, many studies have come up with unconventional insights, which reveal that religion has a “positive role in smoothing and facilitating the adaptation process” (Foner and Alba, 2008). The secularism in the United States is more flexible and the people here are more involved in religion than in Western Europe. Historically speaking, the United States has shown more willingness to accept new religions and beliefs thanks to its founding composite culture. For an immigrant, according to Hirschman (2004), religion is a tool to secure ‘refuge, respectability, and resources which are vital to their survival and progress in the new country. Nevertheless, Foner and Alba (2008) see the possibility for the emergence of problems on the grounds of immigrant religion “if the growing inroads into church-state separation lead to favouring the Protestant-Catholic-Jewish trinity and discriminating against other religious groups”.

Levitt’s (2007) ten years of research on four transnational communities points out that the composition of American religious space is being profoundly influenced and transformed as the religious beliefs and practices of the new immigrant enroot. Curiously, explain the religious peculiarities of people who have previous illegal migration experience. According to their study, there are large fractions with previous illegal experience among the Catholics and Protestants as they are dominant among the immigrants from Mexico. Interestingly, “Muslims have almost as high a fraction with previous illegal experiences as do Catholics” (Levitt, 2007). It is possible to argue that illegal immigration is something universal and what is considered as peculiar to some religions as Islam in popular discourse is not a matter of fact.

Immigrant religion and its impacts on the United States have not gained adequate attention from scholars although it is widely debated in the public with less real knowledge of the issue involved. Contrary to the received wisdom, it is possible to see that the religion of the immigrants is not a social threat but a stabilizing factor. The original religion of the immigrant helps him/her to overcome the inevitable alienation in a new land, thereby, accelerating their integration into the society. Finally, religion is not a determining factor to deal with the issue of illegal migration. Read More