Geography

Refugees, Migrants and Religion

Module code: 008GR
Level 6
30 credits in autumn semester
Teaching method: Seminar, Lecture
Assessment modes: Essay, Coursework

Globalisation has rendered religions increasingly visible through their materialisation in urban spaces – prompting some to argue we are now in an age of postsecularism. Drawing on resources from anthropology, human and cultural geography, we will explore the significance of sacred spaces and religious traditions in practices of crossing and dwelling, and in transnational migration networks. You will learn how religion is drawn upon as a social and cultural resource, and transformed in everyday life in relation to migrant experience. Religion has hitherto been a much under-emphasised aspect of migration – playing a distant second fiddle to issues of race, class, and gender. Where migration scholars have engaged, it has predominantly been refracted through the lens of debates on the integration and assimilation of minority ethnic communities in the Global North.

Throwing religion into the mix this module looks to go further: examining intersectionalities of social formations, power and resistance through more nuanced accounts of everyday lives. The module introduces you to ways of thinking about how movement and mobility are at the heart of lived understandings of religion.

What do religious traditions look like when seen through the lens of migration? In what ways are they re-configured and re-imagined by migrants? How do religious communities, traditions, and practices shape and influence migrant experiences? Looking at case studies of Iraq and Syria, we ask how religious actors respond to sectarian conflicts producing mass displacement today. The module seeks to strike a balance between geographies of religion and the lifeworlds of migrants where religious geographies are situated.

Module learning outcomes

• Demonstrate a systematic understanding of key concepts, including of their histories and biases.
• Understand and distinguish between different spatial approaches to the study of religion to better imagine the life of religious actors on the full range of geographical scales, from the local to the global.
• Analyse and critically evaluate contemporary struggles and contestations over the role of religion in migratory processes.
• Explain how religious traditions and spaces are used in public debate to address issues of immigration and refugee movements.
• Summarise and explain the religious dynamics of migration experiences.