Religiositet bland migranter : Sverige-chilenares förhållande till religion och samfund

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine changes related to migration in the religiosity of individuals and what lies behind such changes. The study is foremost based on interviews with 23 Swedish-Chileans who have lived in Sweden for an extended period of time and who were adults when they immigrated to Sweden. The interviews are thematic life stories. Each one of the individuals narrates his or her life-story and each narration focuses upon a theme: one’s own religiosity. The study also includes data collected by sending a letter to a larger, random selection of Swedish-Chileans. This letter contained relevant question on religiosity. The changes in the religiosity of these Swedish-Chileans is studied based upon a working-hypothesis that religiosity is something that is created, maintained, and changed by way of the individual being part of a social context. The analysis of the findings is accomplished primarily through an application of Peter Berger’s and Thomas Luckmann’s conceptions of socialization and plausibility structures. The study also discusses the conception of religiosity and, given this topic, which groups or individuals may be studied.



Both the findings from the inquiry and the interviews show that religious changes are common among Swedish-Chileans. The changes however move in different directions, are of different intensity, and touch on different aspects of the religiosity of the individuals. The findings from the interviews point at that the changes in the life situation that have occurred as a result of the physical transfer from one country to another, i.e., a situational change, as well as changes that are related to the passage of time, i.e., a process change. The underlying causes of the changes in religiosity are also that the social structures that were significant for the religiosity, i.e., the socio-religious structures of the interviewees, are not the same in Sweden as they were in Chile.

Abstract (Swedish)

Popular Abstract in Swedish

I denna avhandling studeras förändringar i individers religiositet i samband med migration och vad som orsakar sådana förändringar. Det huvudsakliga materialet för studien består av intervjuer med sverige-chilenare boende i Malmö-Lundområdet, vilka berättat om vad som skett med deras religiositet efter ankomsten till Sverige. I arbetet ingår även en brevenkät till sverige-chilenare med frågor om religion. Förändringarna i dessa individers religiositet studeras utifrån antagandet att religiositet är ett fenomen som skapas, upprätthålls och förändras genom social interaktion. I studien diskuteras även vad som kan ingå i begreppet religiositet och hur detta är möjligt att studera.



Både enkätmaterialet och intervjuerna visar att religiösa förändringar är vanliga bland sverige-chilenarna. Förändringarna går emellertid i olika riktningar, har olika styrka och berör olika aspekter av individernas religiositet. Som exempel kan nämnas att för vissa har den religiösa tillhörigheten förändrats radikalt, men den enskilda bönen har inte gjort det i någon större utsträckning. Vissa har minskat sitt gudstjänstdeltagande, men detta har inte inneburit förändringar i tron. I intervjumaterialet framkommer att dessa förändringar hör samman med hur den individuella livssituationen för de intervjuade förändrats som en följd både av migrationen och av tidens gång. Förändringarna i religiositet hör även samman med hur de sociala strukturerna, t.ex. familjen, församlingen, eller samhället i stort, kring de intervjuade förändrats som en följd av migrationen.

• author: Nordin, Magdalena
• supervisor: [unknown] [unknown]
• opponent: Prof Straarup, Jörgen, Institution for Religious studies, University of Umeå
• organization: History of Religions and Religious Behavioural Science
• alternative title: Religiosity among Migrants : Swedish-Chileans´ Relation to Religion and Communions
• publishing date: 2004
• type: Thesis
• publication status: published
• subject: History of Religions
• keywords: religious faith, life crisis, life change, religious communions, socioreligious structures, Thomas Luckmann, Peter Berger, plausibility structures, socialisation, Swedish-chileans, Migration, religiosity, Social structures, Sociala strukturer, Theology, Teologi
• in: Lunds Studies in Sociology of Religion
• volume: 5
• pages: 305 pages
• defense location: Carolinasalen, Kungshuset, Lundagård, Lund, Sweden
• defense date: 2004-04-02 10:15:00
• ISSN: 1651-4432
• ISBN: 91-974760-1-3
• language: Swedish
• LU publication?: yes
• additional info: The information about affiliations in this record was updated in December 2015. The record was previously connected to the following departments: Centre for Theology and Religious Studies (015017000)
• id: 1672e267-99ba-4374-aebe-df760b90eaa0 (old id 21918)
• date added to LUP: 2016-04-01 16:15:29
• date last changed: 2019-05-22 07:23:04