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Finding Belonging, Finding Agency : Unaccompanied Refugee Minors Converting to Christianity in the Church of Sweden

Morgan, Jonathan LU orcid (2020) In Review of Faith and International Affairs 18(3). p.40-52
Abstract
The arrival 44,617 unaccompanied refugee minors (URM) to Sweden between 2014 and 2016 was met by a large number of civil society volunteers responding to their needs and assisting them in the early stages of their asylum processes, among them the Church of Sweden (CoS). What was not expected was that thousands of these Muslim-background young people would decide to convert to Christianity. Drawing on data collected during fieldwork at two CoS congregations, this article looks at conversion through the lens of two themes, conversion as belonging and conversion as agency, and discusses whether discourses which couple conversion with narratives about acquiring asylum capital are adequate to the complexity of this phenomenon.
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Unaccompanied refugee minors, religious conversion, migration, secularism, Sweden, Islam, Christianity
in
Review of Faith and International Affairs
volume
18
issue
3
pages
40 - 52
publisher
Taylor & Francis
external identifiers
  • scopus:85089778681
ISSN
1557-0274
DOI
10.1080/15570274.2020.1795410
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
8a3c5a34-45bd-4631-8e07-265b5343efd7
date added to LUP
2020-07-10 14:01:10
date last changed
2022-04-18 23:36:17
@article{8a3c5a34-45bd-4631-8e07-265b5343efd7,
  abstract     = {{The arrival 44,617 unaccompanied refugee minors (URM) to Sweden between 2014 and 2016 was met by a large number of civil society volunteers responding to their needs and assisting them in the early stages of their asylum processes, among them the Church of Sweden (CoS). What was not expected was that thousands of these Muslim-background young people would decide to convert to Christianity. Drawing on data collected during fieldwork at two CoS congregations, this article looks at conversion through the lens of two themes, conversion as belonging and conversion as agency, and discusses whether discourses which couple conversion with narratives about acquiring asylum capital are adequate to the complexity of this phenomenon.}},
  author       = {{Morgan, Jonathan}},
  issn         = {{1557-0274}},
  keywords     = {{Unaccompanied refugee minors; religious conversion; migration; secularism; Sweden; Islam; Christianity}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{08}},
  number       = {{3}},
  pages        = {{40--52}},
  publisher    = {{Taylor & Francis}},
  series       = {{Review of Faith and International Affairs}},
  title        = {{Finding Belonging, Finding Agency : Unaccompanied Refugee Minors Converting to Christianity in the Church of Sweden}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15570274.2020.1795410}},
  doi          = {{10.1080/15570274.2020.1795410}},
  volume       = {{18}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}