Migration, Religion, and National Identity Conference

Throughout history the exodus, migration, and movement of peoples has been influenced by their religious experiences and tensions. These trends have played a vital role shaping the modern world. These trends have played a vital role in shaping the modern world. The earliest European settlers of the New World not only sought to escape religious persecution, but to bring their faith to native peoples through both persuasion and conquest. The gradual consolidation of an international system of sovereign states —and the strengthening of national identities— contributed to significant tensions between religion and national identity. While many newcomers find solace and support within their faith traditions, the tight-knit nature of religious communities has historically raised concerns that religion is a barrier to "cultural assimilation" and "national loyalty."

Indeed, the collective experiences of generations of migrants from multiple religions point to a frequently unacknowledged aspect of our increasingly globalized world: to find acceptance, new immigrant groups undergo a trial by fire that frequently places their religious identity in jeopardy. For example, the migration of Catholics in the early 19th and 20th centuries— Irish, Italians, and Poles, in particular— fueled nativist fears that these groups would fail to assimilate to U.S. culture, or might even conspire to convert the United States into a papist state. More recently, reputable scholars like the late Harvard professor Samuel Huntington have raised questions about the ability of new, mainly Catholic immigrants from Mexico and other parts of the Americas to assimilate in a country founded initially on Anglo-Saxon, Protestant values.

Meanwhile, in the wake of the September 11th terrorist attacks, there has been a sharp increase in discrimination and hate-crimes against Muslim immigrants illustrating that migrants of other religious faiths face similar challenges of acceptance and assimilation, both in the United States and abroad. The migration of Islamic North Africans and Turks into Spain, France, and Germany presents similar long-standing and still unresolved tensions over religion, migration, and national identity. Often, such tensions derive from cultural insensitivities and misconceptions on the part of both natives and immigrants.

How do religion and national identity shape the experience of migrants? How can immigrants of different faith traditions become part of the national fabric? How can receiving communities draw on their own religious perspectives to become more tolerant and welcoming toward new immigrants from different faiths? What role do religious communities play in shaping the public debate about migration and national identity? On April 15-16, 2009, the Trans-Border Institute, with support from the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies will sponsor a major international conference to consider these questions and other connections between migration, religious experience, and national identification. Bringing together nationally renowned scholars and religious leaders from the United States and abroad, this conference will provide a unique opportunity to examine migration, religion, and national identity in historical and comparative perspective, as well as the efforts of different faith communities to grapple with the challenges of contemporary immigration and assimilation.