Religions and Migrations: The Experience of the Boundaries and Borders

Abdelmalek Sayad argues that migration has moved from being an object of marginal research in the human and social sciences at the beginning of the Twentieth Century to becoming a fundamental subject of research today. Migration as an epistemic argument confronts our relationship with the constructs of knowledge and otherness, the validation of non-normative social narratives, and the (in)visibility given to multiple learning systems and ways to relate with the spiritual. The unprecedented phenomenon of global migration of today manifests another underlining phenomenon: the migration of religious practices and religious systems within and out of the state boundaries. The mobilization of migrants and their social stories between worlds and societies generates new spaces of cultural fecundation and enrichment. Contemporanearly, the emergence of nationalist and anti-immigrant rhetoric manifests the deep tensions between groups sharing state spaces beyond the simple fear to change. Religion and the migration of faith practices have become a central player because it infuses the discourses of rejection or acceptance. Religion is in many places responsible for creating violence that forces others to move, while religiosity itself changes the migration experience for those relocating. This panel confronts critical questions that define the tensions created between the shifting categories of religion and migration, including our definitions of borders, religious citizenship, religious (in)tolerance, and the migration of spiritual practices. The core of this panel is the desire to redefine borders as "places of living," places of encounter, and, ultimately, places where people can rediscover their most profound sense of humanity.