Religion and the Politics of Membership: Migration Governance, Citizenship/Diaspora Policies, and Collective Mobilization across the Globe

In many contemporary societies marked by transnational mobility, aggravating inequality, and political polarization, religion has taken on renewed significance in debates over nationhood and collective identities, even in countries where religion had long been considered less salient in determining membership and belonging than other categories of difference. This session explores diverse ways in which religion affects migration governance, citizenship policies, diaspora engagement, and collective mobilization, as it intersects with gender/sexuality, race/ethnicity, nativity, and immigration status. We welcome contributions addressing topics including—yet not limited to—religious nationalism and populist politics, faith communities’ involvement in the politics of migration and asylum, and religious mobilization for or against pronatalist, anti-feminist, and anti-LGBTQ policies. We encourage contributors to highlight the tensions, contradictions, and dilemmas that various actors face in determining and contesting the boundary of legitimate membership through religion. For example, if access to immigration status and citizenship is granted based on religious identities, how do decision makers translate these identities into legal and administrative categories with clear-cut boundaries? How do states decide which religious groups or practices merit recognition, protection, or preferential treatment, and with what consequences for those included and excluded? How do faith-based actors involved in migration, asylum, and diaspora politics reconcile universal claims of human rights with particularistic notions of communal belonging and solidarity? This session seeks to provide a global and transregional perspective. Papers moving beyond much-studied cases in North America and Europe will be especially welcome.