Publication : Gender, Religion, and Migration: Pathways of Integration

Edited by Glenda Tibe Bonifacio and Vivienne SM. Angeles. Lexington Books - Nov. 2009, 214 pp.

"This edited volume makes a major intervention into the field of migration studies by charting new ground through the vectors of gender and religion. The editors have skillfully managed to arrange provocative essays that cut across multiple disciplines, geographical sites, research methodologies, and religious orientations. A major facet of this critical work is the way it gives significant space to the gendered realities of both women and men. All together, it promises to alter forever the way we think about migratory processes and the religiously gendered lives of those who dare to move."—Zain Abdullah, author of Black Mecca: The African Muslims of Harlem (Oxford University Press).

See all reviews

Gender, Religion and Migration is the first multidisciplinary collection on the intersection of gender and religion in the integration of different groups of immigrants, migrant workers, youths, and students in host societies in Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America and North America. It investigates the linkages and tensions between religion and integration from a gendered perspective. By examining the contemporary significance of religion in the context of global migrations, the fifteen research-based essays provide new insights and perspectives on the often missed link between the differing ways in which male and female immigrants find meanings of faith-beliefs and religious traditions to belong in foreign lands, even residents' faith-based activism involving illegal migrants. While religion provides mechanisms for negotiating immigrant life in the host countries, it also inhibits integration of immigrants especially in countries where the majority religion is different. This dual phenomenon of religion promoting and inhibiting integration is critically examined in the lives of Filipinos, Brazilians, Indians, Polish, Mexicans, Vietnamese, Kenyans, Nigerians, and Middle Eastern peoples. The book also engages various theories on gender, religion and migration and demonstrates the fluidity of gender construction as people cross borders.

Table of Contents

Book Flyer

List of Contributors
Vivienne S. M. Angeles, Michiel Baas, Synnøve Bendixsen, Krystyna Bleszynka, Glenda Tibe Bonifacio, Cristina Maria de Castro, Wafa Chafic, Gemma Tulud Cruz, Gertrud Hüwelmeier, Helene Pristed Nielsen, Lilian Odera, Abolade Ezekiel Olagoke, Connie Oxford, Hugo Córdova Quero, Patricia Ruiz-Navarro, Sonia Ben Soltane, Jamel Stambouli, and Marek Szopski

About the Editors
Glenda Tibe Bonifacio is assistant professor of women's studies at University of Lethbridge.
Vivienne SM. Angeles is assistant professor of religion at La Salle University and co-editor of Identity in Crossroads Civilisations: Ethnicity, Nationalism and Globalism in Asia.