Migration and the Global Landscapes of Religion: Making Congolese Moral Worlds in Diaspora and Homeland

(Hardback)

Available Formats

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

This book draws upon case studies of the Congolese Christian diaspora in the UK and US and an ethnography of religious urbanization in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to explore the making of religious spaces and moral landscapes in an era of globalization. Religion is a key aspect of the community, social and political life of Congolese migrants many of whom have to address the predicaments of displacement, relocation and the status of being a minority within a minority, as Francophone black African migrants in English-speaking countries. The book demonstrates the role of religion in the production of moral worlds and the ways in which for Congolese Christians this process both results from and facilitates a process of regrounding in the midst of ambivalent urban environments. Through a multi-sited ethnography the book also examines the impact of transnational religious practices on development and city-making in the homeland, in a context of increasing informalization and infrastructural deficit. Drawing on extensive ethnographic data, David Garbin captures the nuances of a complex and changing social, political and religious landscape for Congolese migrants relying on the construction of moral worlds and revealing the role of a range of connections but also disconnections between diaspora and homeland across multiple scales. An essential resource for scholars and researchers interested in the intersections of religion, migration and urbanization in both Global North and Global South contexts.

Reviews

Drawing on original ethnographies in the UK, US and Africa, this book immerses readers in a Congolese moral world with which few will be familiar. David Garbin offers an engaging analysis of local religious place-making, complex transnational interconnections and migrants' enduring diasporic commitment to their homeland in the Democratic Republic of Congo. * Kim Knott, Professor Emerita, Lancaster University, UK and author of The Location of Religion: A Spatial Analysis (2005). *
A beautifully crafted and revealing account of religion and lives cast in displacement. This is an important and much needed exploration of the ways in which religious place-making not only reveals the ambivalence of life in diaspora for Congolese migrants but also impacts on the urban landscape of the homeland. * Caroline Knowles, Global Professorial Fellow, Queen Mary, University of London, UK *
David Garbin writes about Christian plurality, moral ambivalence and social complexity with the utmost clarity and passion. This is a deeply ethnographic yet impressively multi-sited book about the frustrations and ambitions of urban Congolese in their homeland and in diaspora. Garbin provides a truly important contribution to our understandings of intersections between religion, territorialization and scale as he documents the lives of actors working hard to establish presences across Francophone and Anglophone worlds of movement and dwelling. * Simon Coleman, Chancellor Jackman Professor, University of Toronto, Canada and author of Powers of Pilgrimage: Religion in a World of Movement (2022). *
This book is a creative study of the existing complex religious landscape and its deployment across settings in both diaspora and homeland contexts. The reader will discover how the process of globalization develops while being driven by religious activities and migration networks. * Fohle Lygunda li-M, Associate Professor of Missiology, North-West University, South Africa *

Author Bio

David Garbin is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Kent, UK. His research focuses on the interplay of migration, ethnicity, diaspora, space, religion and informal urbanism in a diversity of ethnographic contexts in Europe, North America, South Asia and Central Africa.