Transnational and local: Multiple functions of religious communities of EU migrants in Dublin

Abstract

This paper explores how Christian migrants of European background live their faith within their religious communities in Dublin. Immigrant congregations provide a place for the accommodation of religious and cultural packages that migrants take with them from their homelands. At the same time, immigrant congregations create opportunities for migrants to enter into new discourses and interactions with the host society. European migrants in Ireland are confronted with a two-fold reality: 1) the notion of loyalty to ethnic and cultural traditions, which urges on migrants’ conscience so that their ethnic and national identity is further strengthened, and 2) an opportunity to engage in intercultural interactions, which encourages migrants’ sense of belonging to the society in which they live. With the use of an ethnographic approach, this paper explores how the religious congregations of Polish, Slovak and German migrants in Dublin move from an ethnic-enclave experience to one that is engaged with the host society