Research on forced migration from the perspective of the psychology of religion: Opportunities and challenges

Abstract

The goal of our article is to present the subject of forced migration as a very interesting and socially relevant research field that could contribute to further development of the psychology of religion. We focus on further development of the toolbox of the psychology of religion, seeking further application of Sunden’s role theory and introducing new approaches originating from indigenous and environmental psychology. After a short review of existing research, new theoretical approaches, and methodologies are presented, along with suggestions for improving the validity of qualitative research pertaining to the role of religion at all stages of the migration process.

Three decades of the Polish psychology of religion (1989–2020)

“…Piotrowski, Żemojtel-Piotrowska). Last, but not least, it was in Poland that a new proposal appeared to extend the horizons of the psychology of religion to issues related to migration processes, thus conducting research within the discipline, taking into account the achievements of the psychology of migration and migration studies (Anczyk & Grzymała-Moszczyńska, 2020;Grzymała-Moszczyńska & Kanal, 2019). Certainly there are more studies on the subject of religion published by Polish psychologists in other leading psychological journals, authored both by scholars associated with the IAPR or the Polish Society for the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, and academics-social psychologists mostly, but also researches in the field of cognitive study of religion-that are not specializing in psychology of religion/spirituality, but occasionally publish works that are somewhat connected to the field (e. g. Sekerdej et al, 2018;Slyke & Szocik, 2020;Talmont-Kaminski, 2018;Talmont-Kaminski & Wojcik, 2017).…”

Intergenerational Processes and Diasporic Religious Identity Among Immigrant Coptic Families

“…In the last two decades, academic interest in the topics of religion and migration -and their intersections -has grown steadily. However, for a long time, migration studies have neglected to thoroughly investigate the role played by religion in migrants' integration processes [1,2,3,4]. Among the several factors concurring to said gap in the literature, these are especially apparent within psychological research.…”

“…The focus on adverse conditions, struggles and suffering faced by vulnerable and not vulnerable immigrants has prevented from acknowledging that religion plays a central role in migrants' lives, and one of the sources of support they can turn to during all phases of migratory transition. Furthermore, in the case of forced migrations, individuals' religious affiliation has only been considered as a key factor in identifying pre-migration traumas and motives to migrate from their respective country of origin [1].…”

“…More recently, the adoption of a salutogenic 3 point of view in clinical and family studies has led to a renewed interest towards protective processes and positive resources capable of supporting individuals and families during resettlement life phases [5,6,17,18,19,20]. Among different types of individual and relational resources that enhance migrants' resilience in the face of migration challenges, religiosity is increasingly recognized as a crucial, positive dimension at every stage of migration and across different sub-groups of migrants (adult or youth migrants, forced migrants or labor migrants, migrant belonging to specific ethno-religious minorities) [1,3,21,22,23]. Challenging the notion that "religion" constitutes a problem for migrants' integration in host societies and for social cohesion, many studies have contributed to explore migrants' religious experience at the individual level and the family level.…”

“…For many migrants, and especially for forced migrants and refugees, positive network relationships within religious communities and Church attendance represent an essential part of life [22]. As well as being places of worship and prayer, these are places where migrants seek and receive material and emotional support, where migrants build social networks and bond with other migrants and with members of host societies, where they can relive a cultural connection with their history and their country of origin, they preserve cultural (linguistic, religious, ethnic) identity and a sense of belonging, can find responses to the need for community affiliation [1,4,22,23,51,52,53].…”