The Politics of Migration, Church, and State: A Case Study of the Catholic Church in Ireland

Abstract

This article investigates the ways in which a shift from post-colonial nation building to neoliberal state restructuring has shaped church and Irish state relations regarding migrant welfare. It develops the extensive work of B€ ackstr€ om and Davie (2010) and B€ ackstr€ om et al.(2011) on how majority churches in European countries are reclaiming a social welfare role as the state relinquishes this responsibility: first, by examining the domain of migrant welfare which is not developed in their work; and second, by arguing that majority church promigrant service provision, as it has evolved in recent decades, can be understood in relation to an emergent neoliberal mode of collective responsibility for migrant welfare. It suggests that in spite of other factors and forces that undermine Irish Catholic Church authority, the marketization of more domains of life in the first decades of the twenty-first century has given new significance to Catholic Social Teaching and pro-migrant church initiatives.

Religion and local politics in Southern Europe: a research agenda

“…In the same vein, Breda Gray, in her research on the Irish Catholic Church's action in supporting migrants (Gray 2015), shows that the alternative values promoted by the social work of the majority church can correspond to the neo-liberal view which tends to make individuals and communities more responsible for their own welfare. The fact that faith-based organisations (FBOs) became central agents in the integration of migrants in many European countries, including Southern European ones, can be seen as a further illustration of the shift in moral collective responsibilities.…”

Opposing Immigrants in Europe: The Interplay Between Religiosity, Values, and Threat

“…Indeed, the number of promigrant church initiatives in Europe has increased over the past decades (Gray 2016). Additionally, Bohman and Hjerm (2014) conclude that religious individuals in Europe are more accepting of immigrants than nonreligious individuals.…”

Hybrid transnational social protection: The role of religious institutions and networks

“…We use the Catholic Church as an illustrative case because it established a transnational infrastructure of social protection long before similar cross-border arrangements became so popular among many origin states (Gray, 2016; Turina, 2015). We adopt an ‘entangled history’ approach that examines the constitutive, relational, and historical dimensions of Catholic Church institutional status, discourses and practices as these intersect with those of the state in shaping TSP (Agensky, 2017).…”