Pregare tra due mondi. Pratiche religiose e percorsi di integrazione degli immigrati

This text presents a research, conducted in Genoa, on the role of churches in promoting integration and inclusion of immigrants. The study took into consideration some places of worship belonging to three different religious confessions (Catholicism, Protestantism and Islam). Starting from a reflection on the relationship between the religious experience and paths of insertion in the receiving societies, we asked ourselves about the role that the various religious communities play in promoting processes of aggregation and integration of migrants. Ethnographic research in places of worship has allowed us to investigate some issues related above all to the relationship between religion, identity and inclusion in the contest of arrival. The research analyzed the tension between the desire to rebuild ‘one’s own’ in immigration, expressed by the creation of ‘ethnic churches’, and the possibility of building new religious practices. Practices that change over time and mix with the specificities of the churches of contexts of arrival.