ABSTRACT
Most migrants experience the change of their country and place of residence as a life-and-self-transforming moment, wherein religion can have a supportive and strengthening role (Warner and Wittner 1998, Ebaugh and Chafetz 2002, Leonhard 2005, Levitt 2007, Introduction). Research carried out in the last couple of years highlights in particular the positive
effect of religious networks and the way they make possible a continuity of ethnic belonging. They assist migrants in creating alternative social and cultural spaces in the diaspora, while at the same time they allow for religious diversifi cation and fragmentation. Evidently, the range of reasons for leaving a country is large and many migrants carry with them the hope of being able to continue their religious affi liation and to fi nd comparable sites of worship and religious communities.
