ABSTRACT
In the focus upon economic and emotional aspects of immigration (Akhtar, 1999a; Grinberg & Grinberg, 1989), the role of religion and politics in the causes and consequences of people moving across national borders often gets overlooked. The aim of this chapter is to fill this gap. The ensuing discourse will be divided into sections dealing with: (i) the intricate relationship between religion and immigration,including reactive changes in the intensity of religious commitment, (ii) the politics of immigration, including the impact of immigration upon national economy, social fabric, and family values, (iii) the tension between the “new” immigrants and African Americans, (iv) the immigrants’ politics, including the post-migration hypernationalism and immigrant-generated secession movements, (v) the societal debate over the status of illegal aliens as well as the marginalization and suffering of individuals in this group, (vi) the troubling state of refugees and asylum seekers across the globe, and (vii) some concluding remarks that will bring the foregoing material together and underscore the inoptimally addressed matters in this realm. Separated for the purpose of didactic ease, these sections will inevitably have some overlap,especially while tackling the thorny issue of multiculturalism and its implicit “challenges to American national identity” (Huntington, 1996).
