ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of Orthodox populations’ migration and settlement patterns and prepares the discussion of the consequences these processes have for the reconstruction of the Orthodox identity in new settings. Though the focus is on the situation of Orthodox communities in Switzerland, it is, however, depicted in the larger historical, sociological and geographical picture of Orthodox migrations to Western Europe, whose experience is locally anchored (depends on the receiving context) but tied to the global Orthodox commonwealth and to the “transnational Orthodox space”. Therefore, this chapter draws first a larger perspective of Orthodox Churches in Western Europe and then narrows the focus on the Swiss case, which will be situated against the background of the 20th century unprecedented population exodus from the Orthodox heartland and from the perspective of the integration of Orthodox population in this country.
