Recreating the Homeland in the Host Country: Glocal Homemaking of Orthodox Migrants in Japan (81180)

Session Information: Immigration, Refugee, Race, Nation
Session Chair: Mark Beeman

Monday, 27 May 2024 11:55
Session: Session 2
Room: Room D (Live-Stream)
Presentation Type: Live-Stream Presentation

All presentation times are UTC + 9 (Asia/Tokyo)

In Orthodoxy, due to the church-nation link in Orthodox nation-states, religion is considered emblematic of national particularism. When Orthodox migrants from these nation-states settle in the host countries with Orthodox minority, membership in local parishes links them with their homelands. To analyze this process of ‘homemaking’ in transnational contexts, researchers use the concept of glocal religion, which refers to the blending of religious universalism with national particularism. This paper aims at tracing this process of glocal homemaking at the grassroots level by examining the individual religious practices of Russian-speaking Orthodox migrants in Tokyo. The study is based on a series of in-depth interviews conducted during online ethnographic fieldwork in January–October 2023. The study reveals the process of migrants recreating their homeland in the host country. The Orthodox Church in Tokyo is perceived by them as part of Russian culture, and church practices are interpreted in national terms through the categories of ‘Japaneseness’ and ‘Russianness’. Analyzing both the religious activism of migrants and their individual church practices helps to identify the role of religion in life experience migrants in the host country.

Authors:
Aleksandra Sechko, HSE University, Russia


About the Presenter(s)
Aleksandra Sechko is trained at HSE University, Faculty of Humanities. Master’s major – Cultural Anthropology. Her research embraces anthropology of urban Buddhism. Fields of interests – Urban Religion, Global Buddhism, Material Religion.

Connect on Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/aleksandra-sechko-005705268

Connect on ResearchGate
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Aleksandra-Sechko

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Posted by Clive Staples Lewis

Last updated: 2023-02-23 23:45:00