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Deserving Welcome? Immigrants, Christian Faith Communities, and the Contentious Politics of Belonging in the US South
Author(s) -
Nagel Caroline,
Ehrkamp Patricia
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
antipode
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.177
H-Index - 98
eISSN - 1467-8330
pISSN - 0066-4812
DOI - 10.1111/anti.12233
Subject(s) - immigration , politics , faith , humanities , xenophobia , praise , immigration policy , political science , sociology , religious studies , theology , law , philosophy , art , literature
This article examines articulations of merit and deservingness in relation to immigrants in the US South. In a context of pronounced anti‐immigrant sentiment, scholars have rightfully focused on state practices that marginalize immigrants. Yet xenophobia and exclusion are but one set of responses to immigrants. Societies also construct immigrants as meritorious figures: hard workers, entrepreneurs, and upholders of family values. The figure of the “good immigrant”, like that of the “bad immigrant”, is routinely produced and reproduced in social settings that are not obviously political, including churches. Christian faith communities in the US South, we show, offer the potential for a politics built around inclusive understandings of belonging. But Christian universalism is in constant tension with nationalist ways of thinking and acting. Whether they praise immigrants for their virtues or criticize them for their shortcomings, congregants and pastors tend to cast immigrants in the role of foreign Other.