Motivation and the Role of Religious Participation in the Lives of Latino Immigrants: A Comparative Case Study of Garden City and Syracuse, Kansas
Year: 2008
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Using both qualitative and quantitative methods, this ethnographic research examines motivation and the role of religious participation among Latino Evangelical immigrants in two cities in Kansas: Garden City and Syracuse. Interviews and surveys were utilized for data gathering to discover that religion and the congregation plays a fundamental role in the lives of both Garden City Evangelical Latino immigrants and to establish five common themes across congregations in Garden City and Syracuse: 1. Alienation of congregants, 2. The congregation as an immigrant support center, 3. The congregation as a surrogate family, 4. The pivotal role of religion, and 5. Meals as a venue for social interaction. This study is significant, for it fills the current gap in the post-1965 religious immigrant congregation literature by geographically focusing this study on a new immigrant gateway and by systematically evaluating two comparable cities to test four main hypotheses.
Author: Katherine Jeanette Acosta
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1820750147