Navigating continuity and change: a multi-scalar analysis of religion and spirituality among African youth in the UK

This paper applies multi-scalar analytical framework to examine religious and spiritual practices among young Nigerian and Zimbabwean youth in the UK. It analyses how religion operates at individual, communal, national, transnational and intergenerational scales. Drawing from multi-sited ethnography and biographical interviews, the findings of this study demonstrate religion as neither an assimilationist tool nor a barrier to integration, but rather a strategic, hybrid resource employed by young migrants. At the individual level, participants combine traditional practices with digital and contemporary forms. Communally, religious and diaspora institutions facilitate cultural preservation and identity…

• EA
  Economic and Social Research Council

  Award: ES/X002276/1