Religious diversity beyond the cosmopolis: Immigration and the religious field in the City of Turku, Finland

Abstract

International migration has fundamentally changed local population demographics in many corners of the world. This article discusses the religious implications of an increase in the population of immigrant origin in the city of Turku, Finland, which serves as an example of a regional immigration centre. Migration started at the turn of the 1990s and by 2006, about 9% of the city's population were first and second generation migrants with backgrounds mainly in Europe and Asia. The main countries of origin are Russia, Iraq, former Yugoslavia and Estonia. The migrants have brought increasing religious diversity to the local religious fields, including internal diversification of membership in many Christian churches (Lutheran, Protestant free church, Orthodox and Catholic), and have founded new Muslim, Buddhist and Mandaean congregations. This article argues that the founding of religious organisations is a main form of structural adaptation to the local social context. In addition, there is a discussion of religious activities and transnational connections in relation to immigration, as well as, the local, national and transnational implications of increasing globality.