Religiously Motivated Migration

Abstract

Self-interested motives are typically assumed when addressing migration causation. However, values, such as those from religion, can also motivate migration. This study develops a theoretical framework of religiously motivated migration. Inasmuch as values are derived from and reinforced within groups, religions with strong cohesion are more likely to act on one of three value-based religious migration motivations: sacred command, context conducive for religious practice, and awareness of potential membership losses from competition. This theoretical framework is demonstrated through Amish-Mennonite migration. Generalizability is suggested from a brief review of the Puritans, Jews, Muslims, Mormons, and Russian Mennonites.

Keywords::

• migration motivations
• value rationality
• self-interest
• Amish-Mennonite
• migration theory
• community migration

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I acknowledge the helpful comments of Joseph Donnermeyer and Edward Crenshaw. Funding sources: This research was conducted while under the support of fellowships from the Ohio State University Graduate School and the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Science's rural sociology program.

NOTES

Notes

¹ Abridged summaries are presented in Anderson (2012a).

² On receiving the packet, the writer reads others' letters, replaces her old letter with a new one, and mails the packet to the next person in the circle.

³ Notably, in the United States, the Wisconsin v. Yoder, et al. Supreme Court decision of 1972 effectively allowed plain people to operate their own schools. Conscription also ended with the termination of the Vietnam War.