Migration, religion and identity: a generational perspective on Sikh immigration to Spain^*

* This article is part of the doctoral thesis of Nachatter Singh Garha, ‘Indian Diaspora to Spain: Demo-Spatial Analysis and Neighbourhood Relations’ (UAB).

ABSTRACT

Spain is a recent addition to the places of the Sikh diaspora, with 21,000 individuals recorded in 2016 (1% of the Sikh diaspora, but half of the total of Indian immigrants in Spain). This immigrant group shows clear generational components and is marked by expulsion from the political and economic spheres of their homeland, Punjab. Our main objective is to study how generational differences affect the socio-demographic structure, the migration process (reasons, routes, ways and destinations), religious practices and identity issues in the diaspora. We use a qualitative methodology. Primary data were collected in 60 in-depth interviews of Sikhs of diverse socioeconomic profiles and generations, from 25 municipalities of Spain during 2015–2016. We find that all the generations respond to the internal and external boundaries of the community in different ways which shape their views regarding the preservation and reproduction of religious practices and identity in a foreign setting.

KEYWORDS:

• Sikh religion
• diaspora
• identity
• generations
• immigration
• expulsions
• Spain

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Nachatter Singh holds a Master degree in Territorial and Population Studies (2014–2015) from CED, (UAB) and another Master degree in Demography from European Doctoral School of Demography, EDSD (2016–2017). He is currently a Ph.D. Student at the Centre for Demographics Studies (CED). His on-going research focuses on the study of international migration with special focus on Indian diaspora and demo-spatial analysis of diversity, segregation and vulnerability of immigrant minorities in Spain.

Andreu Domingo is currently Deputy Director at the Centre for Demographic Studies (CED) at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), where he has been researcher since 1984. He holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from UNED. His main research interests are International migration and the theoretical aspects of Demography.

ORCID

Nachatter Singh Garha http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4506-680X

Andreu Domingo http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3270-1939

Notes

* This article is part of the doctoral thesis of Nachatter Singh Garha, ‘Indian Diaspora to Spain: Demo-Spatial Analysis and Neighbourhood Relations’ (UAB).

Additional information

Funding

This article was sponsored by the R&D&I project, ‘Diversity, Segregation and Vulnerability: Socio-demographic Analysis’ financed by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, Spain [grant number CSO 2014-54059-R].