Socialist cosmopolitanism meets global Pentecostalism: charismatic Christianity among Vietnamese migrants after the fall of the Berlin Wall

Abstract

By focusing on Pentecostal charismatic Christianity, this article explores the encounter of Vietnamese boat people in former West Germany with their political counterparts, Vietnamese contract workers in former East Germany and those from ex-COMECON countries, who became asylum seekers in reunified Germany. It argues that Vietnamese migrants, formerly divided by different political attitudes and experiences, create social relations by joining global Pentecostal networks. However, this new unity cannot be understood as a new form of diasporic ethno-nationalism, despite the fact that many believers live primarily within Vietnamese networks, some of which extend transnationally to Vietnam. Once former contract workers from Russia, Poland, the Czech Republic and other East European countries become mobile believers, most of their proselytizing activities are based on global Christian sociality. Reconstructing their previous global socialist networks, new believers are spreading the Gospel in ex-COMECON countries and in late socialist Vietnam.

Keywords:

• Socialist cosmopolitanism
• Pentecostalism
• Vietnam
• Germany
• boat people
• contract workers

Acknowledgements

This article is a result of my research project on Transnational Networks, Religion and New Migration, funded by the German Research Foundation. I would like to thank my colleague Kristine Krause, the anonymous reviewers, and Nina Glick Schiller, Tsypylma Darieva and Sandra Gruner-Domic, the editors of this special issue, for their stimulating comments.

Notes

1. Council for Mutual Economic Assistance.

2. I have changed all personal names as well as the names of the churches.

3. According to the legend, Loreley, a beautiful young woman, lured navigators of this river to their doom with her alluring singing, much like the Sirens of ancient Greek myth (Hüwelmeier 2010e).

4. I started visiting the Berlin branch of the Holy Spirit Church from 2006 onwards. During my fieldwork, the branch of about fifty believers moved to three different places due to high rents they had to pay as they were guests in buildings owned by other churches, run by Germans. I participated in Sunday services and visited church members at home and in their workplaces, such as small flower shops and snack bars. I also took part in evangelization campaigns and in prayer camps in other places in Germany. By also conducting fieldwork in Hanoi, I focused on return migrants and their transnational connections.

5. According to the latest national statistics (http://www.statistik-berlin.de/pms2000/sg03/2006/06-09-19b.pdf), 12,426 Vietnamese with legal status are living in Berlin. An estimated 120,000 Vietnamese are currently living in reunified Germany including non-documented migrants and migrant contract workers from former socialist countries such as the Czech Republic, thousands of whom arrived in Germany and applied for asylum after the fall of the Wall.

6. Many of these congregations are not legalized and do not want to register with local authorities.