“In France I discovered that being Catholic is a choice”: Religious transformations among Polish migrants in Île-de-France

Abstrakt

Based on five months of ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Paris and its surrounding areas, this article explores the religious transformations occurring among Polish migrants of the Roman Catholic confession. I argue that while religiosity in Poland is far from static, it undergoes more rapid changes in migrant settings, where individuals are exposed to religiously heterogeneous societies and encounter a diverse range of institutions offering pastoral care for Catholics. Migration often leads people to reflect on and consciously redefine their religiosity, leading some to become less religious, while others experience an impetus for deeper engagement with their faith. This article presents a variety of models of believing and practicing among Poles living in the Île-de-France region and adopts an intersectional approach in order to better understand the factors for religious transformations. While many working-class, particularly male, migrants gravitate towards an ethnic model of religiosity – represented particularly by the Polish Catholic Mission, an organisation serving Poles abroad – working-class women and middle-class migrants of both sexes often adopt a more individualised approach to religion.