The impact of religious involvement on migration

I draw from existing literature on migration decision-making theory andresearch on theimportance and meaning of religion in individual lives toexamine howreligious involvement and membership affect the odds of migrating. In addition, I develop a concept called location-specific religious capital. Frequent church attendance and involvement in thesocial aspects ofone's religious organization are proposed asforms of location-specific religious capital. Membership in strict and conservative religious organizations is viewed similarly for their requirement of large investments. As individuals invest more time and energy in the development and maintenance of location-specific religious capital, theywillbeincreasingly hesitant to migrate out of their community and, thus, outoftheir church. The specific hypotheses are tested with data collected between 1980 and1997from a u.s. national sample ofadults. The results are complex and provide some support for the migration-discouraging influence of location-specific religious capital. Differences correlate with age andpresence ofchildren in the household. What role does religion play in the migration behaviors of Americans- especially migration that can distance individuals and families from their place ofworship and socioreligious networks? Recently, research on the determinants of migration has moved beyond the very general and inclusive demographic push-pull and "reasons-for-moving " approach in favor of developing explicitly defined variables associated with moving and staying (e.g., De long et al. 1995). Yetno research to date has examined how migration is responsive to individual religion. Migration *1 am grateful for insightful comments andguidance from Chris Ellison and anonymous reviewer