Immigrant language groups in religious organisations

During the process of migration, many immigrants undergo a number of changes in their relationships to their religious organisations. One factor that has emerged as especially important in immigrants’ congregational affiliation is the availability of language groups in immigrants’ mother tongues. This article examines how these groups are formed and the roles they play in the lives of their members. The study is based on interviews conducted with Chilean-Swedes living in the Malmö-Lund area in Sweden. All participants were connected to Catholic, Pentecostal and Jehovah’s Witness congregations in various ways. The study concludes that the overall tendency is that language groups serve a number of positive purposes for their participants. In addition to the prominent linguistic factor, the language groups were also significant for social contact with other Chilean-Swedes and the intimacy experienced in the groups. The interviews also revealed that language groups were at times experienced as negative by some of their members. Keywords: religion, immigrants, congregation, language group