The Catholic Church in the lives of irregular migrant Filipinas in France: Identity formation, empowerment and social control

Most Filipino migrant women came to France without their families and are presently undocumented. To confront their situation, many Catholic migrant Filipinas renew their religious devotion and reinforce their church affiliation, which contributes to the construction of their own religious space. Here I present the results of empirical studies I conducted on this population, studies that did not specifically focus on religion but during which the influence of religion in the lives and activities of these women soon became obvious. For them, churches represent a social institution supporting their social and economic incorporation in France. However, other Catholic Filipinas try to stay away from religious gatherings to avoid gossips and prejudice. These two contrasting attitudes of migrant Filipinas point to the central role of religion in the structuration of immigrant populations and of the Church as a centre of collective identity and as an instrument of social control