Innvandrarkyrkje og integrering

Summary This paper investigates how members of a Burmese Baptist church in Sandnes, Norway, integrate into Norwegian religious life and society. To a smaller extent it investigates how the same individuals integrate into other parts of society, such as School, work life and civil society. Qualitative interviews with 13 Burmese immigrants, living in the municipalities of Sandnes and Gjesdal, reveal that the ethnically orientated church provides important services that help them become and stay both Christian and Burmese. In religious aspects of life, this church is so important that it keeps them from going to other churches, even including the local Baptist churches that are a part of the same Norwegian Baptist union. The vast majority of informants have a social network that is only constituted of members of the same ethnic and religious group. Inside this grout, the bonding social trust is very strong, but at the same time they have almost no social trust in other individuals. Chin Burmese refugees make up about 95 % of the members of the church. The chin majority nurture a common language and culture that prevents the last 5 % of the members from being integrated into the church. These 5 % tend to use other churches more frequently and have more friends that belong to other ethnic and religious groups. Informants in their twenties are better integrated in the Norwegian society as a whole. They visit other churches more often and have many friends that belong to other ethnic groups. But even in this group, there is no one who reports having a close friend that is ethnic Norwegian. Besides a handful of services through the year, there is almost no contact between the local Baptist churches in Sandnes and Gjesdal. As an exception, I have found that the informants living in Gjesdal have a common Norwegian “helper”. This helper is not a Baptist. In my analysis I have used the following theories: John W. Berry – acculturation, Norbert Elias – the Established and the outsiders, Pierre Bourdieu – cultural capital, Robert D. Putnam – Social capital and Thomas H. Eriksen – globalization