Migration and religious diversity in Italy. Exploring an evolving and contentious process

The surprising and rapid growth of religious pluralism can be considered one of the main transformations driven by migratory processes in Italy. Elaborating on original results collected for different research projects, we discuss the ways in which migrants have re-settled and re-adjusted their faiths in a new political and social context as well as we explain how State institutions and local territories have reacted to this historical change. The analytical themes will be, on the one side, (a) the modes of re-sacralisation of Italian geography and (b) the lived experience of migrants in their religious places. On the other side, we examine (c) the current and main ways of regulating religious diversity, including the institutional barriers that these express, and the (d) counterstrategies that migrants adopt to continue to practise their faith despite fears and forms of opposition. To grasp the intersection of these dynamics, we consider what we also call the «Italian paradox»: a diffused presence of religious minorities in cities or post-industrial areas which, however, frequently lacks adequate juridical and civic recognition. The analysis of this misalignment, between «de iure and de facto religious pluralism», will be the final argument this essay proposes.