3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
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Item Rethinking the impact of the church on the dynamics of integration of Congolese migrants in Johannesburg: a case study of Yahweh Shammah Assembly(2011-10-07) Nzayabino, Vedaste;The embeddedness of religious issues within contemporary global phenomena increases the role religion plays in migrant’s spiritual, social, and economic lives. This study sought to understand how migrants’ churches help situate foreigners within a transforming South African society. Concretely, using a qualitative research approach, the study sought to establish whether affiliation to a migrant’s church is a salient form of belonging that fosters migrants’ transience and shapes their motivation to integrate into South African society. The population of this case study consisted of a sample of thirty-nine Congolese migrants, members of Yahweh Shammah Assembly (‘YSA’ in short), a Pentecostal church located in Hillbrow, Johannesburg. The church’s membership is predominantly made of Congolese migrants, with few members from other African nationalities. Overall, this study found that the desire to integrate into South African society remains the main option and ideal for many international migrants coming to South Africa. However, migrant’s integrative imaginaries and welfare trajectories are often obstructed by a growing xenophobia within South African society. Many migrants seek full integration and membership within the community but the host society prevents them from achieving this ideal. Acknowledging the fact that a number of migrants came to South Africa with a view not to stay but to use the city of Johannesburg as a transit point to third countries abroad, yet this study found that a significant number of migrants wish to leave Johannesburg because it refused to accommodate them. In this context, the study identified three groups among Congolese community: those in quest of permanent settlement in South Africa, those in transit, and those who want to exit due notably to xenophobic backlash in the country. The study revealed that YSA was able to integrate Congolese migrants who could not otherwise integrate into host religious institutions. Being primarily an ethnic church in terms of Mullins’s model of life-cycle of ethnic churches, YSA focuses on meeting the needs of its members first, before serving the religiously and culturally ‘outsider’. The results of this study together with the rich literature reviewed provide, therefore, a significant theoretical contribution to the understanding of the place of religion within contemporary complex debates on identity and belonging within diasporic communities. It also offers great contribution to the current literature on the dynamics of belonging and integration of migrants in host societies. In addition, this research contains substantial theories and discussions salient to the understanding of the sociology of religion, particularly the interactive relationship between the ‘secular’ and the ‘religious’. Lastly, conducted during the xenophobic outbreak in May – June 2008, this study also gives a more detailed understanding of the dynamics of the widespread xenophobic sentiment and their impact on the integration of migrants in South African society.Item The role of refugee established churches in the lives of forced migrants: a case study of Word of Life assembly in Yeoville, Johannesburg(2006-11-17T11:36:41Z) Nzayabino, Vedaste‘Making things our own’. This is one of the ultimate goals pursued in establishing churches within refugee communities. The refugee church has become both a channel of material support and spiritual factory where social and emotional fabrics are strongly rewoven among people linked together by a common culture and shared experience. This is a qualitative case-study of the Word of Life Assembly (WOLA), one of the independent churches established by forced migrants in Yeoville, Johannesburg. Established by a Congolese pastor, the church counts a total of about 450 members, mostly refugees (about 98%), predominantly from the Democratic Republic of Congo (more than 95%). The study seeks to explore the role of the church in the lives of refugees, and determine the ways forced migrants understand this role. More importantly, it was found that WOLA has been able to integrate refugees who could not otherwise integrate in local or domestic churches in Johannesburg. Language and spiritual problems have been identified as the major barriers to integration. In this respect, the study has revealed four levels of integration within WOLA church; that is, integration of a refugee into a refugee community, religious integration, and cultural integration. The fourth level of integration consists of integration of the refugee church itself. In this regard, it was revealed that, as far as refugee church is concerned, not only church members are to integrate into host community and/or churches, but the [refugee] church itself – labelled thus as a ‘foreign’ entity – is to seek its own integration into and approval from the South African community in general, and host faith-based institutions in particular. Moreover, the study revealed that, in an attempt to meet the diverse needs of its members, WOLA offers a wide range of special services and activities, notably material and social assistance, and pastoral counseling. Finally, WOLA has become a strategic place where religious and socio-cultural identities are easily built and maintained among members, and where social networks are interwoven among refugees themselves, and between refugees and their country of origin.