[URBANTH-L]Panel on Transnational Migration and/or Religion

[Kenneth Guest]

I'm looking for an existing panel at the SANA meeting in Merida that might need one more contributor or some folks who might be interested in forming a panel with me on transnational migration and/or religion. Please see the description of my paper below

All the best,

Ken Guest

Assistant Professor

Baruch College, CUNY

Kenguest at earthlink.net



Title: Transnational Villagers, Transnational Gods: Social, Economic and Religious Networks Between New York and Fuzhou, China and their role in the Immigrant Experience

Over the past fifteen years tens of thousands of mostly rural Chinese have arrived in New York's Chinatown to seek economic opportunities in below-minimum-wage jobs in restaurants, garment shops and the construction industry. They come from towns and villages around Fuzhou, the capital city of Fujian Province on China's southeast coast, across from Taiwan. Like the Cantonese who migrated to Chinatown before them, the Fuzhounese have brought with them their religious beliefs, practices and local deities. Utilizing one such Fuzhounese religious community, the He Xian Jun Buddhist temple, as the central research location, this study will examine the transnational religious network created between Fuzhou and New York and its role in creating a transnational village in which people, money, ideas and even deities flow back and forth between China and the United States.