sociologist, author, teacher
Sustaining Faith Traditions:
Race, Ethnicity, and Religion among the Latino and Asian American Second Generations
The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 fundamentally transformed this country’s religious landscape. Since then, the United States has welcomed millions of immigrants and their religious traditions, mostly from Latin America and Asia. Today, immigrants and their children make up over 60% of the population in cities like Los Angeles and New York. They are changing not only what Americans look like, but how they worship. This exciting volume offers a fresh perspective on America’s changing religious landscape by focusing on the experiences of new Americans. Contributors draw on ethnography and in-depth interviews to examine the religions of the children of Asian and Latino immigrants. Covering a diversity of second-generation religious communities, including Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, and Jews, the contributors highlight the ways in which race, ethnicity, and religion intersect for these new Americans.
Praise for Sustaining Faith Traditions
"[T]he volume presents in rich empirical detail the way religion remains important in many different ways for Latino and Asian second-generation migrants in the USA. Sustaining Faith Traditions allows us a glimpse into the ways in which the needs of migrant groups change over time and the role religion can play in their life, thus reaffirming its importance."
Carolina Ivanescu
Social Anthropology
"This book is particularly suited for scholars of immigrant religion, as well as those of racial and ethnic identity, as it increases the understanding of the complexity of race, ethnicity, and religion for second generation immigrant communities. It is a well-written and organized volume...provides empirical research from leaders in the subfield of immigrant religion."
Jennifer L. Le
Religious Research Association Review
"A well cited book for immigrant religion scholarship."
Philip Conner
Sociology of Religion
"A generation of scholars has arisen that makes clear the complex, shifting, but organic links between religion and racial and ethnic identities. Sustaining Faith Traditions demonstrates that the sociology of religion is alive, well, and relevant in today's America. Casting off the simplistic assimilation theories of earlier scholars, they chart a sophisticated course among race, religion, class, and context to explain the experiences, affiliations, and identities of second-generation Americans. In vivid ethnographic and interview studies, the contributing authors take you inside houses of worship, families, and communities. They illuminate how second-generation Korean, Arab, Mexican, Chinese, Filipino, and Jewish Americans live their religions and experience their identities. Students of religion, immigration, multiculturalism, and ethnic identity will want to read this book."
Paul Spickard
University of California, Santa Barbara
"Sustaining Faith Traditions includes an impressive array of new studies examining how race, ethnicity, and religion permeate the lives of second-generation Asian and Latino immigrants. Taken as whole, the collection shows how diverse faith traditions transform 21st-century America, offering a nuanced understanding of ethnoreligious hybridity and racialism."
Min Zhou
Professor of Sociology & Asian American Studies, UCLA, and author of
Contemporary Chinese America