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Garapich, Michał P. and Mirga-Wójtowicz, Elżbieta (2024) 'There is a wide path and there is a narrow path' - transnational negotiations of ethnic and religious identity among Polish Roma Jehovah's Witnesses. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. pp. 1-18. ISSN 1469-9451
The literature on Roma mobilities within migration studies has, so far, not explored sufficiently the role of religion in ethnic mobilisation and minority politics, with all the attention on the political and social significance of Pentecostalism, especially in Romania. Through an ethnographic focus on the unexplored social worlds of Roma in Polish-speaking Jehovah’s Witnesses congregations, this article aims to bridge this gap and brings forward a unique perspective on the dynamics of transnational religious movements, ethnic mobilisation and the complexity of Roma experiences of mobilities. Merging conceptual perspectives on religious conversions in migratory contexts, theories of Roma religious and ethnic activism and the gendered dimension of resistance within patriarchal contexts, the article brings forward Roma narratives about conversions, the relatability of Witnesses’ teaching to Roma culture, as well its ability to resist some of its aspects. In our view, conversions are made meaningful through Roma's understandings of purity, piety and patriarchal family structure and a deeper significance of their marginalisation in wider society. At the same time, the movement's popularity is strongly linked to their migratory experience and their relations with non-Roma Polish-speaking members of congregations, pointing to the role of complex hierarchies of whiteness and belonging in Britain.
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