Immigration and Integration of Religiously Active Youth in Montreal: Rethinking Minority Status
Based on two ethnographic studies conducted in Montreal, we compare the relationship to public space and to the notion of integration among young Congolese Pentecostal who are religious believers and practitioners with that of their Chiite Lebanese peers. We first describe the processes of religious initiation and the religous and social activities of these young people in the mosques and churches. We show how the representations they have regarding their minority status in the host society impact their participation in public life. In both cases, their political behaviour reveals definitions of identity that hinge on different transnational practices. Finally, we revisit the notions of host society, public space, and integration by looking at transnationalism as a lifestyle that we link with young people’s mode of commitment in public life of both groups.