Religion in Times of Crises: Responses to Covid-19 among Religious Migrant Groups in Sweden

The purpose of this project is to provide contextualized understanding of the role of local religious congregations and leaders in times of crises among non-Christian migrant groups in Sweden.

The project examines the experiences of Covid-19 and the related public health restrictions among nine Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, and Sikh congregations in the regions of Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö.

The project brings together four researchers with expertise in religion and civil society who will document and analyze (1) responses to the pandemic and public health restrictions among leaders and representatives of local congregations and their social relief work for people in need, and (2) religious understandings of Covid-19 as well as alterations and adaptations of religious beliefs, places, and rituals in the congregations of these migrant communities.

The project aims to provide understanding of the role of the congregations and the congregational leaders as arenas and agents of the civil society for the furtherance of public health and the role of religious beliefs, spaces, and rituals for understanding and coping with a pandemic.

It will present empirical data and analyses to compare how different congregations among the largest migrant communities in Sweden respond to a pandemic while they constitute minority groups that in various ways and to varying degrees are exposed to marginalization or invisibility in the Swedish society and sometimes also in their home countries.