Transnational Islam: The Role of Religion in Indonesian Migrants’ Citizenship Struggles
Rachel Silvey (University of Colorado at Boulder)
This paper examines the ways in which Indonesian migrants’ membership In Islamist religious organizations can facilitate partial citizenship in some destinations (Saudi Arabia), while contributing specific barriers to citizenship in other national contexts (U.S.). It focuses on the ways these inclusions/exclusions are constructed by state policies and through gender norms, and how and why they differ across these two places. It explores the different ways in which women’s and men’s religious practices and symbols intersect with the citizenship ideals which partially incorporate or selectively exclude them, and how both citizenship laws and religious practices support or prohibit particular family formations.
