TRANSNATIONAL RELIGIOUS PLACE-MAKING IN SINGAPORE: A CASE STUDY OF THE CHURCH OF OUR LADY OF LOURDES

Abstract

In an increasingly interconnected world, international mobility has spawned new communities of migrants with more diverse and dynamic connections to place. Places of worship, in particular, have been transformed by the intersection of old and new religious communities. Adopting a transnational approach, this thesis investigates how religious places are shaped through interactions between migrant and local communities by examining the case study of new Indian Tamil migrants at the Catholic Church of Our Lady of Lourdes in Singapore. I contend that migrant agency in transnational religious place-making has contributed to continuities, as opposed to disruptions, in the ethnoreligious place identity of the church. Furthermore, contrary to conventional theories of conflict and contestation in the Euro American literature, I find that local and migrant communities negotiate differences through strategies of compromise and collaboration. These findings suggest that further research on migrants in the global South is crucial to develop a better understanding of the multiplicity of contexts and ways in which local and migrant communities interact in public spaces.