Religion and Responses to Migrants and Refugees in Europe: The Catholic Church in Comparative Perspective

While there has been a great deal of attention focused on variation in European attitudes towards refugees/migrants and efforts to address the needs of refugees and migrants, very little of it has considered the effects of religion on such attitudes and efforts. This project will employ a mixed-methods approach and an interdisciplinary perspective to address three major questions: How do Europe's Catholics compare to Europe's Protestants and Jews in terms of their receptiveness to refugees and migrants? What explains the variation among European Catholics in the degree to which they are receptive to refugees and migrants? Where the Catholic Church has been most active in efforts to receive refugees and migrants, what effect have these efforts had on the their wellbeing (i.e., sense of their own dignity) and how have they affected perceptions of the Catholic Church and Catholic identity in Europe? Dowd will address these questions in collaboration with researchers at partner institutions in Europe. This project is a collaborative and fieldwork-intensive project that focuses on research themes at the core of Kellogg’s mission: human development and democracy.