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Conversion from Shi'a Islam to Christianity: The Ontological Security of Iranian Asylum-Seeking Converts Living in Sweden
Abstract
Extant scholarship on ontological security in sociology has focused on the significance of home as a source of security. In this study I explore how conversion has become the most salient source of ontological security and provides a “sense of home” for Iranian asylum-seeking converts living in Sweden. The data on which this study is based are part of an ethnographic study of Iranian asylum-seekers who converted from Shi’a Islam to Christianity in Sweden. This ethnographic investigation thus contributes to the understanding of the significance of ontological security among migrant religious converts while examining the factors and processes contributing to the development of a sense of home and ontological security. In this study, I argue that when mainstream primary institutions “cease to be the ‘home’ of the self’ (Berger et al. 1974, 86) Iranian asylum-seeking converts turn to Christianity to find the source of significance. This conversion has been the secondary institution shielding them from existential anxiety and homelessness, while the primary institution has become meaningless. The new home that the secondary institutions offer has increased their sense of ontological security and minimized their existential anxiety. Through conversion, they have become ‘at home’ in the secondary institution, and their self has been re-institutionalized. Berger, P. L., B. Berger, and H. Kellner. 1974. The Homeless Mind. Great Britain: Pelican Books
Discipline
Sociology
Geographic Area
Europe
Sub Area
Diaspora/Refugee Studies