@article{
author = "Đurić-Milovanović, Aleksandra and Maran, Mircea",
year = "2016",
abstract = "In this paper we have tried to show different aspects of the Romanian emigration
from the Serbian Banat, from the perspective of religious migration. The material collected
for the purposes of this paper came to be result of ethnographic research of the Romanian
neo-Protestant diaspora, based on interviews with pastors from the Serbian Banat and the
believers in the United States and Canada and available literature. The paper is divided
into two thematic areas. In the first part, we present a brief historical sketch of the Romanians
in the Banat region. The second part is devoted to the issues of emigration to overseas
countries – the United States and Canada and to the integration of Romanians abroad.
The issue of emigration of the Romanians to North America has occupied, so far, a number
of researchers who have been trying to explain the reasons for emigration in the recent
history. Although the topic of this paper is a special type of migration – religious migration,
it cannot be considered in isolation, but only in the broader context of migrations
and significance of religion for immigrant communities. Thus, we indicate several stages
in Romanian emigration, which are allocated according to the socio-economic and political
conditions that prevailed during the twentieth century. Beside Romanians, members of
different ethnic groups have emigrated from communist countries of East and South-East
Europe to West Europe, North America or Australia. Among them, representatives of different
minority religious groups were also present. Belonging to minority religious group
that had unrecognized and marginalized status in the home country was one of the reasons
for migration – escaping religious oppression. At beginning of the 20th century, after the
Romanians from the Serbian Banat joined and formed a large number of local neo-Protestant
communities, they found themselves in the position of a double minority – ethnic and
religious. As the position of the neo-Protestant communities in different social and political
circumstances was unfavorable, some religious groups (such as the Nazarenes), began
to emigrate very early on, not only for economic reasons, but mainly in search of religious
freedom. By going to the New World, the Romanians joined already existing neo-Protestant
or they established new communities, which would greatly affect their integration into
the new environment. In a secular society of the United States and Canada, in a variety
of different religious communities of Protestant origin, the Romanian neo-Protestants were
free to exercise their religious practices with no restraints within the new communities., U savremenim istraživanjima migracija, veza između religije i emigracije predstavlja važan element za razumevanje promena kolektivnih identiteta nakon iseljavanja, kao i odnosa prema matičnoj zemlji. U ovom radu, pored pregleda iseljavanja Rumuna tokom 20. veka, ukazujemo na ulogu religije na procese emigracije i integracije rumunske etničke manjine sa prostora srpskog Banata u Severnoj Americi. Kako je položaj verskih zajednica, naročito verskih manjina, u različitim društvenim i političkim okolnostima tokom 20. veka bio nepovoljan, pojedine verske grupe, kao što su nazareni, veoma rano počinju da emigriraju u potrazi za verskom slobodom. U slučaju Rumuna koji su pripadali neoprotestantskim zajednicama, religija se posmatra kao „kanal“ za migraciju, ali i put za bržu integraciju u novoj sredini.",
journal = "Religija i tolerancija, Religija i tolerancija",
title = "Religijski idenitet i migracije: Rumuni iz Banata u Severnoj Americi",
pages = "21-38",
volume = "25",
url = "https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_dais_5086"
}
