From Double to Triple Minority: Romanian neo-Protestants from the Serbian Banat in the United States and Canada

Abstract

The paper is devoted to issues of emigration to overseas countries the United States and Canada, and of integration of Romanian neo-Protestants from the Serbian Banat into the Diaspora. Since the position of neo-Protestant communities in different social and political circumstances was unfavorable, neo-Protestant believers began to emigrate, not only for economic reasons, but mainly in search of religious freedom. The emigration of Romanian neo-Protestants was particularly intense from the mid-sixties, when the Yugoslav communist regime allowed its citizens to travel abroad. By going to the New World, now a triple minority, the Romanians originated in the Serbian Banat joined existing neo-Protestant communities or established new communities, which would greatly affect their integration into the new environment, but also the creation of a separate and in many ways specific identity.