Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the religious and gender dimensions of migration through the narratives of Pentecostal pastors who migrated from Sub-Sahara Africa to the Netherlands. How do religion and gender shape migratory processes? How is migration religionized? How is religious migration gendered?

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores the religious and gender dimensions of migration through the narratives of Pentecostal pastors who migrated from Sub-Sahara Africa to the Netherlands. It considers migration as part of a Pentecostal pastor's habitus, that is not (necessarily) a once-in-a-lifetime disruptive event but part of a pastor's trajectory on the broader transnational field of Pentecostalism. It furthermore explores how gender plays a role in shaping and narrating the meanings of both religious travel as well as the acts of creating Pentecostal missionary spaces in the Netherlands. It finally offers an intersectional perspective on how male and female pastors embody holiness as Christian role-models in African migrant communities in Europe. How do class, education and the kind of mobility that underlies migration shape the trajectories and positions of pastors? How is ' becoming a pastor' part of an individuals' career? How does this shape the mission activities and spaces that are created? The paper speaks to broader questions such as how do religion and gender shape migratory processes? How is migration religionized? How is religious migration gendered?