Evangelical Christians and migrations: borders between secularism and belonging par- ticularism

Abstract

Brazil has become one of the countries that receive most migrants in the last few years, and evangelical networks have been essential agents on helping the immigration process. However, these support actions are often given on boundaries of a religion’s perspective, where evangelical Christians would be priorized in a milestone of human rights. Mediation between church and state bureaucracy does not happen under a secularism perspective, where every migrant or refugee from any religion is sheltered. In this article, we want to problematize those borders between universalism of rights and belonging particularism to evangelical Christianity, focusing on the dynamics between migration and religion involving Primeira Igreja Batista de Curitiba, in the neighborhood of Batel, Organização Mais no Mundo and other evangelical associations in the city of Curitiba, our universe of analysis.