Abstract
This article presents a few elements concerning the religio sity of the Italian immigrant. It is a result of a synthesis of the research carried out by the Centro Studi Emigrazione- Roma between 1970 and 1976 in Germany, Switzerland and Great-Britain.
After a general description of the sample of the population amongst which the survey has taken place, and after a re flection concerning the elements which, in a given situation, can influence the religious behaviour, the authors take into consideration four dimensions of the religiosity of Italian im migrants, as they emerge from the investigation :
— the acquaintance with the religious institution and the frequenting thereof ;
— doctrinal conformity and the expression of the faith ;
— consistency in ethical practice ;
— religious practice.
In their conclusion, the authors show how the question of the specificity of the migrants' religiosity still remains an unexplored field of research.
They insist moreover on how there has to be at least a passive discordance between the aspirations and the goals as they are expressed in the religiosity of the migrants, and the goals and means brought into play by the institutional Catholic Church.
They finally point out the fundamental question concerning the existence of an ethnic church. Does this ethnic church meet a group's particular needs, is it an answer coming from individuals living with the nostalgia of the church in their country of departure, or does it aim at standardizing the migrant's needs in order to allow the ecclesial institution to survive ?