Cosmological and Religious Fundamentals among Igbo Immigrants in Belgium: The Way Out of Segregation

Abstract

In a society such as Belgium, most Igbo migrants of the 1990s soon became immigrants without papers. It was only after regularization campaigns (as in January 2000 in Belgium) that a significant number of them could be regularized to stay. This means that most of them had a very diffcult time in the first years of their stay in Europe. This can best be described as a situation of anonymous liminality. That is the moment when Christianity and their cosmology enter their life in Europe. These help them in their self-rediscovery and reappraisal, as well as in their social reconnection. Liminality, traditional Igbo cosmology, an ethnicity profoundly mitigated by Christianity, and transnationalism are the four basic ideas for an understanding of the life practices of Igbo migrants in a Western society since the 1990s.