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Authors

Lehel Peti

Topic: Migration and Pentecostalism in a Mendicant Roma Community in Eastern Moldavia

Abstracts

The paper analyzes the changes in the religious and social life of a Roma Pentecostal community in an ethnically mixed village, and the relationship between migration practices and conversion to Pentecostalism. The first part of the paper presents the Roma community and outlines the circumstances under which Pentecostalism emerged among them. Thereafter, the two types of migration practiced by the Roma will be presented: migration focused mainly on northern European countries, based on panhandling, and migration aimed at longer term residence in the countries of Western Europe. The analysis points to the importance of foreign migration-related income in the changing situation of the Roma, as well as the role of the Pentecostal religion in the modernization changes that began in the Roma community.

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