Ausländer!: Pentecostalism as Social Capital Network for Ghanaians in Vienna.

Abstract

Is not religion perhaps a coping mechanism in the land of the Ausländer (‘foreigner’; the typical appellation for immigrants in Austria)? In fortress Europe’s increasing rebuff of immigrants, particularly Africans seeking ‘refuge’ on the continent, those already resident in these countries experience much rejection and dejection in an environment that confers a new social identity on them, that of the parasitic ‘outsider’ (Ausländer) intruding into a land not his/her own. This social reality partly accounts for an increasing number of trans-national Pentecostal churches emanating from African entrepreneurship being exported to Africa’s diaspora-self in Europe. This paper seeks to illustrate how Ghanaians in Vienna find in such transnational movements a public space for negotiating identity, self-worth and the indispensable networking for survival while foraging in foreign land. Pentecostal communities offer many Ghanaians in the diaspora context a home and support network unequalled by the mainline churches. Much as Pentecostalism offers an associational life congenial to Africans in the diaspora (Vienna), it, however, detracts from fully inserting adherents onto the diasporic map. In other words, Pentecostal enclaves as subcultures belie members’ complete benefit of integrating into their new country of residence.