ABSTRACT
Steven Vertovec recently noted that we are currently experiencing a ‘boom time’ for anthropological studies of migration.1 An important part of that boom over the last couple of decades or so has been a focus on migrant communities whose religious identities and practices have been visible, and certainly sometimes controversial, in ‘host’ countries. But the study of migration has also raised particular questions in relation to the methods and identity of anthropology itself. In the following discussion, I want to lay out as clearly as possible a few of the most salient methodological challenges as well as opportunities that have emerged for anthropologists working in this area. I am also asking a more implicit question, related to this volume’s concern with ‘translating’ between disciplines: Just how distinctive is the anthropological approach to migration and religion?
