Religione, immigrazione e laicità degli Stati : equilibri mobili e dinamiche di cambiamento

This article aims at summarizing the main results of the essays collected in this volume by highlighting the common findings and the different outcomes of the selected case studies. In drawing the conclusions, it provides an outline of the development of the main key-concepts related to the renewed presence of religion in the public sphere, such as those of neutrality, secularism and citizenship, which represents the pillars of the current debate. At the same time, this work focuses on the role of immigration in the definition of new means and rules employed by nation states to accommodate religious differences. Moreover, it contributes to the volume by taking into account the case of Catholic immigrants of different nationalities in Italy and the USA, which has been largely overlooked by the literature on the subject. In doing so, it fills the gap concerning the role of the Catholic Church in providing a safety net for immigrants for what concerns education, welfare, accommodation and employment and, at the same time, allowing the newly arrived to sustain overlapping and transnational collective identities.