Finding a new home through conversion: the ontological security of Iranians converting to Christianity in Sweden

Extant scholarship on ontological security in sociology has focused on the significance of home as a source of security. In this article, I argue that when Iranian asylum-seeking converts lose faith in mainstream primary institutions (such as the public and political institutions formed and shaped b...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Religion, state & society state & society, 2022-03, Vol.50 (2), p.224-239
Main Author: Öztürk, Ebru
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anxiety
Asylum seeker
Autocracy
Christianity
Conversion
home
Homeless people
Institutions
ontological security
Ontology
Political asylum
Political institutions
Religious conversion
Security
Sociology
Sweden
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Summary:Extant scholarship on ontological security in sociology has focused on the significance of home as a source of security. In this article, I argue that when Iranian asylum-seeking converts lose faith in mainstream primary institutions (such as the public and political institutions formed and shaped by Iran's religious autocracy), they turn to Christianity to find a source of such significance. This conversion is a secondary institution that shields them from existential anxiety and homelessness, while the primary institution has become meaningless. The new home that this secondary institution offers increases their sense of ontological security and minimises their existential anxiety. Through conversion, they have become 'at home' in the secondary institution, and the self has been re-institutionalised.
ISSN:0963-7494
1465-3974
1465-3974
DOI:10.1080/09637494.2022.2061828