Comparative study of networking and cultural adaptation of Coptic diasporas

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K02053
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Religious studies
• Research Institution: Toyo University (2018); Kyushu University (2016-2017); University of Tsukuba (2015)
• Principal Investigator: Iwasaki Maki 東洋大学, 国際共生社会研究センター, 客員研究員 (10529845)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: コプト・キリスト教 / ディアスポラ / 移民 / エジプト / カナダ / フランス

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This research focuses on diaspora communities of Coptic Orthodox Christians who are religious minority in Egypt. Fieldwork have been done in Suburb of Paris, France, Montreal, Canada and Kyoto and Tokyo, Japan to investigate how these different diaspora communities adjust the new environment and how they connect to other Coptic communities in Egypt and other migrated countries. The following are what this research revealed: Members of Canadian Coptic diaspora community are relatively highly educated and economically wealthy. Many of them feel they get along with Canadian society. On the contrary, among French community, first generation who migrated to France at their own will is not relatively well off and is not able to use their working skills they earned in Egypt. A lot of them tend to feel they are isolated and alienated in French society. Japanese Coptic Orthodox Church has just opened in 2016 and a lot of members are graduate students or expatriate or temporal employees.

Free Research Field

宗教学、中東研究、ディアスポラ研究、移民研究、コプト・キリスト教研究

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

現在、北米、欧州の各社会では、諸外国からの移民が急激に増加し、その受け入れ政策をめぐって大きな議論となっている国が少なくない。日本もまた、新たな法改正により、今後、外国人労働者の増加は必至である。そのような全世界的な趨勢のなかで、本研究が明らかにしたカナダのコプト・ディアスポラが収めつつある成功、フランスのコプト・ディアスポラが抱える課題、また、誕生したばかりの日本のコプト・ディアスポラの展開は、今後、より重要な意味を持っていくと考えられる。