During the first months of 2015, researchers from our project have presented preliminary results on a number of occasions.

On February 25, Anders Aschim took part in the workshop «Migration, Transnationalism and Catholicism» at Middlesex University London. His presentation had the title » – We do it for God – and for ourselves: The Polish construction of a Norwegian Catholic place of worship» and included a discussion of the construction of the Marian Garden outside of Vår Frue church in Ålesund.

During the workshop «Christian Migrants in the Nordic Countries» at Volda University College March 24-25, Anders gave a general description of the project, while Marte Giskeødegård and Lars Julius Halvorsen presented some of our findings, among them some preliminary results of the survey that we had performed in Ålesund and later repeated in Gursken.

Marte also gave a presentation at the Annual Meeting of the Norwegian Anthropoligical Association in Trondheim May 7-9. The title was «Polsk + Katolsk = Sant? Menighet, fellesskap og tilhørighet blant polske migranter på Sunnmøre» (”Polish + Catholic = True? Parish, Community and Belonging among Polish Migrants in Sunnmøre”).

During Fjordkonferansen 2015 (”The Fjord Conference”) in Loen, Norway June 18-19, Elisabeth Busengdal and Finn Ove Båtevik presented the paper «Alternative arenaer i integreringsarbeidet – den katolske kyrkja som bindeledd mellom arbeidsinnvandrarar og lokalsamfunn» («Alternative arenas in integration work: The Catholic Church as a Link between Migrant Workers and the Local Community»). The paper is based on the Master thesis of Elisabeth (MSc in Planning and Leadership) at Volda University College. We congratulate Elisabeth upon the completion of her degree.

Finally, on July 5, Anders, Marte and Lars presented a paper at the biennial conference of the International Society for the Sociology of Religion at Louvain-la-Neuve in Belgium. The title was «Immigration and Catholic Church Growth in Coastal Norway». Anders summarized the paper during the session «Current Concerns in Congregational Research».