Faith-Based Actors, Refugee Relief, and Diversity Governance in Europe

This paper investigates how faith-based diaspora organisations (FBDOs) become involved in refugee relief and diversity governance within Europe. Focusing on Turkey-originating FBDOs, it shows that these actors operate at the intersection of migration governance, security regimes, and civic integration frameworks, which simultaneously constrain and enable their activities. Although frequently positioned as objects of suspicion and regulatory control, these organisations mobilise translocal ties linking countries of residence, and countries of origin - transforming religious spaces and charitable infrastructures into sites of care, mediation, and everyday governance for the refugees. Empirically, the paper draws on qualitative fieldwork conducted with Turkey-originating faith-based organisations in Germany, Sweden, and the UK, combining participant observation in organisational meetings and community activities with semi-structured interviews with organisational representatives and volunteers. By analysing refugee assistance as a field of translocal engagement and diasporic agency, the paper contributes to broader discussions on the contested role of faith-based actors in European diversity governance and refugee reception crisis.