Abstract: Brazilians have been migrating to the United States and establishing their own religious congregations since the 1980s. However, today, these religious institutions not only receive first generation immigrants. Using Rational Choice Theory and data extracted from a five-month ethnographic study in an evangelical church and a spiritist center in a southeastern city in the United States, I examine how Brazilian religious congregations are transitioning from first generation to their second generation, as well as to a non-Brazilian membership. Two important variables in these processes are analyzed comparatively: language and cultural interaction.
Keywords:
evangelicals; spiritists; immigration; congregations; USA