Abstract
This paper aims to explore how faith-based communities and its religious ethics determine pathways of migrant incorporation. The analysis focuses on the case of Venezuelan migrants transferred from Roraima by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also known as "Mormon") to a medium-sized city in the province of the state of São Paulo. Through semi-structured interviews with Church members and migrants, participant observation in services, and ethnography in facilities of the Operação Acolhida in Boa Vista, the text addresses the organizational structure of the Church and its involvement in the reception of Venezuelans at the border and in the process of "interiorização" to other Brazilian states. By investigating the Mormon doctrine of "self-sufficiency" and the precarious nature of the labour incorporation of newcomers that it promotes, we argue that churches are important social institutions of arrival, although of limited reach.
Keywords:
interiorização; Mormon; Operação Acolhida; incorporation; Venezuelan migrations