Telling Tales of Migrant Workers in Hong Kong: Transformations of Faith, Life Scripts, and Activism

Migrant domestic workers confront a multiplicity of difficulties and challenges. Within the ‘host’ context, some join religious groups that offer comfort by replicating the religion of home; others experiment with new religions or denominations that appeal to them within the modern global context; others ignore or reject religion altogether. This article offers an ethnographic analysis of the religious stories and activist experiences of four women migrant workers in Hong Kong. These women are not typical of the spectrum of religious possibilities facing Hong Kong's migrant workers, but each woman's tales point to the ways in which migratory experiences shape lives and religious perspectives in complex and unexpected ways. The migratory context provides new imaginative resources with which to reconsider religious perspectives, familial and gender expectations, reformulate pasts, and re-envision futures.