The impact of religious involvement on migration

I draw from existing literature on migration decision-making theory and res earch on the importance and meaning of religion in individual lives to exam ine how religious involvement and membership affect the odds of migrating. lit addition, I develop a concept called location-specific religious capita l. Frequent church attendance and involvement in the social aspects of one' s religious organization are proposed as forms of location-specijfic religi ous capital. Membership in strict and conservative religious organizations is viewed similarly for their requirement of large investments. As individu als invest more time and energy in the development and maintenance of locat ion-specific religious capital, they will be increasingly hesitant to migra te out of their community and, thus, out of their church. The specific hypo theses are tested with data collected between 1980 and 1997 from a U.S. nat ional sample of adults. The results are complex and provide some support fo r the migration-discouraging influence of location-specific religious capit al. Differences correlate with age and presence of children in the househol d.