Migration for Mission: International Catholic Sisters in the United States by Mary Johnson et al. (review)

Migration for Mission is a sociological study, sponsored by Trinity Washington University and the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), of women religious who were born outside the United States but who now live and minister in that country. It is grounded in extensive qualitative and quantitative research, incorporating information on more than 4,000 individual sisters from 83 countries on six continents. Findings are shown in tabular and graphic form, as well as in excerpts from individual interviews, textual responses to survey questions, and transcripts from focus group discussions. The result is a substantial and layered discussion presenting extensive information about an increasingly important and visible part of the American Catholic population.

While most of the volume is devoted to the international sisters of today, the authors importantly place their existence and their stories in a context that is nearly three centuries old, as the American church has embraced and relied upon immigrant religious since its earliest days. A rich chapter on these historical roots begins the discussion, grounded in the authors' familiarity with the growing scholarship on the subject. Then their attention turns to the modern era, organizing the text around the multiple ways that sisters have found their way to the United States; the demographics, satisfaction and concerns of these religious; intercultural and legal challenges they face; the particular case of international sister-students; and the ministries these women undertake. The study ends with a short but helpful consideration of the impact of such "migrants for mission" upon both the global and domestic church, as well as a series of recommendations about what might be done to welcome and minister to and with such sisters more effectively in the future.

Although the book's quantitative data are impressive and effectively presented, this reviewer found the voices of the sisters themselves to be of greatest interest. In every section, these women are allowed to speak for themselves, conveying clearly and powerfully both the positive and more difficult aspects of their American experiences. Their stories are diverse, but the authors also do a good job of noting common threads and dominant trends that the data reveal. The result is an account that is coherent and multi-layered. It concludes that, while most international sisters are positive about their lives and experiences in the United States, there are issues of language, cultural disparities, and law that that recur as problems for many of them. International sisters in the United States today reflect both similarities to and differences from their nineteenth-century precursors. They are less likely to be of European or Canadian origin, and more likely to be Asian, African, or Latin-American in heritage.

For this reviewer, perhaps the most interesting chapter was that on student sisters: those who came to the United States primarily to study and whose intent was always either to return to their countries of origin or to pursue missionary ministries elsewhere. In this discussion, one was also introduced to American sisters who, because of aging and declining memberships, saw their opportunities to host and educate women from around the world as a way to maintain their own ministries to the global church and to bring younger women into their own communities, however temporarily. Readers learn about Assumption College for Sisters in New Jersey, for instance—the last "sisters' college" in the United States, whose existence and enrollment have been enriched by women from nations where education is not so readily available. Even at larger institutions serving more diverse populations, such as Boston College, these sister students serve as witnesses of the ongoing vitality of religious life in the twenty-first century, as well as the intercultural forms of expression it takes in today's world.

All in all, Migration for Mission is an important study that is both valuable to scholars and...