A comprehensive new COST Action COREnet database has been launched, presenting the body of academic research at the intersection of religion and migration in Europe from 1950 to 2024.
The resource is designed to support researchers, policymakers, and other stakeholders in gaining a deeper understanding of how scholarship on this topic has evolved across countries, regions, and disciplines.
Publicly accessible through an online link, the database includes more than 5,000 academic publications, covering developments related to immigration to Europe, emigration from Europe, and transnational migration within the continent. It offers an invaluable overview of how religion and migration have been studied over the past seven decades.

This initiative was carried out within COST Action COREnet Working Group 1 and prepared by Dr Eglė Aleknaitė-Škarubskė. It represents a significant milestone in mapping the landscape of European scholarship on religion and migration and in fostering future research collaboration and knowledge exchange.

“This database helps to see areas not covered by researchers and religions understudied in the contexts of migration. New religious movements are among them”, expressed COREnet member Dr Eglė Aleknaitė-Škarubskė (Vytautas Magnus University).

“The database is a great asset for studying religion and migration, and I am sure it will be useful for people working in the field”, noted COREnet WG 1 leader Prof. Dr Tuomas Martikainen (University of Turku).

The database was compiled through an extensive collection process, combining searches across multiple bibliographic databases, reference lists, and keywords in titles and abstracts.
Inclusion criteria focused on:

• Thematic relevance: analyses addressing the intersection of religion and migration involving Europe, between the 1950s and 2020s; and
  
• Academic nature: peer-reviewed publications such as books, book chapters, journal articles, and PhD theses published between 1950 and 2024.

Each entry contains core bibliographic details, additional metadata such as DOIs where available, and abstracts.
A key feature of the database is its inclusion of research published in various European languages, often in national academic journals or by local publishers—works that tend to remain underrepresented in international scholarship. To enhance accessibility, English translations of titles and abstracts are provided; where none exist, translations generated via Deepl software are supplied.

The database was developed using Zotero, an open-source reference management platform. Zotero’s versatile interface enables users to search, sort, and tag publications according to host and home countries, migrant religions, and thematic areas. Guidance for database navigation can be found on the Zotero website.

You can access the COST Action COREnet database here.

Connecting Theory and Practical Issues of Migration and Religious Diversity (COREnet) is an interdisciplinary network that aims to produce, exchange and build knowledge and collaborations across Europe on the topic of migration and religious diversity. COREnet seeks to better explain, understand and analyse the pertinent issues and challenges, and to forward viable solutions and ways forward to support migrants, migration and religious diversity in an inclusive Europe.

View the Action website