Focusing on a Christian-majority area in Lahore, Pakistan, this chapter explores a history of internal migration and change, which offers Asian perspectives on minority-majority dynamics in the study of religion and migration. The research departs from a puzzle, namely the overriding desire to stay among surveyed young adults. Given that Christians in Pakistan are a small minority who, while legally protected, often face discrimination, how might one interpret these results?
Drawing on fieldwork in Youhanabad, including focus groups and interviews with sixty people, conducted by a team of seven researchers and students with different positionalities, supplemented by insights from a survey (n = 533), we unpack the Christian diversity and international ties, set in the context of how people lived through a terrorist attack (2015), offering new perspectives on interreligious co-existence.
The chapter traces how the migration of Catholic priests and sisters (within Asia) is a prominent feature and explores the roles of Catholic orders in education provision across faiths, in and beyond this area, before returning to the “desire to stay” in Youhanabad, which we shed light on by drawing on qualitative data, exploring perspectives on hope for the future, education and livelihoods, and interreligious co-existence in Youhanabad.
