African religious ministers’ transition from expatriation to migration

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the contextual determinants of transition from expatriation to migration (TEM) among ministers of religion originating from the developing world. Design/methodology/approach The authors used in-depth analysis of narratives of four African religious ministers working in France, plus interviews with their five superiors and three host country national colleagues. Findings The findings point to personal-level, organisational-level and country-level contextual determinants, which come into play as levers or barriers in the “TEM” process. Originality/value The study identifies a new category of global mobility research at the intersection of expatriation and migration and develops a theoretical framework which points to the positive and negative influence of three-layered contextual determinants on how expatriated low-status church ministers from the developing world become migrants. The authors found a so far unreported determinant of the personal context: the role of a world view: very visible as “God centrality” in the participants. Results also shed new light on the international careers of this overlooked category of “non-traditional expatriates” from Africa.