Short-term international immersion mission trips are an emerging form of relationship between religious organizations in the U.S., their members and foreign communities. Immersion trips reconfigure old missionary relationships while offering transformative experiences aimed at mobilizing religious social activism. However, despite their popularity among Mainline Protestant and Catholic congregations and religious universities, little is known about their production, impact on U.S. religious organizations, or effect on prosocial behaviors. My dissertation pursues these questions by analyzing the origins and effects of religious immersion trips to Mexico facilitated by BorderLinks, a faith-based immersion trip agency in Tucson, AZ. Theoretically, this research brings together different conceptions of religion to better understand the activist mobilization process.

Surveys with over 500 BorderLinks’ participants and congregant control groups will determine any effect of immersion trips on religious participation, giving, and political activism. Participant observation with nine congregations and religious college groups will detail the role of religious cultural resources in the production of transformative experiences. Finally, post-trip interviews will analyze types of religiously-motivated responses to immigration and border issues. Overall, this research probes an emerging form of religious social action, develops our understanding of religion in activism, and highlights religious responses to a critical social issue.