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Over the past four decades, the U.S. has become increasingly dependent on international priests to help run Catholic parishes, schools, hospitals, missions, and more. 90% of dioceses in the U.S. today rely on foreign born priests. Many of these priests are from India and they come on the R-1 temporary religious worker visa - a lesser researched visa category in South Asian diaspora studies that does not require a salary, only compensation. Thomas' research shows that 64%+ of missionary priests from India come from dominant caste backgrounds. Based on chapters from my forthcoming book on Indian Catholic priests in Eastern Montana and Western North Dakota, in this talk I discuss caste, remittances, and the intricacies of the R-1 religious worker visa.

Sonja Thomas is a professor of women’s gender and sexuality studies at Colby College. Her research focuses on gender, race, caste, and Christianity in India and the U.S. She is the author of Privileged Minorities: Syrian Christianity, Gender, and Minority Rights in Postcolonial India. Her second book, Indians and Cowboys, on Catholic priests from India in rural America, is forthcoming from University of Washington Press. She is an associate editor of South Asia: The Journal of South Asian Studies, is a member of Waterville Maine's K-12 Social Justice and Equity group, and is an appointed commissioner with Maine’s Permanent Commission on Racial, Indigenous, and Tribal Populations.

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