A distinctive religious migration model emerged in the 1950s-70s: Plain Anabaptists attempted global evangelism by transplanting religious colonies abroad. Nearly 100 Beachy Amish-Mennonites pursued this in 1968 by moving to rural Costa Rica, starting a larger rural congregation and a smaller suburban one.

Their ambition was two-fold: communally demonstrate their Christian-inspired group lifestyle while pursuing religious conversion efforts among locals.

Difficulties arose as Beachys applied their habitus to a vastly different context. Some instincts undermined outreach, including prioritizing pre-existing in-group socio-religious debates versus pragmatic adaption aimed at proselytization effectiveness.

As peasant converts lacked full social and economic capital to achieve full inclusion, frustrating identity negotiations emerged among and within Beachy/native parties over cross-group connections.

Local class divisions emerged as Beachys applied capital and technologies inaccessible to locals, as with land acquisition, infrastructural development, and economic projects, which complicated definitions of a “successful” colonization effort.

These unstable colony experiments—lasting around a decade—explicates intersecting themes around ethnicity, global religious ambitions, leadership maneuvers, imported culture clashes, and meanings of change.

Though the two founding congregations have disbanded, members established new congregations across Costa Rica and eventually Nicaragua, responding to the initials settlements’ challenges with varying restructuring—especially regarding economics, dress/technology, and leadership styles—with more or less success.