Second-Generation Muslims in European Societies

Second-generation Muslims in European societies Comparative perspectives on education and religion FenellaFenella FleischmannFleischmann Cover design Kitty van der Veer, Proefschrift.nu Layout Renate Siebes, Proefschrift.nu Printed by Ridderprint, Ridderkerk ISBN 978-90-393-5499-5 © 2011 F. Fleischmann All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author. Second-generation Muslims in European societies Comparative perspectives on education and religion Tweede generatie moslims in Europese samenlevingen Vergelijkende perspectieven op onderwijs en religie (met een samenvatting in het Nederlands) Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit Utrecht op gezag van de rector magnificus, prof.dr. J.C. Stoof, ingevolge het besluit van het college voor promoties in het openbaar te verdedigen op vrijdag 4 februari 2011 des middags te 4.15 uur door Fenella Fleischmann geboren op 15 juli 1983 te Friedberg, Duitsland Promotoren: Prof.dr. K. Phalet Prof.dr. A.J.M.W. Hagendoorn Co-promotoren: Dr. M.R.J. Crul Dr. N. Vanbeselaere Manuscript committee: Prof.dr. A. Heath (Oxford University) Prof.dr. M. Verkuyten (Utrecht University) Prof.dr. B. Mesquita (University of Leuven) Prof.dr. P. Scheepers (Radboud University Nijmegen) This dissertation was written as a joint research doctoral thesis following a co-operation agreement between Utrecht University (UU) and the University of Leuven (KUL) with award of a double doctoral diploma. Contents 1 Introduction 9 1.1 Second-generation Muslims in European societies – research 10 agenda and approach 1.2 Research questions and aims 20 1.3 Data sources 28 1.4 A comparative approach 33 1.5 Overview of the book 45 1.6 Notes 47 2 Ethnic composition and second-generation school attainment 49 2.1 Introduction 50 2.2 Data and method 56 2.3 Results 59 2.4 Discussion and conclusion 65 2.5 Notes 68 3 The role of structural neighbourhood characteristics and ethnic density 71 in second-generation school attainment 3.1 Introduction 72 3.2 Data and method 80 3.3 Results 83 3.4 Discussion and conclusion 96 3.5 Notes 101 4 Integration and second-generation religiosity: individual and 103 institutional perspectives 4.1 Introduction 104 4.2 Data and method 112 4.3 Results 120 4.4 Discussion and conclusion 125 4.5 Notes 129 5 Intergenerational religious transmission and acculturation 131 5.1 Introduction 132 5.2 Data and method 136 5.3 Results 139 5.4 Discussion and conclusion 145 5.5 Notes 147 6 Identity multiplicity among the second generation: Compatible or 149 conflicting patterns of ethno-religious and civic identification? 6.1 Introduction 150 6.2 Data and method 156 6.3 Results 159 6.4 Discussion and conclusion 164 6.5 Notes 168 7 Politicisation of Muslim identity 171 7.1 Introduction 172 7.2 Study 1 177 7.3 Study 2 184 7.4 General discussion and conclusion 189 7.5 Notes 192 8 Conclusion 195 8.1 Introduction 196 8.2 Overview of findings 196 8.3 Contributions and limitations 203 8.4 Conclusions 212 APPENDIX 215 The TIES-surveys in Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden General aim and procedure 216 Country-specific sampling and fieldwork 217 Comparison with reference data 219 Comparability across cities: the selectivity of the first generation 224 Notes 225 Bibliography 231 Summary 253 Samenvatting (Summary in Dutch) 257 Acknowledgements 261 Curriculum vitae 265 Introduction 1 Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Second-generation Muslims in European societies – research agenda and approach Research problems and groups The presence of Islam and Muslims in Western Europe has become a focal point in debates about immigrant integration and the management of cultural diversity, both among social scientists and policy makers. Popular and political interest in the topic skyrocketed with the major terrorist attacks in New York, Madrid and London, which were followed by a number of realised and attempted attacks all over Western Europe. In conjunction with the public perception of Islam and Muslims as a security threat, Muslims in Europe are commonly devalued as a group which is unfit or unwilling to integrate; which places religious values such as the honour of the Prophet above core principles of Western liberal democracies such as the freedom of expression (the most prominent example here being the so-called “Danish cartoon crisis”); which oppresses women; and which aggressively tries to dominate European public spaces, for instance through the building of highly visible mosques with minarets. Several European societies today are debating the legal ban of full-cover veils or the banning of headscarves from schools and other public service institutions. The building of minarets was recently ruled out in a referendum in Switzerland. Members of European majority populations are questioning whether or to what extent they should support or even tolerate expressions of the Islamic religion in Europe. Against the backdrop of this polarised and often hostile political climate, a local-born second generation of Muslim minorities struggles to find their place in European societies. These public debates raise new questions regarding the intergenerational integration of immigrant minorities from majority Muslim countries. Is their religion a bridge or barrier to their inclusion into European societies – and what is the role of public prejudice or discrimination against Muslims and Islam? Or is the focus on religion in public debates misleading because problems regarding the intergenerational integration process are better explained by the social class and migration background of labour migrants from majority Muslim countries? Against the background of these broad questions, this book analyses structural integration and religiosity among Turkish and Moroccan minorities in North-Western Europe. Using a cross-national and cross-ethnic comparative perspective, I aim to contextualise the process of intergenerational integration in relation to structural integration and religion as two major explananda. The analytical focus is on the experiences of two Muslim minority groups, the children of Turkish and Moroccan immigrants in North-Western Europe. Throughout this dissertation, the term ‘Muslim’ is applied to individuals who self-categorise as adherents of (a variant of) Islam in surveys. This self-categorisation as member of the social group of Muslims is a form of self-labelling and refers to what Verkuyten (2005) calls ‘identification as’, which needs to be distinguished from ‘identification with’ as an indicator of the level of commitment 10 Introduction Chapter 1 to a social identity. Whether and to what extent these self-categorised Muslims actually practice their religion or attach importance to their religious identity then becomes a topic of research. However, it is important to emphasise that I only consider as Muslims those members of the Turkish and Moroccan second generation who self-categorise as such, instead of externally labelling all members of minority groups who originate in majority Muslim countries as Muslims. The latter approach yields ‘nominal’ (M. Brown, 2000) or ‘attributed’ (Dassetto, 2003) Muslims and is problematic for research on religiosity because the thus classified individuals may not consider themselves Muslims. On the other hand, to the extent that intergenerational integration is shaped by boundary drawing mechanisms and religion functions as a boundary marker from the perspective of the majority society, the distinction between self-categorised and externally identified Muslims may be less relevant as the bright boundary of Islam (Alba, 2005) is likely to apply just as well to those members of minority groups originating in Muslim majority countries who do not self-categorise as Muslims. Rather than surveying all Muslim minority groups in Europe, the analysis in this dissertation is limited to the local-born children of Turkish and Moroccan immigrants in major cities in Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden. The terms Turkish and Moroccan in this dissertation therefore refer to the national origin of the parents of the research subjects, the second generation. Much of the research in migration studies relies on current nationality for the categorisation of immigrants, but this is problematic for the local-born second generation since most hold the citizenship of their birth country, though not all receive it automatically upon birth. Similar to the use of the term Muslim as a marker of a person’s religious identity, the use of the terms Turkish and Moroccan as markers of ethnicity may be questioned. Using the country of birth of one’s parents as an indicator of ethnicity is particularly problematic for members of minority groups within the parental origin country, such as Kurds or Assyrians in the case of Turkey or Berbers in the case of Morocco. For the study of ethnic identification of the second generation, it would be more appropriate to rely on self-categorisation based on open-ended questionnaire items of the type “How do you describe yourself?” (Portes & MacLeod, 1996a). These definitional problems should be kept in mind whenever reference is made to the Turkish or Moroccan second generation in this dissertation, which throughout refers to the national origin of their foreign-born parents and may not reflect their ethnic self-categorisation. Instead of

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