'Muslim Voices' in the European Union: the Stranger Within Community, Identity & Employment
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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by DIAL UCLouvain 'Muslim Voices' in the European Union: The Stranger Within Community, Identity & Employment Project No: ERB-SOE2-CT96-3024 FINAL REPORT February 1997 to April 1999 Project Co-ordinator Dr Pandeli M Glavanis CGEM / University of Manchester 2 THIS REPORT This is an administrative and executive summary of an extensive research Project that was simply compiled by the Project Coordinator. Thus I want to note and acknowledge that this is an abbreviated summary of extensive research conducted by several researchers in eight European countries, and several research and analytical reports* written by several colleagues over the period of three years. I am indebted to their research and their reports, which have been used extensively throughout this report. In particular, however, this summary has made extensive use of the work of Emma Hughes, Laura Turney and Bobby Sayyid. Emma and Laura produced extensive summaries of the research carried out in the two phases of this Project and Bobby contributed significantly in the formulation of the analytical framework for the research and the suggested alternative paradigm (see executive summary). Their work is used extensively throughout this report and I am particularly indebted to their contributions. * The very extensive collection of documents that were produced during this Project are located at the following web site and can be accessed for academic purposes, as long as full credit is given to the authors and the Project. WEB SITE: http//les.man.ac.uk.cgem. At the Home Page select “Projects” and at the “Muslim Voices” page select “Research Papers”. This is password protected and you will need the following: Username: eumuslim Password: mus99lim For any further information about this Project please contact: Dr Pandeli M Glavanis CGEM / Sociology Williamson Building University of Manchester Oxford Road Manchester M13 9PL Phone: +44 161 275 2516 / 4794 Fax: +44 161 275 2462 E-mail: [email protected] Web Site: http://les.man.ac.uk/cgem 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Research Team 4 Abstract 5 Executive Summary of Preliminary Findings 6 1. Theoretical and Conceptual Considerations 11 2. Muslims in Europe: Social Exclusion and Marginalisation 17 Scientific Description of the Project Results and Methodology 25 Phase One: General Characteristics of the European Muslim Populations 26 Phase Two: The Employment of Muslims With Reference to Gender 38 Conclusions and Policy Implications 61 Islamophobia 70 Legislation 74 Political Exclusion 77 Education 80 Employment 82 Media 85 Inter-Faith Dialogue & Confidence Building 86 Foreign Policy 88 References 89 Appendix: Case Study Abstracts Belgium 92 France 97 Germany 100 Greece 102 Italy 105 The Netherlands 107 Switzerland 111 United Kingdom 114 Appendix two: Statistical Representation of Muslims in Europe 119 4 RESEARCH TEAM COUNTRIES / INSTITUTIONS RESEARCHERS BELGIUM (Partners) Luc Van Campenhoudt (Coordinator) Facultes Universitaires Saint Louis, Fabien Brion (Senior Research Fellow) Bruxelles Yves Cartuyvels (Senior Research Fellow) Ural Manco (Research Assistant) FRANCE (Partners) Dr Ahmed Jaballah (Coordinator) Ahonseri Abdel Hakim (Research Assistant) Institut Europeen des Sciences Humains Nader Chaaban (Research Assistant) GERMANY (Partners) Faruk Sen (Coordinator) Zentrum Fur Turkeistudien, Essen Cijdem Attaya (Research Assistant) Yasemin Ozbek (Research Assistant) GREECE (Sub-Contractors) Sotiris Chtouris (Coordinator) University of the Aegean Elsa Gouventa (Research Assistant) Iordanis Pssimenos (Research Assistant) Aspa Tesseri (Research Assistant) ITALY (Sub-Contractors) Giancarlo Moretti (Coordinator) Il Poliedro, Milano Guiseppe Pinturo (Research Assistant) SWITZERLAND (Partners) Fawzia Al Ashmawi (Coordinator) University of Geneva The NETHERLANDS (Partners) Paul Abell (Coordinator) Eltje Burr (Research Assistant) EGA / University of Amsterdam Anne Havelaar (Research Assistant) U.K. (Co-ordinating Partners) Pandeli M Glavanis (Coordinator) CGEM / University of Manchester N Ali (Research Assistant) H Gulalp (Consultant) E Hughes (Research Assistant) S Mian (Research Assistant) K Matsouka (Research Assistant) L Turney (Research Assistant) N Richards (Consultant) B Sayyid (Senior Research Fellow) CCSR / University of Manchester Angela Dale (Coordinator) M Brown (Research Assistant) 5 ABSTRACT There is a paucity of academic and especially research-based academic accounts of Islam and Muslims in Europe. This is particularly so with respect to the dramatic changes, within the European Muslim communities, that have become increasingly visible during the last decade; “Muslim Voices”. Furthermore at a time when Europeans are increasingly concerned in extending and developing the European Union, the issue of the role and status of ethnic (religious) minorities achieves central significance. It is hoped that this project has made a contribution by reference to a detailed study of one European ethnic (religious) community, namely European Muslims in eight European countries: Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, The Netherlands, Switzerland and UK. The project has noted that greater diversified forms of social exclusion and the marginalisation of this significant European minority have accompanied the increased socio-political and economic visibility of the European Muslims. This in turn has raised serious concerns at the political and policy level with regard to its implications for the project of an extended and more unified Europe. This poses some complex policy questions especially as the forms of social exclusion and marginalisation both differ significantly from one country to another and simultaneously exemplify cross-European trends. The same applies to the manifestations of Muslim identity which both exemplify particularities and specificities, derived from the particular experiences in respective European states, as well as pan-European and even global trends. The project also noted that Islamophobia, hijabophobia and the fear of Islamic Fundamentalism among Europeans have accentuated the deterioration of socio-political relations between the settler Muslim communities and their fellow citizens. This in turn has generated political manifestations, which are detrimental to any inter-faith or inter- community relations and in some cases threaten civil order and thus the very fabric of European civil society. Thus the Project has concluded that it is imperative for the future of a harmonious Europe that European policy makers (at the European, National and Regional levels) confront and challenge Islamophobia, in its various manifestations and in the various areas of social, political and economic life. Furthermore, the project argues that it is imperative that European policy makers cooperate closely with European Muslim associations and organisations in order to reduce the social exclusion and marginalisation of this very significant section of the European population. In this respect the Project has also made two central recommendations and various additional suggestions for policy formulation. The first recommendation operates at the epistemological level and argues that Western Social Science needs to reconsider its analytical and methodological approach to the study of European identities and this is highlighted in the executive summary. The second recommendation operates at the policy level and argues for the establishment of a European Directorate for Muslim Affairs as part of a wider European Commission for the Future of a Multi-Ethnic Europe. 6 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This Project started from the premiss that public discourse and policy-making have converged, so as to highlight some of the negative effects of the drive to enhance “economic growth and competitiveness”. In particular, this convergence has highlighted the manner in which this may have contributed to an increase of the “social exclusion and marginalisation” for different social groups and communities within the European Union. The Project also considered the need to produce new knowledge on both the forms and processes of “social exclusion”, which can contribute to the initiation of policies that will enhance “social cohesion” and effective processes of “social re-integration”, and thus contribute to “sustainable economic development”. Thus, we engaged in these debates with the intention to make a contribution, by presenting an analytical and comparative account, of a particularly important and increasingly “visible” European ethno-religious community, which exemplifies many of the “characteristics” of social exclusion and marginalisation, namely the European Muslims. This was done in eight European States: Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, Italy and Switzerland. The issues researched in this project are relatively new and innovative. This derives primarily from the fact that for more than a century Western social science had accepted that the assimilation of cultural and religious identities into a national society was a necessary precondition for socio-economic and political development. In fact, diverse and competing ethnic and religious communal identities were seen as a primary factor in dividing post-colonial societies and hindering development. European scholars perceived ethnic and religious identities as inimical to rational social planning and economic development, and instead highlighted the classical European model where, it was assumed,