Islam, religiosity, and immigrant political action in Western Europe

Abstract

The issues of migration and immigrant political integration in western democracies have become increasingly intertwined with debates on religion, particularly Islam. To date, however, we have surprisingly little systematic research on how religious beliefs are related to immigrants' political engagement. In this study, we argue that religion has a capacity to mobilize immigrants politically but the strength of this relationship depends on immigrant generation, religiosity, and the type of religion. Using survey data collected as part of the European Social Survey (ESS) 2002-2010 in 18 West European democracies, our analyses reveal that religion is indeed linked to political engagement of immigrants in a complex way: while belonging to a religion is generally associated with less political participation, exposure to religious institutions appears to have the opposite effect. Moreover, we find that, compared to foreign-born Muslims, second-generation Muslim immigrants are not only more religious and more politically dissatisfied with their host countries, but also that religiosity is more strongly linked to their political engagement. This relationship, however, is limited to uninstitutionalized political action.

Behind the ethnic–civic distinction: Public attitudes towards immigrants’ political rights in the Netherlands

“…In both studies we focused on Muslim immigrants who are at the heart of the current European debates on immigration and immigrants, particularly in relation to minority rights and immigrant political action (Aspinall and Song, 2013;Just et al, 2014). In the Netherlands, almost all Muslims are non-natives and predominantly of Turkish, Moroccan and Surinamese origin but the public debate focuses on the overarching category of Muslims (Sniderman and Hagendoorn, 2007).…”

The Effect of Anti‐Discrimination Policies on Middle Eastern and North African Immigrants in 24 European Countries

“…Accordingly, since the inclusion of religion reduces the number of cases by almost 50 per cent, it is not presented in the results here. The reason for the low response rate in regards to religion is that many individuals avoid answering these questions in Europe due to cultural norms and the data show that this phenomenon is especially prevalent among immigrants (see more: Maliepaard and Phalet, ; Just et al., ).…”

Untitled

“…What this means for elder care becomes very clear when including data about immigrants. Because of lower political participation of these groups (Aleksynska 2011;Just et al 2014), little attention is paid to their concerns in relation to elder care. Accordingly, the regulations in place and the professional elder care on offer do not cater to the specific needs of this group of elderly and do not properly match what they consider to be appropriate care.…”