EURISLAM - Finding a Place for Islam in Europe

Project Description

The central research question of this project is: how have different traditions of national identity, citizenship, and church-state relations affected European immigration countries’ incorporation of Islam, and what are the consequences of these approaches for patterns of cultural distance and interaction between Muslim immigrants and their descendants, and the receiving society? We answer this question by focusing on three specific research questions: (1) What are the differences between European immigration countries in how they deal with cultural and religious differences of immigrant groups in general, and of Muslims in particular? This question has two aspects. First, the more formal aspect of legislation and jurisprudence, which we will address by way of gathering a systematic set of cross-national indicators using secondary sources. Secondly, cultural relations are also affected importantly by how conceptions of national identity, citizenship, church-state relations, and the position of Islam in relation to these, are framed and contested in the public sphere. (2) To what extent do we find differences across immigration countries in cultural distance and patterns of interaction between various Muslim immigrant groups and the receiving society population? On the one hand, we will focus here on attitudes, norms, and values. On the other hand, we will look at cultural and religious resources and practices. (3) To what extent can cross-national differences in cultural distance and patterns of interethnic and interreligious interaction be explained by the different approaches that immigration countries have followed towards the management of cultural difference in general, and Islam in particular?

To know more: Final integrated report

Consortium Information

Project Coordinator: Universiteit van Amsterdam, Jean Tillie

Partners:

• Universiteit van Amsterdam, Jean Tillie
• Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung, Ruud Koopmans
• Université de Genève, Marco Giugni
• University of Bristol, Paul Statham
• Université Libre de Bruxelles, Dirk Jacobs
• Sciences Po, Manlio Cinalli

Datasets

Dataset 1:  Indicators of Citizenship

Broad set of indicators impacting upon people of Muslim background, and which can be taken together to assess the overall institutional and political opportunity structures within which they are located across different milieus. Two main dimensions of the indicators are (1) individual rights and (2) cultural group rights.

Further Documentation: Final integrated report

How to Get the Data? To access the dataset, click here

How to Cite? 

Note: The available file is an expanded dataset on citizenship rights for immigrants integrating the original data. See here.

Dataset 2: Media Content Analysis 

More informal understandings about culture that resonate in dominant and majority-oriented public discourses. Cultural identity and ways of dealing with differences are studied by means of a content analysis of public debates in the mass media on Islam and the integration of Muslim immigrants.

Spatial coverage: Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, UK

Time Method:  Time series

Analysis Unit: Instances of claims-making

Universe: Claims about Islam and/or Muslims, claims by Muslims

Mode of Data Collection: Content coding

Sampling Description: Claims are coded by random sampling 750 articles selected from five newspapers in each country and covering the period from 1999 to 2008. Every country selected a maximum of five newspapers on the basis of their own criteria to increase representatives of the sample. The articles are sampled from all newspaper sections on the keywords Islam* / Muslim* / Moslem* / mosque / imam / Qur’an (Quran, Qur’ān, Koran, Alcoran or Al-Qur’ān) / headscarf / burqa (burkha, burka or burqua) / minaret. Two categories of claims are coded: (1) claims about Islam and/or Muslims in Western Europe, regardless of the actor; (2) claims by Muslims in Western Europe, regardless of the issue (explicitly Muslim). The following newspapers have been used as a source for the coding: De Volkskrant, Trouw, NRC Handelsblad, De Telegraaf, and Het Parool in the Netherlands; Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Blick, Tagesanzeiger, Le Matin, and Le Temps in Switzerland; Bild, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Welt, and Tagesspiegel in Germany; Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, The Guardian, The Sun, and The Times in the UK; Het Laatste Nieuws, Le Soir, Gazet Van Antwerpen, La Dernière Heure, and De Standaard in Belgium; Libération, Le Figaro, Le Monde, La Croix, and Le Point in France. The sampling was stratified in each country so as to have an equal proportion of claims from each newspaper.

Data Collection Instruments: Codebook

Further Documentation:  Integrated report on media content

How to Get the Data? To access the dataset, click here

How to Cite?  EURISLAM - Finding a Place of Islam in Europe: Media Content Analysis [Dataset]. Distributed by FORS, Lausanne, 2020.

Dataset 3: Survey Data

In Work package 3 of the EURISLAM project a survey questionnaire has been developed which enabled a study of the individual characteristics of Muslim immigrants. This survey is designed to answer one of the three specific research questions used in this project: ‘To what extent do we find differences across immigration countries in cultural distance and patterns of interaction between various Muslim immigrant groups and the receiving society population?’ On the one hand, we focussed on attitudes, norms, and values, particularly those relating to democratic norms, gender relations and family values, ethnic, religious, and receiving society identification, and attitudes towards relations across ethnic and religious boundaries. On the other hand, the study looked at cultural and religious resources and practices, such as language proficiency, adherence to various religious practices (e.g., attendance of religious services or wearing of a headscarf), interethnic and interreligious partnerships and marriages, the frequency and quality of interethnic and interreligious relationships with neighbours, friends, and colleagues, and memberships in social and political organisations of the own ethnic and religious group as well as of the receiving society. Both types of questions have been asked – of course where relevant in an adapted format – with regard to members of the dominant ethnic group of the receiving society, because, obviously, cultural distance and interactions are determined by the perceptions, attitude, and practices at both ends of the relationship. All these variables were gathered by way of a survey in each of the countries of a number of selected Muslim immigrant groups, as well as a sample of receiving society ethnics. The data of this survey is now published together with a Codebook.

The EURISLAM Dataset Survey-data published on October 6, 2015 has not been revised.

Spatial Coverage: Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, UK

Time Method:  Cross-section

Analysis Unit: Individuals

Universe: Sample of Muslims of  Moroccan, Turkish, Pakistani and Ex-Yugoslav origin, countries of a number of selected Muslim immigrant groups, as well as sample of receiving society ethnics.

Mode of Data Collection: Survey by Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) with online accessible questionnaires and data storage (using PHPSurveyor) of the foreign residents and their descendents from  the Maghreb (Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia), Turkey, the former Yugoslavia, and the Indian subcontinent (Pakistan and Bangladesh).

Sampling Description: The Muslim sample was constituted by making use of the following procedure: first, through an onomastic method (name recognition method), a sampling frame was constituted making use of digital phone book records (including both land lines as cellular phones), aimed at identifying people of Moroccan, Turkish, Pakistani and Ex-Yugoslav origin. Subsequently these people were phoned up by a polling agency in each country and screened whether they had indeed the aforementioned national origins and were themselves Muslims or of Muslim descent. In total 7714 people were interviewed: 1188 in The Netherlands, 1418 in Germany, 1247 in Switzerland, 1485 in the United Kingdom, 1191 in Belgium and 1185 in France. 

Data Collection Instruments: Codebook (including questionnaire), Revised codebook (including questionnaire)

Further Documentation: Integrated report on survey analysis

How to Get the Data? To access the data, click here

How to Cite? Hoksbergen, MSc H.W. (University of Amsterdam); Tillie, Prof. Dr. J.N. (University of Amsterdam) (2012): EURISLAM Survey-data & Codebook. DANS. https://doi.org/10.17026/dans-xx7-5x27

Selected Publications

Cinalli, Manlio; Giugni, Marco (eds.). 2013. “Public Discourses about Muslims and Islam in Europe: A Comparative Analysis.” Ethnicities 13 (2), Special Issue.

Statham, Paul; Tillie, Jean (eds.). 2016. “The Socio-Cultural Integration of Muslims in Western Europe: Comparative Perspectives.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 42 (2), Special Issue.

Statham, Paul; Tillie, Jean (eds.). 2018. Muslims in Europe: Comparative Perspectives on Socio-Cultural Integration. London: Routledge.