Muslim-immigrant & Refugee Integration in Europe Cultural and - PDF document

Muslim-immigrant & Refugee Integration in Europe Cultural and Biological Racism, Muslim immigrants, and refugee exclusion in the context of the European refugee crisis. Abstract This study sets the focus on Muslim immigrant exclusion and provides deeper insight to what are the determinants of these exclusionary sentiments in the context of Europe’s refugee crisis. Many scholars theorize that Muslim exclusion in Europe is based on Cultural Racism –i.e. immigrants are excluded based on culture, language or religion differences. As opposed to the US in which Biological Racism – i.e. the individual is reduced to the phenotypical characteristic of skin color. This study takes on a “bright and blurry” boundary for immigrant integration approach in order to assess the Cultural/Biological Racism theory. Contrary to what previous scholars have theorized, the findings suggest that race is a brighter boundary than language or religion for Muslims. However, when compared to other immigrants, Muslims show an added exclusionary effect based on religion. Hence, we find evidence for both Cultural and Biological Racism. In light of these results, Muslim exclusion is better understood adopting an intersectionality framework in which both, religion and race interact – among other factors. These findings prove to be relevant to Muslim immigrant integration in light of the current influx of refugees into Europe. Future steps consist of finding detailed variation across different countries in Europe. Introduction Muslim discrimination is a highly complex and understudied field within the social sciences. There is little agreement throughout the literature that touches upon this issue. Most studies that tackle the Muslim question assume discrimination is based on cultural traits such as language, religion, or cultural values. Others view Muslim discrimination as a consequence of resource competition. Very few studies argue race is a source of discrimination for Muslims. This is the first study to address Muslim discrimination taking on an eclectic view of all three sources of discrimination: race, culture, and resources competition. The focus is set on Europe in light of the massive influx of refugees of Muslim origin. The recent trends in European immigration during the last decade are unprecedented in migration history. In 2011 a number of contentious events of revolutionary nature emerged in several countries south and east of the Mediterranean. This phenomenon, known by many as the Arab

Spring, spread through countries like Tunisia, Lybia, Egypt, Syria, Argelia, and Morocco, creating very unstable political and economic situations. Economic crisis, civil unrest, toppling governments, and in many cases civil war, compelled many to migrate to Europe (De Bel-Air 2016). Since 2011, and especially after 2014 on account of the Syrian civil war, the number of migrants traversing the Mediterranean routes towards Europe has increased many-fold. As can be seen in figure 1, the numbers have been increasing steadily since 2011, reaching in 2015 a total of 1,012,957. Parallel to this high number of immigrants flowing to Europe, the concerns of EU citizens for immigrants has become the most important one, even surpassing the economic situation –this is especially noteworthy, as Europe still finds itself in the midst of an economic recession. As can be seen in figure 2, in 2014 33% of EU citizens responded the highest concern was the item Economic Situation , followed by Unemployement (29%), The state of Member States’ public finances (25%), and in fourth place Immigration (23%). In 2015, these items were still in the top four highest concerns, however; Immigration escalated to the first position with 38% of the EU citizens indicating it is the most pressing concern for Europe. Additionally, in fifth place we find Terrorism is an important concern for Europeans. Figure 2. Most important concerns for EU citizens , 2014-2015. Economic situation Unemployment The state of Member States' public finances Immigration Terrorism Rising prices/inflation/cost of living EU's influence in the world Don't know Climate change Crime Energy supply Taxation The environment Pensions Other None 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 Percent 2015 2014 Source: Eurobarometer 2014 & 2015.

Over the last 20 years exclusionary feelings towards Muslim immigrants has increased drastically (Street et al. 2008).This anti-Muslim sentiment coexists with the fact that a large number of these refugees come from countries of Arabic culture, and are Muslims. However, very little is known about the nature of this anti-Muslim sentiment. This study sets the focus on Muslim immigrant and refugee exclusion and provides deeper insight to what are the determinants of these exclusionary sentiments. To do so, the study adopts Richard Alba’s “ Bright and Blurry” theoretical framework to European Social Survey Data. Theoretical background The literature on the sources of Muslim discrimination is very divided. Part of the reason is the absence of acknowledgment of the complexity of Muslim discrimination. The term “Muslim” is highly conflated with racial, cultural, and religious differences with Europeans. Some scholars address the issue by focusing on the religious aspect of Muslim discrimination and dub it Islamophobia (Hopkins and Kahani-Hopkins 2006). Some argue that the term Muslimophobia is more appropriate due discrimination towards Muslims as people, rather than Islam the religion (Cheng 2015). Others make the case for a racialization of Muslims on account of recent political contexts such as the rise in terrorist attacks in the name of Islam (Sander 2006). This study adopts a more eclectic vision of Muslim discrimination by conceptualizing the category “Muslim” as one that includes racial, cultural, and religious differences at once. There are three main theoretical bodies that explain Muslim exclusion: Ethnic competition theory, Intergroup contact theory, and Cultural Racism. Perceived threats: Ethnic competition theory. Ethnic competition theory posits that the larger a migrant group is, the higher the level of perceived threat on behalf of the host population. In turn, this leads to higher levels of anti-Muslim sentiment (Connor 2010). Perceived threat is operationalized in the literature in the form of perceived cultural threat or perceived economic threat. Hence, in the case of a cultural threat, the habitual interpretation is that if the “outgroup” is large enough, it will undermine cultural practices and norms of the host society (Blake 2014). In the case of perceived economic threat, the prevailing idea is that the larger the number of “outgroup” members, the higher the competition over the scarce resources. There is a number of studies that have found perceived economic and cultural threats –at the individual and country level- were significant predictors of both immigrant and Muslim exclusion (Mclaren 2003; Quillian 1995). The Contact Hypothesis: Intergroup contact theory .