Opening the Church Doors: Muslim Institutional Integration in Germany

• In Event: Integration and Bias in Ethnically Diverse Societies

Abstract

In the wake of the mass migration of millions of political and economic migrants and refugees to Europe, many of them Muslim, the question of how to integrate Muslim populations has become increasingly politically salient. At the same time, this policy battle is being played out in the context of growing anti-Muslim populism and radical Islamism. Especially in Germany, the recipient of the most migrants, where the nativist Alternative fur Deutschland has become a legitimate political actor over only three election cycles, the question is immediate.
While socio-economic factors contributing to integration have been explored extensively in the literature, a deep analysis that incorporates both the domestic religious context and the religious characteristics of the Muslim communities themselves has not been implemented to construct a story of religious integration. Further, focus on national-level integration in the literature ignores significant variation at the subnational level- the level at which government policies actually affect how lives are lived. Through the lens of subnational incorporation of Muslim religious entities, a lightning rod for both Muslim advocates and nativist challengers, this paper uses detailed case studies of Muslim integration in Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg to explore the interaction between religious, political, and bureaucratic factors. I find that while higher levels of right-wing extremism are a hurdle to the incorporation of Muslim entities, Muslim civic organization can compensate and provide entrée into bureaucratic integration.

Author

• Emma Rosenberg, New York University