Integration Of Muslim Immigrants Progressing Well In Germany

The integration of Muslim immigrants in Germany is advancing well compared to the rest of Europe, the "Religion Monitor 2017" study published Thursday by the Bertelsmann Institute suggests

BERLIN, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 25th Aug, 2017 ) : The integration of Muslim immigrants in Germany is advancing well compared to the rest of Europe, the "Religion Monitor 2017" study published Thursday by the Bertelsmann Institute suggests.

The Guetersloh-based Bertelsmann Institute commissions an annual report on the socio-economic and political participation of Muslims in their host countries. For this year's "Religion Monitor", researchers from the University of Duisburg-Essen surveyed 8,500 Muslims and non-Muslims from Germany, France,Britain, Austria and Switzerland.

Germany's 4.7 million Muslim inhabitants were particularly well integrated into the domestic labor market, the study authors found. Only five percent of Muslims were jobless, compared to seven percent of the non-Muslim population.

German Muslims thus came second in the study's country comparison for unemployment differentials, just behind Britain (Muslims and non-Muslims both four percent) and followed by Switzerland (six percent vs.

four percent),Austria (11 percent vs. three percent) and France (14 percent vs eight percent). However, the study authors noted that Muslims were more likely to be in precarious and/or low-income positions and further cautioned that the figure did not include refugees who had recently arrived.

When asked about the attachment to their host countries, 64 percent of Muslims responded that they felt "very attached" to Germany. The country ranked third in the category behind Switzerland (75 percent) and France (68 percent), but ahead of Britain (45 percent) and Austria (37 percent).

Stephan Vopel, a spokesperson for the Bertelsmann Institute, said that the extent to which individuals identified with a country did not necessarily correlate strongly with their success in other categories of socio-economic integration.

"I would consequently not overestimate the importance of a few percentage points in difference for attachment to host countries," Vopel told Xinhua. Despite Germany's overall positive progress, Vopel warned that there was still room for improvement in the integration of Muslims in the country's education system.

"The German system of early school selection tends to lead to an entrenchment of the socio-economic status already held by children's parents," he said. Additionally, every fifth German non-Muslim surveyed in the study indicated that they did not want to have Muslim neighbors, while devout Muslims in particular complained that they were discriminated against in their careers.

"It is somewhat paradoxical that German Muslims are exceptionally well integrated in some regards, such as in the labor market, on the one hand, and yet face more hostile attitudes from non-Muslims than is the case in France," Vopel told Xinhua.

He noted that while Germany was currently undergoing a transformation into a country of immigration, the historical German concept of citizenship was still relatively unchanged. Nevertheless, the Bertelsmann Institute's expert Yasemin El-Menouar expressed confidence that new initiatives such as faster labor market access, language, and citizenship courses would also ensure the successful integration of over one million recently-arrived Muslim refugees in Germany.