The At Home in Europe Project focuses on monitoring and advocacy activities that examine the position of minorities in a changing Europe. Through its research and engagement with policymakers and communities, the project explores issues involving the political, social, and economic participation of Muslims and other marginalized groups at the local, national, and European levels.
Currently, the project is examining the level and nature of integration of Muslims in 11 cities across Europe.
Why Muslims?
About 20 million Muslims live within the European Union, mostly in capital cities and large industrial towns. Muslims in Europe are a diverse and growing population of citizens as well as newly arrived migrants. Though the majority of Muslims are a longstanding and integral part of the fabric of their cities, many Muslims still experience discrimination and suspicion. As a result of the attacks in New York, Madrid, and London, Muslim communities in Europe today are under heightened scrutiny. Yet, there is also increasing acknowledgment of the prejudice Muslims experience and the social and economic disadvantages they suffer. This complex situation presents Europe with one of its greatest challenges: how to effectively ensure equal rights and social cohesion in a climate of political tension, a global recession, and rapidly expanding diversity.
Muslims in Europe
Through monitoring and advocacy, the At Home in Europe Project seeks to improve the integration of Europe’s diverse Muslim communities and other minority groups. The project is currently examining local government policies and practices in 11 EU cities to determine their effectiveness in achieving meaningful integration of Muslims. The 11 cities are Antwerp (Belgium), Copenhagen (Denmark), Marseille and Paris (France), Berlin and Hamburg (Germany), Amsterdam and Rotterdam (the Netherlands), Stockholm (Sweden), and Leicester and Waltham Forest–London (United Kingdom).
There is very little official data available on Europe’s Muslim and minority populations. What does exist is extrapolated from ethnic and country of origin data, which contributes to an inaccurate picture of Muslims and minorities in Europe and a lack of understanding of the trends, experiences, and concerns of Muslims.
The project’s city reports, focusing on participation and citizenship, the role and impact of the media, education, employment, and housing, health, and the criminal justice system, will offer new data on the situation in Muslim communities and recommendations for improving living conditions. After the release of the reports, the project will mount advocacy campaigns to push for the adoption of its recommendations on the local, national, and European levels.
Responding to Urban Challenges
Using in-depth interviews, focus groups, and a questionnaire with 200 Muslim and non-Muslim residents in each city, the At Home in Europe Project documents daily experiences and the ways in which residents interact with their city, neighbours, local government, and others. It also examines how the city engages with and consults its residents across a range of issues and what the city is doing to better understand its Muslim and minority groups. The project will identify the shared experiences and concerns of residents regardless of their ethnic or religious background, and highlight good practices on social inclusion that can be promoted to other cities in Europe and beyond.
Locally based city researchers analyse the data and draft reports. Small consultative meetings are held in each city to allow key stakeholders to offer their views on the report’s findings and recommendations before they are published.
In December 2009, a comparative overview report, Muslims in Europe: A Report on 11 EU Cities, was launched in London. The 11 individual city reports will be launched from April 2010 onwards.
Bringing About Change: Advocating for Inclusion
Alongside the publication of the reports, the At Home in Europe Project continues its advocacy activities and campaigns based on the recommendations in the reports. Working with local, national, and international partners, the project will facilitate roundtables and neighborhood debates, commission further research papers on emerging issues, and, most importantly, promote the active engagement of civil society.
Advocacy efforts will seek to shape and influence public policies on integration of Muslims and other minorities, and contribute to the discourse on minorities in Europe by challenging stereotypes and assumptions with a view to changing attitudes and behaviour. A number of activities will be designed to empower marginalized and minority communities in the 11 urban settings.
Valérie Amiraux
Professor of Sociology, University of Montreal, Canada
John Andersen
Department of Environmental, Social and Spatial Change, Roskilde University, Denmark
Jocelyn Cesari
Research Associate at the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies and Visiting Professor in the Anthropology Department and Divinity School, Harvard University, USA
Tariq Modood
Professor of Sociology, Politics and Public Policy and Director of the University Research Centre for the study of Ethnicity and Citizenship, University of Bristol, UK
Jonas Otterbeck
Associate Professor of Islamic Studies and researcher at the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies (CMES), Lund University, Sweden
Jan Rath
Professor of Urban Sociology and Director of the Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Werner Schiffauer
Professor of Comparative Social and Cultural Anthropology, Europa University Viadrina Frankfurt/Oder, Germany
Christianne Timmermann
Director of the Centre for Migration and Intercultural studies, University of Antwerp, Belgium
