1st Edition
Social Integration and Intermarriage in Europe Islam, Partner-Choices and Parental Influence
Intergroup friendships and marriages are regarded as the most important indicators of immigrants’ social integration, as they represent the most intimate ties that can exist between minority and majority group members. Drawing on unique, large-scale, cross-national survey data, encompassing natives as well as Turkish, Moroccan, Pakistani and ex-Yugoslav migrants across several Western European countries, this book offers extensive analyses of intermarriage, as well as attitudes towards intermarriage and intergroup dating in general. Conceptualising the willingness or otherwise to marry outside one’s ethnic or religious group in terms of social distance, Social Integration and Intermarriage in Europe provides new evidence that different conceptions of family life, gender relations and religiosity are crucial for understanding why individuals can be reluctant to engage in intergroup relationships. With attention to the question of the role played by state policies in explaining immigrant social integration, the book explores differences across Western Europe and the ways in which each state regulates immigration and the accommodation of Islam. A detailed and rigorous study of attitudes to intermarriage, social integration and the role of the state, Social Integration and Intermarriage in Europe will appeal to policy makers and scholars of within the social sciences, with interests in migration, interethnic relations and social integration.
Contents: Introduction; A framework for the study of social integration: the nexus of religion, parental influences and partner choice; An overview of partner choices among Muslim migrants and natives in Western Europe; Intraethnic marriage among immigrant children in Western Europe: transnational spouse or co-ethnic spouse?; Intermarriage attitudes among minority and majority groups in Western Europe: the role of attachment to the family, religious in-group and perceived distance; The intergenerational transmission of intermarriage attitudes and interethnic contact: the role of Turkish migrant parents; Attitudes towards intergroup dating among youth in Brussels: more evidence for the role of parents?; Conclusion; Appendix; Bibliography; Index.
Biography
Sarah Carol is chair for demography and social inequality at the University of Cologne, Germany.
’Social Integration and Intermarriage in Europe is based on comprehensive discussion of the interrelationship of migrant minorities in terms of status, ethnicity and religious affiliation, with an emphasis on the role of Islam in Europe. It analyses the consequences of interrelationship and intermarriage for the social integration of immigrants in several European societies with distinct policies and opportunity structures. Based on cross-national data and rigorous analysis, it provides detailed empirical results on religious intermarriage in Europe and enhances our understanding of social integration of immigrant minorities.’ Bernhard Nauck, Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany ’Sarah Carol has produced a remarkably wide-ranging study concerning one of the most important issues related to migration, ethnicity and religion: how people - and in particular European Muslims - come to choose their partners. The work provides both a synthesis of previous research and fresh findings based on the analysis of new data.’ David Voas, Institute for Social and Economic Research, UK
