Conference Programme (PDF, 1019KB) - Trinity College Dublin

abstracts by stream and session
SESSION 7g
Muslim women in the German labour market: A large scale assessment of their economical activity and occupational success
*Stephanie Muessig, Federal Office for Migration and Refugees & Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, Germany
Anja Stichs, Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, Germany
As to their process of integration, the involvement and positioning of migrants in the labour market of the host country is wideley
acknowledged as acid test. Those migrants, who are economically active and take root in the labour market, are considered as sufficiently
integrated into their host society.
Furthermore, the assimilation theory itself states that labour market integration – as part of the structural dimension of assimilation – is
an indispensable aspect to the assimilation of migrants into the host society (Esser 2000: 306).
The vast amount of scientific publications dealing with immigrant integration into the labour market underlines the importance ascribed
to employment patterns of migrants (Haug 2002, Kalter 2007, Seibert 2008, Tucci 2008).
Being employed and holding certain job positions is highly determined by gender and ethnic cleavages on the German labour market.
Official statistics report that women in Germany are less often employed than men, and women with migration background are less often
employed than native German women (Statistisches Bundesamt 2007: 208ff.). Disadvantages for migrants on the labour market– often
referred to as ‚ethnic penalties’ – have been also observed in other countries (Cheung/Heath 2007; Bowlby/Lloyd-Evans 2009). Research
findings display a lower labour force participation rate especially for women of Turkish origin compared to women, who migrated from
other countries to Germany (Bender/Seifert 1996; Haug 2002; Stichs 2008). Up to now, it is an unanswered question, whether this can be
traced back to the religious affiliation of Turkish women, who are predominantly Muslim or to other factors.
Our research proposal tries to fill this gap by investigating labour market participation and occupational careers of women in Germany,
which derive from different countries of predominantly Muslim population. We ask whether both – labour market paricipation and career
– are affected by their religious affiliation by comparison of Muslim and non-Muslim women. In addition, we analyse the influence of the
individual religiosity level on economical activity and occupational positioning. Both requests are based on the theoretical assumption
that a high level of religiosity comes along with traditional role perceptions. Thus, highly religious women, regardless of their religious
affiliation, are more likely to be less gainfully employed than women with a lower level of religiosity. However, if women are in a work
relation, their religious affiliation and the level of religiosity should not as much affect their occupational position as their educational
achievement and professional qualification should.
Besides, we would like to investigate, whether, and if yes, how important the headscarf is for employment and occupational patterns of
Muslim women.
In detail, we would like to answer the following questions:
• How can differences in labour market participation and occupational careers be described between Muslim and non-Muslim
women in Germany from countries with predominantly Muslim population?
• Which factors explain labour market participation and occupational positioning of Muslim and non-Muslim women?
• Does the individual religiosity level exert an independent influence on labour market participation and occupational positioning
while taking into account other theoretically relevant explanation?
• Does wearing a headscarf induce differences to the employment situation of Muslim women and their occupational positions
compared to unveiled Muslim women?
The analysis is based on the data of the large-scale survey project „Muslim life in Germany“, conducted by the Federal Office of Migration
and Refugees in Germany (Haug, Müssig, Stichs 2009). A total of 6004 people were interviewed via telephone in the first half of 2008. The
target population comprises persons aged 16 and over in private households in Germany in which lives at least one person with a migrant
background from a predominantly Muslim country. In some cases, countries of origin are also included in spite of a lower proportion of
the local Muslim population, when large numbers of persons from these countries immigrate to Germany, as in the case of migrants
from the Russian Federation. The gross sample was taken from the telephone directory using the onomastic (name-related) procedure
based on lists of names from the Ausländerzentralregister (AZR, Central Register of Foreigners) for the relevant countries of origin. About
2000 interviews of women in working age between 16 and 64 are available for the analyses of this conference proposal.
Gender gap? The divergent gender role attitudes of immigrant men and women
Antje Roeder, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
Attitudes and practices on gender and sexuality are some of the most fundamental parts of a society’s normative system, and have been
shown to differ vastly across the globe. Hence it is not surprising that debates around the integration of immigrants in their countries of
residence are often linked to gender-related issues, which has been particularly salient in connection with the increasing numbers of
Muslim migrants living in Europe, and is epitomised by the ongoing discussions in various European countries about the wearing of
the hijab.
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