Muslim Life in Germany - Deutsche Islam Konferenz

120 Sociodemographics and migration biography
Table 15: Interviewed Muslims’ reasons for immigrating according
to denomination (in per cent); interviewees were able to
state several reasons
Sunnis Shiites Alevi Other
Work 28,2 9,7 43,9 15,0
Refuge/asylum 13,6 47,3 14,1 39,7
Accompanying family 56,2 59,4 60,7 67,4
Subsequent immigration to
join family
51,2 39,8 59,5 54,8
Study 16,9 28,0 4,6 9,6
Self-employment 15,8 14,4 17,6 8,8
Other reasons 8,8 16,9 8,5 14,8
Total (n) 1.386 339 113 248
Source: MLG 2008, dataset of interviewees aged 16 and over, weighted.
3.4 Citizenship and mode of naturalisation
Almost 40 per cent of the interviewed Muslims from the
countries of origin covered by this study are German nationals,
and are thus not included in statistics on foreigners (figure 22).
The share of German nationals among the members of other religions
is actually as high as 67 per cent. A substantially greater
proportion of interviewees with a migrant background who
hold German citizenship is to be found among migrants originating
from Turkey, Central Asia/CIS, North Africa and other
parts of Africa than among the reference group of Muslims.
The German nationals belonging to other religions among the
migrants from Central Asia and the CIS states are ethnic German
repatriates, large numbers of whom have migrated to Germany
from these countries since 1988 (see Haug/Sauer 2007 for
further details). Among interviewees who have migrated from
Southeast Europe or Iran, no difference apply between Muslims
and non-Muslims with regard to the share of German nationals.
Among interviewees from South/Southeast Asia and the Mid-