Muslim Life in Germany - Deutsche Islam Konferenz

258 Aspects of Integration
former Yugoslavia (37 per cent) and from Greece (42 per cent)
(Haug 2008).
As the frequency of contact with Germans is markedly
higher in the present survey and the share of Turkish interviewees
who have no contact with Germans within the family
is only half as high as in the RAM survey, the possibility cannot
be ruled out that the interviewees regarded the question as also
referring to naturalised Germans, although the wording was
designed to clearly exclude this interpretation. In this case, the
result cannot be interpreted without qualification as confirming
a high level of contact between migrants and native Germans
within the family and among relatives.
5.2.2.2 Interethnic partnerships
An analysis of partners’ origins provides an indication of
the relative frequency of contact with Germans within the family.
In all, 44 per cent of interviewees have a partner of German
nationality. This high proportion is placed into context when
the partners’ migrant background is considered, however. Only
4 per cent of all Muslim interviewees, 24 per cent of those belonging
to other religious communities and 18 per cent of those
who do not adhere to any religion have a partner without a migrant
background. In the overwhelming majority of cases the
partner has the same migrant background as the interviewee,
i.e. the choice of partner is based on ethnic and religious criteria
(see also section 5.2.4 on religion and choice of partner). Exceptions
here are Christians/Jews and members of other religions
from the Middle East and those belonging to no religious community
from North Africa, who generally have a partner without
a migrant background (table 45).