Muslim Life in Germany - Deutsche Islam Konferenz

Aspects of Integration 265
between18 and 30 had no German friends (Haug 2003: 723) and
Reinders found in 2007 that 29 per cent of Turkish youths had
a friend of German origin, which means conversely that 71 per
cent do not have any German friends (Reinders 2008: 22).
These relatively divergent results are attributable to different
age groups or migrant generations among the interviewees,
whether the interviewees include naturalised persons and,
last but not least, how the questions are formulated. When interviewees
are asked about their three best friends, the focus is
narrower than when their entire group of friends is considered.
It must also be considered that when the frequency of contact
among friends is stated, contacts in the context of an extended
network or clique may also be included. The friendship networks
of persons of Turkish origin aged between 18 and 30 are
exceptionally large in comparison to native Germans or Italians,
averaging eight friends (Haug 2004: 178). Against this background
the results are most readily comparable with those of
the RAM study, which employs the same measuring instrument
and concludes that 14 per cent of Turks never come into contact
with Germans as friends (Haug 2008).
A general tendency towards homogeneous friendships
is to be observed, according to the principle “gleich und gleich
gesellt sich” (birds of a feather flock together) (Wolf 1996). Interethnic
relations between groups at the level of friendships
are correlated to residential segregation and/or school education
(Esser 1990; Haug 2005; Farwick 2007; Reinders et al. 2007),
in addition to which religious aspects also have their own separate
effect on the probability of having German friends (Haug
2005: 269).