Muslim Life in Germany - Deutsche Islam Konferenz

296 Concise profiles of the migrant groups
religious or strongly religious. In particular Islamic festivals are
very important to this group.
6.3 Muslims from Central Asia/CIS
Muslims from Central Asia/CIS represent the smallest
group of origin within the Muslim population with a migrant
background in Germany. Less than one per cent of Muslims in
Germany come from this region. This makes it difficult to draw
representative conclusions about this group of Muslims and
to compare them with the other Muslim groups in this study.
Estimates of their total number vary considerably: It can be assumed
that there are a minimum of 6,000 and a maximum of
29,970 Muslims from this region. The proportion of naturalised
people among them therefore also fluctuates between 5 per
cent and 30 per cent.
Their average age is higher than that of Muslims from
other regions. All Muslim interviewees from Central Asia/CIS
were born abroad. They therefore belong to the first generation
of Muslim immigrants from this region. Due to their recent migrant
history around 95 per cent of Muslims from Central Asia/
CIS attended school in their country of origin. At 14 per cent,
the proportion of those who (additionally) attended a German
school is much lower than the proportion of Muslim and non-
Muslim migrants from other regions. However, Muslims from
Central Asia/CIS have a very high standard of education. About
two thirds of these Muslims state that they have a higher schoolleaving
qualification. Despite such qualifications, two thirds of
central Asian Muslims state that they are blue-collar workers.
The remaining third of the gainfully employed members of this
group is employed in white-collar positions. With a 75 per cent
employment rate, the high proportion of female Muslims in