Muslim Life in Germany - Deutsche Islam Konferenz

Introduction 37
The target population for the study comprises persons
aged 16 and over in private households in Germany in which at
least one person lives with a migrant background from a predominantly
Muslim country. The study considers almost 50 different
countries of origin with a predominantly Muslim population.
In some cases countries of origin are also included where
the proportion of Muslims is lower, but there are a large number
of immigrants in Germany so that there is a relevant Muslim
population, for example the Russian Federation. 9
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 countries of origin considered.
To this end, both the first names and the surnames of all citizens
of the countries selected were taken from the Central Register
of Foreigners in separate steps, meaning that anonymity was
guaranteed at all times. Based on the list of names typical of
the countries of origin, a random process was used to select the
phone numbers of people with corresponding names who were
listed in the telephone directory. The name-related procedure
ensures that naturalised persons originating from the countries
within the target population who have been resident in Germany for some time.
Economic reasons in particular contribute to this, as do cultural customs which
do not foresee moving out of the parental home before marriage (cf. Haug 2004:
170, for Turkish migrants). The undercoverage to be expected is thus concentrated
mainly on the group of younger new immigrants such as students, asylum
seekers etc.
9 The following countries were considered: Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Azerbaijan,
Cameroon, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Egypt, Eritrea, Gambia,
Ghana, Guinea, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Ivory Coast, Jordan, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Malaysia, Morocco, Mozambique,
Nigeria, Pakistan, Russian Federation, Saudi-Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone,
Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Yemen
and some of the successor states to former Yugoslavia (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo,
Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia; Croatia and Slovenia are not considered)