Governance of religious diversity in Western Europe

Abstract

“Governance of religious diversity” appears to be the latest term to address the relationship between the state and (immigrant) religious groups in Western Europe. Conventional/established arrangements and frameworks of state-church relations (i.e. secularism) need to be revisited to include new religions and religious groups to the equation. It is suggested that contemporary multicultural societies require a broader perspective and a sophisticated framework than established understandings of secularism, and receiving states’ governmental policies. Today, the main concern of Western European states is not the relationship between the state and church, but how to deal with Islam and accommodate distinctive religious practices in public spaces. This review article examines the current debates on governance of religious diversity through elaborating on the six books reviewed.

Actions to Promote the Employment and Social Inclusion of Muslim Women Who Wear the Hijab in Catalonia (Spain)

“…In the current scenario of cultural and religious diversity in European societies, the management of religious diversity in work contexts is an urgent matter to move towards more inclusive societies [4] and to contribute to the achievement of different Sustainable Development Goals included in the 2030 Agenda [3]. However, prior research pointed to the difficulties experienced by minority religious communities in advancing their academic careers and accessing employment, with a special focus on Muslim women wearing the hijab [9,13,18], which are one of the social groups most at risk of suffering unemployment or underemployment [15] in Western societies due to the intersection of multiple forms of discrimination, related to gender, ethnic origin and the use of visible religious symbols.…”

“…In response to the challenge of accommodating the religious diversity faced by various European countries and countries worldwide [4,6], the study has not only helped illustrate the specific situations of exclusion experienced by Muslim women in Catalonia (Spain) who decided to wear the hijab in the public arena, including the workplace, thus contributing to the body of existing studies on the field [13,14,17], but also created new knowledge on ways to improve the professional opportunities for this social group. Consequently, our findings complement those of earlier studies [36,42] which pointed out that, while the management of religious diversity in the workplace is complex and may generate resistance among the different actors involved, it can also become an opportunity to improve organizations, since incorporating issues of diversity in the workplace can afford ground for accommodating and recognizing a wide range of individual, cultural and social aspects of the lives of the different people who share the workplace.…”

“…Among the main challenges for Western European states in relation to the emergence of growing religious diversity, some recent studies [4] highlight the relationships with Islam, along with the need to adequately accommodate distinctive religious practices in public spaces. In this regard, the need to advance in the definition of tools and frameworks to regulate and manage religious diversity in employment is receiving growing attention in research and policy [5].…”

Migrants, Families, and Religion: An Intriguing Research Agenda. Book’s Content and Introduction

“…This conceptual shift is best manifested in a semantic change in naming immigrants. Ex-colonial subjects and guest workers (a social category) first turned into Asian, Turks, or Arabs (an ethnic category) and then into Muslims (a religious category) » [32].…”

A stranger at home? A multilevel analysis of anti-Muslim sentiment in Western European societies

“…Accommodation policies, which we define as the adaptation of rules and social practices on the part of the majority to fit the wants and needs of minorities, emerge not only as a topic of public policy debates but also as a subject of recent scholarly discussion (e.g., Dikici, 2021; Eisenberg, 2020). Against this backdrop, this paper examines whether and how the accommodation of Islam policies influence people’s feeling towards Muslim immigration.…”