Why do European youth join Daesh? Integration policies (5)

Dr Mahmud Abdullah

European states followed three strategies in dealing with Muslim migrants. These strategies included full integration, the obliteration of the identity of the migrants, and allowing the migrants considerable freedom in expressing their cultural and political identity.

Identity obliteration makes it necessary for governments to unify the whole country, something that turns this country into a melting pot for all the identities it combines. The same governments have to prevent any expression of cultural diversity. This model results in the presence of a different perception of secularism as a way of life. In the case of this model, secularism turns into a total separation between religion and politics.

European states, especially France, approved the model of political capital makers who do not play any political role. The same model is approved in some Arab states, such as Tunisia. These states do not allow the founding of political parties against a religious background.

Cultural diversity, on the other hand, gives the opportunity for minorities to express their cultural peculiarities freely. It gives them the chance to practice their religious rites and express their cultural identity openly. Cultural diversity is based on the assumption that democracy is an environment conducive to diversity, one that gives people the right to express their differences freely. This model gives states the chance to adopt a type of secularism that allows people to express their religious identities. This is the case in the UK and the US.

In the UK, the authorities work to create mechanisms that open the door for the presence of a smooth relationship between all religious, ethnic and cultural minorities. They encourage the construction of schools that teach and preserve the original identities of the minorities. They allow organizations and societies affiliated to those minorities to function freely.

The authorities also oversee the introduction of educational curricula to the minorities and offer the necessary financial support in this regard. Nonetheless, the number of schools teaching Arabic culture and Islam is still very limited in the UK.

One reason for this is that these schools usually adopt an isolationist policy. They turn most of the time into cultural ghettos. Their contribution to public life is also always limited compared to state-run schools in the UK. Only 13% of the graduates of these schools join universities (22).

However, the same policies are proving a failure. Most of the Muslims living in the UK suffer poverty. They are either unemployed or in the prisons (23).

Some other European states follow different policies. These states include Germany, Austria and Scandinavia. The main point in these policies is that these states work to raise and improve the living conditions of the migrants. These states also enforce policies that integrate the migrants in the local society (24).