Integration, transnationalism and transnational Islam

Abstract

Conventional frameworks of immigrant integration in Western Europe are conceptualised within a nation-state framework of thinking. Transnational ties, relations, activities, and attachments of immigrants as well as transnational state and non-state actors have largely been neglected. This paper introduces/promotes a balanced theoretical approach to study immigrant integration in contemporary Western Europe, namely, integration as a three-way process and negotiation, which takes both national and transnational contexts into account together. To further elaborate on the three-way approach, the paper examines transnational Islam, as a form of transnationalism writ large, which has received enormous negative publicity with a particular emphasis on violent/jihadist networks, and is often conceived as an inhibiter of the Muslim integration. Applied in transnational Islam case, the three-way approach indicates that integration and transnationalism are not necessarily mutually exclusive; transnational Islam and Muslim organisations are diverse, thereby, must be studied as such, and some forms of the latter promote Muslim integration into Western European societies.

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