Muslims Between Integration And Assimilation (by Liselotte J. Abid)
Multiculturismen in Vienna (by Daniela Bischof and Bettina Köstinger)
Fringe Group Foreigners: Youth - Family - Culture (by Suna Özkan, Nicole Patzer, Christiane Teschl, Martina Weixler)
Fringe Group Foreigners: General Framework (by Doris Rothleitner)
Different - How Do Foreign Youths Live In Vienna? (by Vedron Dzihic, Zarko Radulovic, Ralph Waldhauser)
Refugees (by G. Schmutzer)
About 200,000 Muslims live presently in Austria, forming a religious minority with a very differentiated ethnic and social background. Half of them, approx. 100,000 are concentrated in the capital Vienna. Out of these, some 52,000 are Turkish Muslims, most of them migrant workers and their families. - The war in Bosnia-Hercegovina swept a wave of refugees from former Yugoslavia into Austria: some 85,000 persons at the peak of the crisis, mostly Muslims. Many of them returned to Bosnia after the Dayton Agreement brought an end to the fighting. Others have been integrated; however, their work permits end mostly by autumn 1997. Today, only about 10,000 refugees are registered for support by the Austrian authorities. Students from Muslim countries form another part of the community. - From the total figure of 200,000, about 40,000 persons are Austrian citizens, either born or acquired. Among them are also about 6 - 8,000 Austrian converts.
As such, Muslims form the third-strongest religious community in Austria - in Vienna the second-strongest, having outnumbered the Protestants.
Islam was officially recognized in Austria as a religious community in 1979. This recognition is based on the so-called "Islam-Law" dating back to 1912. The annexion of Bosnia-Hercegovina by the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1908 and the presence of Muslims in the Austrian armed forces (already since 1888!), to a certain degree also in the administration and in public life made it necessary to create formal conditions under which they could practise their creed. Due to the breakdown of the monarchy, the law was not implemented - but it was also never rescinded - maybe a typically Austrian solution. Under this revived law, the "Islamische Glaubensgemeinschaft" in Vienna is the official body representing all Muslims living in Austria, no matter where they come from.
A mosque was constructed in Vienna with donations from the Muslim community and from Arab states. A board of trustees purchased the land from the Vienna municipality. The mosque on the banks of the Danube was opened for worshippers in 1977. The whole complex comprising a library, a lecturing hall and a school building was formally inaugurated in 1979. Apart from this building - which is characterized by the typical features of a mosque, but in a modern shape - there are about 30 prayer rooms and/or Islamic cultural institutions scattered over Vienna, housing libraries and holding lectures and classes for children. All over Austria, a total of approx. 100 Muslim prayer rooms are available. All these facilities have been bought or rented by their communities out of private funds. Many of them are small go-downs or old store rooms which have been nicely adapted through voluntary work of their members.
On the occasion of religious festivities, such as the holy month of Ramadan and its concluding "Bayram" (Turkish: feast), 2 months later the Hajj festival, and various smaller and local festivals, these mosques are packed full by worshippers and celebrators. Women and children also frequent the mosques in large numbers for festive prayers and celebrations, but to a lesser degree for the weekly Friday prayers.
Friday is not a resting day in Islam; Muslims are only required to attend Friday prayers but are otherwise free to go to work and/or attend to their business. Thus Friday as a working day does not constitute a religious problem for Muslims; however, for most workers it is not possible to get off for Friday prayers. The Muslim holidays are normally free for school children but are rarely claimed by workers or employees.
As a recognized minority, Muslim children have religious tuition in public schools. The "Islamische Glaubensgemeinschaft" organizes these classes. Approximately 100 Muslims are employed as contractual teachers by the Austrian ministry of education; about one quarter of them are women. The teachers have to undergo a religious test at the "Islamische Glaubensgemeinschaft"; unfortunately, in many cases their pedagogic qualification is not established. Some of the male and female teachers are also students of pedagogics; it is hoped that their graduation will help to improve the pedagogic standard of the Islamic religious lessons.
All over Austria, some 20 - 30,000 Muslim children attend these lessons in public schools. The number varies due to the fluctuation in migrant workers' and foreign students' families. Due to the small number of pupils, classes cannot be held in every school - thus children are required to come together in one or two schools of each district after regular school hours. This poses a problem for smaller children. Religious education is, of course, provided in German language. In order to enable students to read and understand the Qur'an, the holy book of Islam, children are taught basics of classical Arabic. In the higher grades, topics of our time are discussed from an ethical point of view. Students can choose Islam as one subject of their A-level examination ("Matura").
The Great Mosque in Vienna houses also a private school with a secular curriculum in Arabic, English and German. Some embassies of Muslim countries also offer private curricula, mostly for their own staff and community.
Muslim parents are sometimes hesitant to send their children to public day-care centres:
Firstly, because it is not always easy to provide food according to the Islamic dietary rules (without pork). However, many public Kindergartens offer meals without pork.
A second reason is that Christian festivities (Christmas, Easter .... ) are intensely celebrated while no attention is paid to the feasts of other cultures. The ensuing psychological effects on children are indeed strong and parents fear for their cultural identity - the more so as many Muslim parents are unable to explain these cultural differences to their children in a suitable way.
An Islamic private Kindergarten is functioning in Vienna since abt. 3 years; another private initiative involves Muslim children in a day-care group.
The economic power of Muslims in Austria is generally weak although they represent a considerable consumer potential and contribute as workers, employees, petty shop-keepers, but also as doctors, nurses, teachers and other specialists to the national economy. Many of them have to support families or relatives at home, or they transfer part of their income because they make plans to return home once they are retired.
Since the late sixties, efforts were made to enhance the dialogue between Christians and Muslims. Cardinal Franz König was personally involved in these projects. During the last years, a constant dialogue was established between Catholic and Protestantic Christians and Muslims. The first initiative has come from the Christian side. The reason for this might be that although Muslims are interested in a dialogue they feel to be in a defensive position - as the image of Islam is coined by a host of prejudices. While in the past the media have contributed to this unfavourable picture knowingly or unknowingly (e.g. "Sword of Islam" TV series by P. Scholl-Latour in the eighties), only recently efforts are made by some sectors of the media to present Islam and Muslims in a more objective way.
However, Muslims have come forward and shown a vivid interest in this dialogue and are actively participating in it. While, for instance, in Germany the dialogue has been extended to encompass also Judaism as the eldest of the Abrahamitic religions, in Austria only scarce steps were taken in this direction so far.
In the international sphere, the "Religionspädagogisches Institut der Theologischen Hochschule St. Gabriel" has established high-level conferences between Christian and Muslim scholars from different countries. The first conference on "Peace in the Religions" in 1993 was followed by a second one on "Justice and Law in the Religions" in May 1997. Global aim is a "pact of friendship" between the religions.
The level to which Muslims practise their religion varies considerably, depending on the socio-cultural background and cultural ties within the various ethnic communities. Estimates range from (10 -) 40 - 50 %, based on the attendance of prayers in mosques.
While the religious understanding is directly linked to education, the intensity of personal belief and its practice must also be seen in the light of Islamic revivalist movements throughout the world of Islam. Muslims are often blamed for a lack of will to integrate into the Western society. In order to probe into this supposition, discussions and interviews with Muslims were held since autumn 1996. These talks took place either in mosques and/or other Islamic institutions, or in a private frame-work, in abt. 50 % of the recorded cases among women. These researches provided the basis for a series of 3 lectures at an institution for adults' education in Vienna, the "Polycollege Stöbergasse" in spring 1997 under the title: "MUSLIME IN EUROPA - WIE WEIT WOLLEN/KÖNNEN SIE SICH INTEGRIEREN?" ("Muslims in Europe - to what degree can they/are they willing to integrate themselves?")
Taped interviews were used for a ORF broadcast program, "Ö 1 Special" on June 14, 1997 from 22.05 h - 23.00 h, bearing the title "WEGE ZWISCHEN GHETTO UND ASSIMILATION - MUSLIMISCHE ZUWANDERER IN ÖSTERREICH" ("Ways between Ghetto and Assimilation - Muslim Immigrants in Austria").
Personal research, however, has been conducted for many years, resulting in an early publication of an article in an Austrian daily, the Salzburger Nachrichten, on February 16, 1993.
The impressions derived from these works are that Muslims, no matter where they come from, do want to be integrated in the Austrian society and they also make efforts in this direction. The steps taken include the use of public training facilities, but also German language classes, computer courses and other private vocational training for adolescents and adults, organized by Islamic institutions, also for women. It is a common prejudice that Muslim women are excluded from community life and deprived of chances to learn German. However, it can be observed that those women who are active in Islamic institutions mostly have a good command of German or are at least endeavouring to learn it along with other skills, such as accounting. Women who don't speak German are mostly over 30 (40) of age when they come to Austria; they come from a rural environment and they already have children. It is not Islam but rather these factors combined with a host of old traditions that prevent them from learning German within an acceptable time. Islam considers the acquisition of knowledge even as a religious duty for both men and women.
On the whole, Muslims are not reluctant to integrate as far as participation in the work force and in the educational field is concerned. The participation in elections, even on a local level, is so far not possible for foreign citizens, even if they live in Austria since a long time. The social contacts of Muslims with their non-Muslim environment depend on mutual understanding and leave much to be desired from both sides. Muslims lay great emphasis on their cultural identity - not merely understood as folklore, but with ethical-religious ideals in mind that are, nevertheless, not easy to fulfill.
During our studies we have made a project this year about multiculturismen in Vienna. At first we based our topic on different books about multiculturismen and what it means in detail. Then we went deeper into the subject and interviewed some Erasmus-students in Vienna. We wanted to know, if they think that Vienna is a multiculturistic town.
If we look at the history of Vienna it comes clear that the Austrian headquarter shall be a city with multiculturismen. But in reality it is not. Before you can talk of multiculturismen, you must handle with many different problems. Foreigners tend to live inside their own groups. They don't want to be integrated and also don't want any other people in their groups. Very high tensions between the foreigners and the inhabitants of the country follow. Another problem is the language. If you want to force the foreigners to learn the language of their new country you also must offer them some rights. Especially for the children of foreigners it is hard to cooperate with their different lives. On the one hand they learn German and have Austrian friends in school, and on the other hand they are confronted with the traditions of their family. This is a problem because no side is tolerant to the other one and its culture.
There live many foreigners in Vienna, who have all a different culture. These cultures are expressed in all parts of daily life. Just look at clothes, rituals or the language. In Austria foreigners are not allowed to live their culture. But on the other hand they are also not integrated in the Austrian society.
1989 Lieselotte Funcke, a German politic, has expressed, what multiculturismen means: "We do not talk about a mix, but about a side by side in mutual respect for the peculiarity of each other. The differences must be kept, no one shall take anothers identity, nor his roots."
But this is only an ideal from which we are very far away as our interviews with the Erasmus-students have shown. To reach this ideal we all have to be more tolerant to different cultures. We must learn that these cultures do not have to fear them. Other cultures don't mean any danger for us, we can learn from them. We just have to open our senses and our souls.
The Erasmus-students think that Vienna is multicultural but only as a city. Its habitants are intolerant against foreigners. The students are confronted with this hatred in many ways. In some cases they are not allowed to go into some nightclubs and bars because they look and talk different to Austrians. In other cases Austrians tell the students in very rude ways to talk German, if they want to live here in Austria.
Austrians must learn to accept that not everyone can be an Austrian. And that this is good so.
youth - family - culture
Our subject includes a wide range of questions.
We tried to seperate one from another, therefore the points we looked at more accurately were:
- The history of the politics concerning foreign people/workers in Austria
- Foreigners and the labour market
- Foreigners and the situation of accomodation
- Are there differences between foreigners and foreigners?
- How about the 2nd generation?
- The project of the "Integrationshaus" in Vienna
1. The history of the politics concerning foreign people/workers in Austria
Concerning our particular subject, the history began in the 60's (of our century). At this time, Austria didn't have enough manpower. Because of this labour shortage the Austrian government recruited workers from the former Yugoslavia and the Turkey. They engaged especially men without family, because they could easily be sent back home again, after their work was finished.
During the 70's the number of foreigners grew larger, because many of the families of the working foreigners came here as well.
The huge oil-crisis during 1973/76 stopped this development abruptly.
But since the 80's, due to the better economic situation, more and more foreigners came to Austria.
This situation lasts until today.
2. Foreigners and the labour market
Today, Austria suffers under a wide spread unemployment. There are many different models to explain this situation, but one of the most popular answers is "the foreigners". One group has to be declared guilty!
But interesting, just 1% of all the immigrants from former Yugoslavia and Turkey are higher employees or officials. The great majority are still unskilled labourers.
(Foreigners from the western European countries have much better chances to get a good job which is well paid.)
3. Foreigners and the situation of accomodation
Each member of a foreign family has commonly about 13 m2 for him(her)self.
Each member of an Austrian family has about 28 m2 to live in.
Commonly the foreigners have to pay too much rent for their underequipped flats.
The accomodation-contracts are often limited, and the immigrants don't have the money to pay the composition payment.
These are the most important facts about the every-day-life of the foreigners in Austria. The dates are taken out of statistics from the "Integrationsfonds" by Suna.
4. Are there differences between foreigners and foreigners?
Nicole did a number of interviews with people from different countries, which live in Austria since several years.
She came to the following theses:
(1) Some people are "more foreign" than others. People from former Yugoslavia and Turkey for exmaple have to cope with much more hatred against them than Japnese or Chinese people.
(2) The higher the social level which the foreigner belongs to, the less hatred the sense against them. An artist or a doctor for example lives much better than people from a lower social level.
(3) "Typical" foreigners live in much worse accomodation than foreigners from western European countries or America, China ...
(4) "Typical" foreigners are treated much worse than others.
Now comes the point where Martina's work starts.
She did a number of interviews as well. She spoke to members of the "2nd generation". The "2nd generation" includes all the children of foreign fellow-citizens which are already born in Austria.
Martina came to the following theses:
(1) Compared with the Austrian youth, the youth of the 2nd generation has less space to live in. Their flats are smaller, therefore the street becomes more important for them as a place to spend time.
(2) This is one cause for the Austrian people to feel the well-known "every-day-racism".The children of the 2nd generation finish their edcation earlier than the Austrian ones. Foreign parents very often cannot afford the money for the university.
(3) The members of the 2nd generation feel themselves "between two chairs". They don't really belong to the foreign people, and they don't belong to the Austrian people. They don't use these circumstances as a chance (because they grow up by speaking in two languages simultanously). They just feel the prejudices from both sides.
(4) As a chance to go on with one another, the children of the 2nd generation see sports. There talent and capability counts, and not where a player comes from.
This thesis leads to the last point of our subject.
Christiane took a look at the project of the "Integrationshaus" in Vienna.
Many projects are included in the idea of the "Integrationshaus". One of them is a kindergarten, which can be visited by the children of the inhabitants of the "Integrationshaus" as well as by the children of the Austrian and foreign families in the rest of the district. Several languages are spoken in this kindergarten.
Another project is the language-school. Foreigners are taught in German language, whereas Austrian people can learn Turkish or some other language.
The "Integrationshaus" organises many different happenings in Vienna. The best known is the "Flüchtlingsball" in the town hall. Such happenings show how foreigners and Austrians can go on together on a cultural basis.
Every foreigner or every person who belongs to an ethnic minority is confronted with the problematic nature of national and cultural identity. There are different terms to explain the phenomenon of belonging to a group and living together with other cultural groups.
The first term is assimilation. Assimilation means to become like another ethnic unity. It is very often connected with changing your own language. Assimilation is a long way and it can carry on for generations.
The second term is acculturation. Acculturation means the adaption from other cultural values and opinions, without losing the awareness of belonging.
One of the biggest problems of living together in one country is the experience with prejudice against foreigners and ethnic minorities. There are many tries of explanations why prejudice is spread in the population. One of the most important explanations is that prejudice is arranged by parents or teachers. Children can learn prejudice, if they hear it every day from their parents, friends or in school.
Another explanation is, that if a person is unemployed of if the financial situation is worse, the person cannot assimilate his frustration. These problems can lead to xenophobia (hostile to strangers/foreigners). Because the discrimination of other groups can maybe give somebody's self-confidence a boost. Today we are all living in a multicultural society and it is important that conflicts are resolved with accepting the others and not with discrimination and enimity.
Vienna aside of tourist attractions, not seen through the lense of Japanese tourists, Vienna seen in a different way - this perspective shall be examined more closely in this work.
We have met foreign youths who live in Vienna, and we wanted to find out, where they live, where they work, where they spend their free time, how they feel about living in Vienna and how they see the Austrian capital.
The main intention is not to present a complete analysis with scientific exactness and methods, but to throw a "flash" on human beings, who are generally counted to a certain minority. Whether they see themselves as part of a minority or not, will also be answered.
This work shall convey impressions and give an impulse and an idea rather than complete results.
The impressions we now want to mention come from discussions and interviews with youths from Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegowina and Turkey.
The interviews weren't very much structured. They were just led on the basis of an "interview manual" or guide, which contains the following five topics:
1.: Where do you live?
2.: Who do you meet mainly (communication space, friends)?
3.: How do you spend your free time (Where do you go to, what do you do and with whom)?
4.: Where is your home? Is ist Vienna?
5.: Do you recognize xenophobia? Do you see yourself as a member of a minority? Do you feel integrated in Vienna?
We are going to summarize these five topics in the following. But first of all we want to notice that nobody can and may be reduced to his or her origin. To see "nationality" - especially in a topic like this - as the only criterion of identity, would be totally wrong and even dangerous.
So everything the youths told us has to be measured on social parameters just like profession or family, too.
But we will show some trends, which all (or at least most) of our interviewees told us. These trends shall now be summarized:
1.: Where do you live?
In this topic we were able to sense a significant tendency: All of the asked people, whose parents also are in Vienna, live with them or at least in their vicinity. This constellation is not only influenced by the age of the youths or by financial needs.
The main reason for this phenomenon is that in the concerning cultures of our analysis "family" is a very high value.
While in the western cultures nowadays the decay of the family in its original sense is often stated, especially on the balkan the family still plays a very important role in the life of the individuums.
Of course we have to add that families that live in a foreign country are even more likely to share their living space together, just to reduce the isolation.
But we can say that the youths of the mentioned minorities regularly live very much longer (and mostly because of the above mentioned high family values) with their parents than the Austrian youths do, since this is the case also with these foreign youths who are already born in Austria.
Generally it has to be noticed that the interviewed youths live rather in outer districts like the 21st, 22nd or 23rd district, than in the imperial (and touristical attractive) inner districts.
2.: Who do you meet mainly (communication space, friends)?
In this point we have sensed significant differences: Those who are born in Austria and especially the students do have Austrian friends. There the "borders" between the different cultures vanish.
But a large majority of our interviewees just has little or no private contact with Austrians. Their friends come mainly from the same country than they do.
This tendency has increased since the outbreak of the war in the former Yugoslavia. Croats meet Croats, muslims stay among themselves. "Among ourselves I feel more secure!" was a typical statement in one of the interviews.
The horrible war in Yugoslavia has left its mark not only on its theatre, but also in the souls of those people who leave abroad.
3.: How do you spend your free time (Where do you go to, what do you do and with whom?)
Because of the reasons mentioned in point 2 as a result we can state that these, who have their circle of friends among the members of the same culture, live in a rather isolated living and communication space.
Yugoslavian restaurants and pubs (separated in Serbian or Croatian pubs, mainly located on the Vienna Gürtel), sports clubs for foreign people (e.g. soccer club "Slavija") and so on become just like social ghettos. People live in areas which Austrians don't be able to approach.
This is not the case with most of the students, who frequently go to typical student pubs in the eigth or ninth district.
A certain phenomenon is the living space "park" - for many youths a central place of communication. Especially in these parks you can notice a separation of sex and nationalities.
4.: Where is your home? Is ist Vienna?
For many of our interviewees "home" is their original country. They see Vienna as a temporary station of their lives. Vienna is often called a "second home". But in their heart everyone we have talked to carries his original country.
5.: Do you recognize xenophobia? Do you see yourself as a member of a minority? Do you feel integrated in Vienna?
In this point there is hardly a certain tendency to state. It depends very much on the individual situation: How long does one live in Vienna? What is one's profession?
Also in this question the way the free time is spent is very important. Those who spend most of their time with members of the same minority do have the most significant problems in integrating in Vienna. That is not only the responsibility of the minorities of course, but for a big part also of the Austrians, who often are sceptical against foreign people.
What certainly plays an important role concerning integration is the knowledge of the German language.
But generally many foreign youths do feel belonging to a minority (also the Austrian law has ist contribution to this problem).
In our opinion the main aspect is that the strict separation of living and communication spaces of the minorities and the Austrians (and even between the minorities, too) just increases the separation of "we" and "the others".
It's the big question, who is mainly responsible for that situation!
There are refugees coming from certain dictatorships. Nevertheless many of them are not recognized as refugees by the authorities and they cannot get the right to stay, to live and to work in Austria. This special group but also many others can never have the feeling of calmness and security: some weeks or months they can stay in a quarter of church but then they have to leave to make way for other homeless refugees. In many cases they don't know where to go and where to live during the next days and weeks.
The group of refugees acceptet by the authorities (only a very small minority of this category) can get flats and apartments disposed by the ministry for internal affairs.
They can stay and work in Austria. But even this persons have only few occasions to live in their own social space, their own communicative environment for long time because they have to leave this apartments after some years.
And thats's the central aspect dominating the problem of communication spaces and structures for refugees: if they have no possibilities to live in the same social environment for a longer lasting period of their live they have a lack of occasions to develope permanent existing communication spaces an channels. The repeated changing of quarters, the lack of other external contacts with foreign and austrian people are the reasons for their permanent state in transition.
Last not least it's one of the main problems of the poor population categories in the whole world: they cannot choose their prefered social environment, they cannot choose the location where they are going to live, they have a lack of occansions to choose their prefered social and communicative contacts (in many cases familiy members are living in other countries or they remained in the home country), they have no access to public communication channels like mass media and therefore only few occassions to articulate their own interests, desires and opinions in public spaces because they have no "lobby" acting for them.
If you come to Vienna in autemn you can visit one of these quarters for refugees if you are interested in it. The people living and working in the quarter will be glad for your interest and if you have questions concerning their conditions and their situation I'm sure that they will be ready to answer you and to discuss it.
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