Socio-Economic Disadvantages and Lack of Recognition: Impacts on Citizenship Within Australian Muslim Communities

ABSTRACT

Despite a significant body of scholarship exploring the impact of securitisation and racism upon Australian Muslims, comparatively little work has been undertaken exploring the specific socio-economic challenges facing Muslim communities and resultant impacts upon citizenship. Even less research has looked at this in the context of the ‘9/11 generation’ of young Western Muslims born at or just prior to the turn of the century. Drawing upon Nancy Fraser’s social justice framework, this article argues that Muslim citizenship is not only affected by a persistent lack of recognition, but also by ongoing socio-economic disadvantage. Drawing on specially tabulated census data, this research article explores the socio-economic status and trajectories of Australian Muslims, paying particular attention to the situation of those born in Australia. It concludes with a call to pay more attention to the way in which the interplay between (often intergenerational) material marginalisation and persistent stigmatisation and misrecognition affects Australian Muslims’ civic and political activism.

KEYWORDS:

• Muslim
• citizenship
• civic recognition
• political activism
• socio-economic disadvantage
• intergenerational disadvantage

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Professor Riaz Hassan for consultations on early drafts of this paper. We acknowledge his passing before publication and immense contribution to the field.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Joshua M. Roose

Dr Joshua M. Roose is a Senior Research Fellow at the Alfred Deakin Institute for Globalisation and Citizenship at Deakin University. His research explores the intersection of politics, law, religion and society with a particular focus on masculinities and social inequality. He is the Vice President of the Australian Association of Islamic and Muslim Studies (AAIMS).

Mario Peucker

Dr Mario Peucker is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Sustainable Industries & Liveable Cities at Victoria University, Australia, and an executive member of the international think thank CRIS, the Centre for Resilient and Inclusive Societies. He has undertaken qualitative and quantitive research on Muslim community activism, exclusion-inclusion dynamics and radical political movements since 2003, both in Europe and Australia. He is the (co)author of several books, including Muslim Citizenship in Liberal Democracies (2016) and has recently co-edited the volumes Muslim Volunteering in the West: Between Islamic Ethos and Citizenship (2020 with M. R. Kayikci) and The Far-Right in Contemporary Australia (2019 with D. Smith).

Shahram Akbarzadeh

Prof Shahram Akbarzadeh is Deputy Director (International) of Alfred Deakin Institute, Deakin University. He researches Muslim integration and citizenship in Australia and the West.