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.

KEYWORDS:

• Integration
• transnationalism
• three-way approach
• transnational Islam
• multiculturalism
• methodological nationalism

Acknowledgments

I am grateful to Tariq Modood and Therese O’Toole for their valuable support and comments. I also would like to thank Jon Fox and Anna Triandafyllidou for their helpful feedback on an earlier version of the paper. Finally, I must thank to anonymous reviewers for their comments.

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The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, author- ship, and/or publication of this article.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. Some studies, conversely, focus on the ways in which integration impacts transnational mobility (e.g. see Gropas and Triandafyllidou 2014; Gropas, Triandafyllidou, and Bartolini 2014; Bartolini, Gropas, and Triandafyllidou 2015).

2. The term ‘three-way’ was first used by Erzan and Kirisci (2006a, 2006b), Kirisci (2008, 2009), and Desiderio and Weinar (2014). Their use of the term, to a great extent, refers to either the EU as an agent of the debates on immigrant integration, or Turkey as the emigration state that play an active role in Turkish integration in Europe. This paper, however, uses the term as a broader concept to refer to national and transnational contexts as well as transnational state, non-state, and supranational actors writ large.

3. Dikici, E. (2021). Transnational Islam and the Integration of Turks in Great Britain. Basingstoke: Palgrave.

4. Indeed, dual citizenship has been adopted embraced by many states especially since the 1990s (see Harpaz and Mateos 2018).

5. By fluidism, I refer to the idea of cosmopolitanism and a postnationalism that do not acknowledge the importance and relevance of the nation-state and nationalism with regard to understanding social phenomena.

6. Organisations such as Hezbollah and the Taliban do not advocate for a pan-Islamic state, but focus more on national, territorial achievements. Mainly because they operate in failed states, this can be a part of their organisational strategies (e.g. to gather more support from the locals).

7. They rather organise extracurricular activities and/or voluntary camps for students that focus more on learning morality and religion.

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Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.