Muslim Minority of New Zealand in Global Context: Demographic Perspective

Abstract

This article focuses specifically on the population of Muslims in New Zealand, and highlights their demographic and socio-economic characteristics in a worldwide comparison. Globally, Islam is the fastest-growing religion and Muslims are the second largest religious group. In particular, the population of Muslim migrants in the multicultural and westerns societies is also remarkably growing fast. This also applies to the multicultural setting of New Zealand where have witnessed a substantially increasing growth of Muslim population during the recent decades. Holding a wide range of ethnic and religious groups from throughout the world as well as a variety of Muslims from different parts of the Islamic world, the multicultural field of this study serve as a unique human and cultural laboratory to approach properly the key research objectives of this analysis. The discussion is mainly based on the customized data of population census. This article specifically addresses the main demographic and socio-economic patterns and differentials associated with the population of Muslims in this multicultural context in a global comparison.

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Corrigendum

Notes

1 Pew Research Center, “The Future of the Global Muslim Population: Projections for 2010–2030”, Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, January 2011.

2 Ibid.

3 Frank Van Tubergen, “Religious Affiliation and Participation Among Immigrants in a Secular Society: A Study of Immigrants in the Netherlands”, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Vol. 33, No. 5, 2007, pp. 747–765; David Voas, “The Rise and Fall of Fuzzy Fidelity in Europe”, Journal European Sociological Review, Vol. 25, No. 2, 2008, pp. 155–168; Eric Kaufmann, Anne Goujon, and Vegard Skirbekk. “The End of Secularization in Europe?: A Socio-Demographic Perspective”, Journal Sociology of Religion, Vol. 73, No. 1, 2012, pp. 69–91; Yaghoob Foroutan, “Misunderstood Population?: Methodological Debate on Demography of Muslims”, in Yearbook of International Religious Demography 2015, eds. B. Grim, T. Johnson, V. Skirbekk, and G. Zurlo, Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2015, pp. 163–176.

4 Yaghoob Foroutan, “Migration and Gender Roles: Typical Work Pattern of the MENA Women”, Journal International Migration Review, Vol. 43, No. 4, 2009, pp. 974–992; Yaghoob Foroutan, “Family-Work Dilemma of Female Migrants: Patterns and Strategies”, Journal of Migration and Development, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2013, pp. 1–19.

5 Jennifer Van Hook and Kelly Stamper Balistreri, “Diversity and Change in the Institutional Context of Immigrant Adaptation: California Schools 1985–2000”, Demography, Vol. 39, No. 4, 2002, pp. 639–654.

6 See for example Bob Gregory, “Can This Be the Promised Land?: Work and Welfare for the Modern Woman” [Article is based on a paper to the National Institute Lecture at Parliament House, Canberra (2002)]; Journal Dissent, Vol. 9, Spring 2002, pp. 43–50; Deborah A. Cobb-Clark, “Public Policy and the Labor Market Adjustment of New Immigrants to Australia”, Journal of Population Economics, Vol. 16, No. 4, 2003, pp. 655–681; Parvinder Kler, “Graduate Overeducation and its Effects Among Recently Arrived Immigrants to Australia: A Longitudinal Survey”, Journal of International Migration, Vol. 44, No. 5, 2006, pp. 93–128; Alicia Adsera and Barry R. Chiswick, “Are There Gender and Country of Origin Differences in Immigrant Labor Market Outcomes Across European Destinations?”, Journal of Population Economics, Vol. 20, No. 3, 2007, pp. 495–526; Sylvia Fuller and Todd F. Martin, “Predicting Immigrant Employment Sequences in the First Years of Settlement”, Journal International Migration Review, Vol. 46, No. 1, 2012, pp.138–190; Y. Foroutan, “Family-Work Dilemma of Female Migrants: Patterns and Strategies”, op. cit.

7 See for example, J. Collins, Migrant Hands in a Distant Land: Australia’s Post-war Immigration, Sydney: Pluto Press, 1988; A. VandenHeuvel and M. Wooden, Non-English-speaking-Background Immigrant Women and Part-time Work, Australian Government Pub. Service, 1996; R. Alba and V. Nee, Remaking the American Mainstream: Assimilation and Contemporary Immigration, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2009; Florian Pichler, “Success on European Labor Markets: A Cross-national Comparison of Attainment Between Immigrant and Majority Populations”, Journal of International Migration Review, Vol. 45, No. 4, 2011, pp. 938–978.

8 Pew Research Center, “The Future of the Global Muslim Population”, op. cit.

9 Y. Foroutan, “Misunderstood Population?”, op. cit.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yaghoob Foroutan

Yaghoob Foroutan is Associate Professor at Social Sciences Department, Mazandaran University, Iran; Adjunct Research Fellow at Swinburne Institute for Social Research, Melbourne, Australia; and Research Associate at University of Waikato Islamic Studies Group, Hamilton, New Zealand. He is on the editorial board of International Journal of Social Science Studies; Today Social Science; Comparative Islamic Studies; International Journal of Social Science and Technology; Humanities and Social Sciences. He is the author of several articles and book chapters on status of women, gender roles, gender representation in school textbooks, migration and demography of the Muslim world.