Between Intensification and Relativisation. Modalities and Mechanisms of Religious Change among Muslim and Christian Refugees from Syria in Germany, Austria and Switzerland

Weave项目旨在从国家比较的角度探讨叙利亚难民的宗教信仰范围以及宗教变化的方式和机制。在德国、奥地利和瑞士，自2011年以来，来自叙利亚的人已经成为最大或第二大寻求庇护者群体。早期，许多政治家在融合政策的背景下讨论了难民的宗教背景。他们把穆斯林寻求庇护者描绘成社会融合的潜在威胁，并主张优先接纳需要保护的基督徒。自20世纪初以来，持续不断的伊斯兰恐惧症言论已经将伊斯兰教和穆斯林本质上视为一个外群体和对社会凝聚力的威胁。由于“阿拉伯之春”和叙利亚战争，这种反穆斯林的话语也塑造了对西欧难民到来的看法。尽管对难民的宗教有这种社会政治上的兴趣，但到目前为止，在宗教和移民的学术研究中，无论是基督教和穆斯林难民之间的特征差异，还是他们的宗教信仰范围，以及逃亡背景下的宗教变化模式，都没有得到适当的注意。该项目旨在帮助减少这些空白。它的出发点是假设难民的宗教变化在相对化和宗教信仰、实践和社区依恋的强化之间波动。我们认为，宗教变化是由移民来源国的系统结构塑造的，比如移民和福利制度、恐伊斯兰言论的政治化以及对宗教少数群体的制度性包容。在此背景下，我们制定了关于社会人口类别（年龄和性别），移民传记，少数民族地位，宗教亲和力和差异的国家的多数宗教的几个假设。这些假设将作为一种启发式工具，以识别和系统化宗教变化的各种影响因素，并作为分析宗教变化的方式和机制的起点。研究设计基于半结构化访谈、专家访谈和Photovoice方法下的新闻摄影文献的结合。这种混合方法的设计将有助于揭示宗教变化的不同维度，并综合神学和神学的观点。该项目具有科学和社会意义，因为它旨在提高对面临伊斯兰恐惧症话语和其他形式歧视的叙利亚难民的宗教信仰范围和宗教变化的知识水平。这项研究希望有助于促进一场基于证据的关于难民及其宗教的辩论，这有助于为移民和融合政治提供信息。

The aim of the proposed Weave project is to explore the spectrum of religiosity and the modalities and mechanisms of religious change among Syrian refugees in a country-comparative perspective. In Germany, Austria and Switzerland, people from Syria have formed the largest or second largest group of asylum seekers since 2011. Early on, various politicians have addressed the religious background of refugees in the context of integration policy. They portraited Muslim asylum seekers as a potential threat for social integration and advocated a preferential admission of Christians in need of protection. The since the early 200s ongoing Islamophobic discourse has essentialised Islam and Muslims as an outgroup and a threat to social cohesion. This anti-Muslim discourse also shaped the perception of the arrival of refugees in Western Europe due to the “Arab Spring” and the war in Syria. Despite this socio-political interest in the religion of refugees, so far, neither the characteristic differences between Christian and Muslim refugees nor the spectrum of their religiosity nor the patterns of religious change in the context of flight have received proper attention in academic studies of religion and migration. The project intends to help reducing these lacunas. It proceeds on the assumption that religious change among refugees moves along a spectrum between relativisation and intensification of religious belief, practice and community attachment. We assume that religious change is shaped by systemic structures of the countries of arrival, such as migration and welfare regimes, the politicisation of Islamophobic discourse and the institutional accommodation of religious minorities. Against this backdrop, we formulate several assumptions with regard to socio-demographic categories (age and gender), migration biography, minority status, religious affinity and difference to the countries’ majority religion. These assumptions will serve as a heuristic tool in order to identify and systematise the various influencing factors on religious changes as well as a starting point for the analysis of the modalities and mechanisms of religious change. The research design is based on a combination of semi-structured interviews, expert interviews and photojournalistic documentation along the Photovoice approach. This mixed-methods design will help to uncover different dimensions of religious change and to synthesise emic and etic perspectives. The project is of scientific and societal relevance as it aims to improve the level of knowledge about the spectrum of religiosity and religious change among Syrian refugees faced with Islamophobic discourse and other forms of discrimination. This study hopes to help contributing to a more evidence-based debate about refugees and their religion which can help to inform migration and integration politics.