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Research on Muslim minorities in Europe has focused on Muslim organizations. This is understandable as most organizations are uncomplicated objects of study: they provide members for interviews and locations for participant observation. But many Muslims are not engaged in Muslim organizations. How do we research them? Drawing on the experiences from a study on highly practising, but non-organized Muslims in Aarhus, Denmark, this paper will discuss the usefulness of focus group interviews in studying the world views of non-organized Muslims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Temporary contract migration schemes have experienced a revival in Europe. Such schemes mean that a significant number of migrant workers have limited access to rights and entitlements, let alone full citizenship. The temporary nature of their migration poses obstacles to traditional ways of organizing workers. This changing landscape of migration dynamics, thus, requires a changing landscape of migrant rights activism also. The focus in this paper is on collective activism by social justice organizations and their engagement with, and handling of, the subject matter of migrant workers' rights. Based on insights from scholars working on social movements and transnational advocacy networks, I argue that a transnational and trans-institutional perspective is required in addressing temporary migrants' socioeconomic and legal insecurities, and it is the concept of the 'network' which captures best these interactions between multiple actors at multiple sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper contends that exclusionary views towards out-group populations are formed along two dimensions: exclusion from the country and exclusion from equal rights. Data obtained from the European Social Survey (for twenty-one countries) reveal that objection to the admission of foreigners to the country is more pronounced than objection to the allocation of 'equal rights'. The data further suggest that objection to admission can be directed either at all non-nationals or only at ethnic and racial minorities. 'Total exclusionists' (i.e. support exclusion of all non-nationals) are more likely to support the denial of foreigners from equal rights than 'racial exclusionists' (i.e. support only exclusion of ethnic minorities). Multi-level analyses show that support for exclusion is also influenced by socio-economic characteristics of individuals (e.g. education, political orientation) and characteristics of their countries (e.g. size of the non-European population). The findings are discussed in light of sociological theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that immigrant civic activism, which may at first glance seem to focus on diasporic ties and ethnic community building, becomes often a lever for transcultural capital and transcultural community building. The study is explorative of new repertoires and forms of transnationalism among sub-Saharan African immigrant activists in Europe. The findings suggest that immigrant civic activism, even if limited in size, proposes new types of transcultural societal networks and new forms of transcultural expression. In the first part of the study I discuss the theoretical background of transnationalism in migration studies and propose the notions of transcultural capital and transcultural community as working concepts. The second part of the study concentrates on the qualitative analysis of life story interviews with sixteen sub-Saharan African immigrants in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an introduction to the issue, highlighting its central focus on the social conditions of Muslim minorities in Western Europe and commenting on featured papers by Peter Bevelander, Peter Gundelach, and Mieke Maliepaard.