Cross-city analysis of perceived discrimination among Muslim immigrants in Europe - a new comparative strategy
Author: Alanya, Ahu , ahu.alanya@soc.kuleuven.be
Department: Sociology
University: KU Leuven, Belgium
Supervisor: Prof. Marc Swyngedouw
Year of completion: In progress
Areas of Research:
Comparative Sociology
, Migration
, Social Psychology
Abstract
Surveying immigrant populations reliably has been a constant challenge for researchers. Particularly, statistically sound group or cross-national comparisons have been jeopardized by difficulty in sampling ethnic-minority populations, differences in data collection methods and notable variations in response rates between groups and/or across countries (Jasinska-Lahti et al, 2006, Feskens et al., 2007, Deding et al., 2008). That said, understanding differential effects of various policies, institutional and social context on discrimination perceived by immigrants has become even more critical in the face of growing ethnic minority populations in Europe. This Ph.D. thesis will address current substantive and methodological issues in the comparative study of perceived discrimination by immigrants in Europe. Its substantive contribution targets advancement of knowledge on individual and contextual predictors of perceived discrimination, a major set-back in the integration of Muslim immigrants. Methodological contribution, on the other hand, is aimed at exploring new methodological approaches -based on propensity scores and multiple imputation- that will improve the quality of conclusions from comparative analysis of immigrant surveys. The Ph.D. thesis will comprise 4 international publications on substantive and methodological topics, the last of which will compile concluding remarks on different methods for comparative analysis of data from immigrant samples.
