Religion and Immigration: The Acculturation Attitudes of Muslim Primary School Children Attending Flemish Schools

Abstract

During the 1960s, thousands of migrants with an Islamic background from Turkey and Morocco arrived as ‘guest workers’ in Belgium (Flanders). Their settlement changed the Belgian educational landscape that had been dominated by Catholic and secular movements since its inception. Islam was recognized as a faith group in 1974; from 1978, Muslims were allowed to choose Islam as the religious instruction option in publicly run schools and could create their own recognized educational network. However, the Muslim community has not as yet made use of this legal possibility to develop an educational network of Islamic schools.1 Muslim parents therefore have to opt for schools within the existing educational networks. This situation increases the risk of a mismatch between religious and ethics education at school and their religious upbringing at home for Muslim children.