Farid Hafez, Reinhard Heinisch, and Eric MiklinWednesday, July 24, 2019
Editor's Note:
This working paper is part of a multi-year Brookings project—"The One Percent Problem: Muslims in the West and the Rise of the New Populists." Other papers in the series are available here.
The change in the politics of Islam in Austria has to be seen also in the context of a growing incongruence between the people living in Austria and the population eligible to vote. Austria has one of the most unfavorable records in providing access to citizenship and political participation for immigrants according to the migrant policy index. Equal rights and opportunities for immigrants can be found in fewer areas than in almost all Western European countries, and chances to reunite with family or to fight discrimination are comparatively low. Given that this discrepancy now comprises over one million people many of whom came from Muslim majority countries, the lack of representation of their interests and aspirations is likely to contribute to further alienation from mainstream society of significant population segments.
