Hostname: page-component-5f56664f6-6m42z Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-05-07T13:44:31.331Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Political Secularism and Muslim Integration in the West: Assessing the Effects of the French Headscarf Ban

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 May 2020

AALA ABDELGADIR  and
VASILIKI FOUKA Open the ORCID record for VASILIKI FOUKA [Opens in a new window]
AALA ABDELGADIR*
Affiliation:
Stanford University
VASILIKI FOUKA*
Affiliation:
Stanford University
*
Aala Abdelgadir, Department of Political Science, Stanford University, [email protected].
Vasiliki Fouka, Department of Political Science, Stanford University, [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In response to rising immigration flows and the fear of Islamic radicalization, several Western countries have enacted policies to restrict religious expression and emphasize secularism and Western values. Despite intense public debate, there is little systematic evidence on how such policies influence the behavior of the religious minorities they target. In this paper, we use rich quantitative and qualitative data to evaluate the effects of the 2004 French headscarf ban on the socioeconomic integration of French Muslim women. We find that the law reduces the secondary educational attainment of Muslim girls and affects their trajectory in the labor market and family composition in the long run. We provide evidence that the ban operates through increased perceptions of discrimination and that it strengthens both national and religious identities.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 114 , Issue 3 , August 2020 , pp. 707 - 723
Copyright
© American Political Science Association 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

We thank Lisa Blaydes, Jean-Paul Carvalho, Lauren Davenport, Mathilde Emeriau, Jens Hainmueller, Stephane Wolton, and seminar participants at the Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford, the Stanford-Berkeley Political Economy workshop, the 2019 MPSA Annual Conference, and LMU Munich for useful comments and suggestions. Interviews were approved by Yale University’s Human Subjects Committee under IRB procotol 1005006869. Abdelgadir gratefully acknowledges the support of the National Science Foundation through a Graduate Research Fellowship under Grant No. 1656518. Any opinion, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. Replication materials can be found on Dataverse at: https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/KSSFDI.

References

Adida, Claire, Laitin, David, and Valfort, Marie-Anne. 2010. “Identifying Barriers to Muslim Integration in France.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107 (52): 22384–22390.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Adida, Claire, Laitin, David, and Valfort, Marie-Anne. 2014. “Muslims in France: Identifying a Discriminatory Equilibrium.” Journal of Population Economics 27 (4): 1039–1086.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Appignanesi, Lisa, and Maitland, Sara. 1989. The Rushdie File. London: Fourth Estate.Google Scholar
Aydin, Nilufer, Fischer, Peter, and Frey, Dieter. 2010. “Turning to God in the Face of Ostracism: Effects of Social Exclusion on Religiousness.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 36 (6): 742–753.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Banks, Kira Hudson, Kohn-Wood, Laura, and Spencer, Michael. 2006. “An Examination of the African American Experience of Everyday Discrimination and Symptoms of Psychological Distress.” Community Mental Health Journal 42 (6): 555–570.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bansak, Kirk, Hainmueller, Jens, and Hangartner, Dominik. 2016. “How Economic, Humanitarian, and Religious Concerns Shape European Attitudes toward Asylum Seekers.” Science 354 (6309): 217–222.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Beaman, Jean. 2015. “Boundaries of Frenchness: Cultural Citizenship and France’s Middle-Class North African Second-Generation.” Identities 22 (1): 36–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beaman, Jean. 2016. “As French as Anyone Else: Islam and the North African Second Generation in France.” International Migration Review 50 (1): 41–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bergman, Lars, and Magnusson, David. 1997. “A Person-Oriented Approach in Research on Developmental Psychopathology.” Development and Psychopathology 9 (2): 291–319.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bisin, Alberto, Patahini, Eleonora, Verdier, Thierry, and Zenou, Yves. 2008. “Are Muslim Immigrants Different in Terms of Cultural Integration?” Journal of the European Economic Association 6 (2-3): 445–456.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bisin, Alberto, Patahini, Eleonora, Verdier, Thierry, and Zenou, Yves. 2011. “Formation and Persistence of Oppositional Identities.” European Economic Review 55 (8): 1046–1071.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blaydes, Lisa, and Linzer, Drew. 2008. “The Political Economy of Women’s Support for Fundamentalist Islam.” World Politics 60 (4): 576–609.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bloemraad, Irene, and Wright, Matthew. 2014. “Utter Failure” or Unity out of Diversity? Debating and Evaluating Policies of Multiculturalism.” International Migration Review 48 (S1): S292–S334.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowen, John. 2007. Why the French Don’t Like Headscarves: Islam, the State, and Public Space. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Branscombe, Nyla, Schmitt, Michael, and Harvey, Richard. 1999. “Perceiving Pervasive Discrimination among African Americans: Implications for Group Identification and Well-Being.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 77 (1): 135–149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cairns, Robert, Cairns, Beverley, and Neckerman, Holly. 1989. “Early School Dropout: Configurations and Determinants.” Child Development 60 (6): 1437–1452.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cameron, Colin, Gelbach, Jonah, and Miller, Douglas. 2008. “Bootstrap-Based Improvements for Inference with Clustered Errors.” The Review of Economics and Statistics 90 (3): 414–427.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cano, Miguel Ángel, Castro, Yessenia, de Dios, Marcel A., Schwartz, Seth, Lorenzo-Blanco, Elma, Roncancio, Angelica, Martinez, Marcos, et al. 2016. “Associations of Ethnic Discrimination with Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression among Hispanic Emerging Adults: A Moderated Mediation Model.” Anxiety, Stress, & Coping 29 (6): 699–707.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carvalho, Jean-Paul. 2012. “Veiling.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 128 (1): 337–370.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chavous, Tabbye M., Rivas-Drake, Deborah, Smalls, Ciara, Griffin, Tiffany, and Cogburn, Courtney. 2008. “Gender Matters, Too: The Influences of Social Racial Discrimination and Racial Identity on Academic Engagement Outcomes among African American Adolescents.” Developmental Psychology 44 (3): 637–654.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chérifi, Hanifa. 2005. Application de la Loi du 15 Mars 2004. Ministère de l’Éducation Nationale de l’Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche. URL: https://www.vie-publique.fr/sites/default/files/rapport/pdf/064000177.pdfCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coker, Tumaini, Elliott, Marc, Kanouse, David, Grunbaum, Jo Anne, Schwebel, David, Gilliland, Janice, Tortolero, Susan, Peskin, Melissa, and Schuster, Mark. 2009. “Perceived Racial/Ethnic Discrimination among Fifth-Grade Students and its Association with Mental Health.” American Journal of Public Health 99 (5): 878–884.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Connor, Phillip. 2010. “Contexts of Immigrant Receptivity and Immigrant Religious Outcomes: The Case of Muslims in Western Europe.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 33 (3): 376–403.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dana, Karam, Lajevardi, Nazita, Oskooii, Kassra, and Walker, Hannah. 2019. “Veiled Politics: Experiences with Discrimination among Muslim Americans.” Politics and Religion 12 (4): 629–677.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deltombe, Thomas. 2005. L’Islam Imaginaire: La Construction Médiatique de l’Islamophobie en France. Paris: La Découverte.Google Scholar
Duguet, Emmanuel, Leandri, Noam, L’Horty, Yannick, and Petit, Pascale. 2010. “Are Young French Jobseekers of Ethnic Immigrant Origin Discriminated Against? A Controlled Experiment in the Paris Area.” Annals of Economics and Statistics 99: 187–215.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Emeriau, Mathilde, and Laitin, David. 2018. Integration Failures: A Search for Mechanisms. Unpublished manuscript. URL: https://mathildeemeriau.com/publication/integrationfailures/Google Scholar
European Commission. 2017. Religious Clothing and Symbols in Employment: A Legal Analysis of the Situation in the EU Member States. Technical report. URL: https://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/just/item-detail.cfm?item_id=608849Google Scholar
Fleischmann, Fenella, and Phalet, Karen. 2018. “Religion and National Identification in Europe: Comparing Muslim Youth in Belgium, England, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden.” Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 49 (1): 44–61.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fouka, Vasiliki. 2019. “How Do Immigrants Respond to Discrimination? The Case of Germans in the US During World War I.” American Political Science Review 113 (2): 405–422.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fouka, Vasiliki. 2020. “Backlash: The Unintended Effects of Language Prohibition in U.S. Schools after World War I.” Review of Economic Studies 87 (1): 204–239.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ghaffari, Azadeh, and Ghaffari, Ciftci. 2010. “Religiosity and Self-Esteem of Muslim Immigrants to the United States: The Moderating Role of Perceived Discrimination.” The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion 20 (1): 14–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ghitza, Yair, Gelman, Andrew, and Auerbach, Jonathan. 2019. The Great Society, Reagan’s Revolution, and Generations of Presidential Voting. Unpublished manuscript. URL: http://www.stat.columbia.edu/gelman/research/unpublished/cohort_voting_20191017.pdfGoogle Scholar
Gomez, Angel, Francisco Morales, J., Hart, Sonia, Vazquez, Alexandra, and Swann, William Jr. 2011. “Rejected and Excluded Forevermore, but Even More Devoted: Irrevocable Ostracism Intensifies Loyalty to the Group Among Identity-Fused Persons.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 37 (12): 1574–1586.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gould, Eric, and Klor, Esteban. 2015. “The Long-run Effect of 9/11: Terrorism, Backlash, and the Assimilation of Muslim Immigrants in the West.” The Economic Journal 126 (597): 2064–2114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haddad, Yvonne Yazbeck. 2007. “The Post-9/11 Hijab as Icon.” Sociology of Religion 68 (3): 253–267.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harder, Niklas, Figueroa, Lucila, Gillum, Rachel, Hangartner, Dominik, Laitin, David, and Hainmueller, Jens. 2018. “Multidimensional Measure of Immigrant Integration.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 115 (45): 11483–11488.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
INED and INSEE (Institut national d’études démographiques and Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques). 2008. Trajectoires et origines, enquête sur la diversité des populations en France–2008 [computer file]. ADISP (National Archive of Data from Official Statistics) [distributor]. URL: http://www.progedo-adisp.fr/enquetes/XML/lil.php?lil=lil-0494Google Scholar
INSEE (Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques). 2003-2012. Enquête Emploi en continu (version FPR) - 2003/2012 [computer file]. Archives de Données Issues de la Statistique Publique [distributor]. URL: http://www.progedo-adisp.fr/serie_ee.phpGoogle Scholar
Institut Montaigne. 2016. A French Islam is Possible. Technical report. URL: https://www.institutmontaigne.org/ressources/pdfs/publications/a-french-islam-is-possible-report.pdfGoogle Scholar
Jalalzai, Farida. 2011. “Anxious and Active: Muslim Perception of Discrimination and Treatment and its Political Consequences in the Post-September 11, 2001 United States.” Politics and Religion 4 (1): 71–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Joppke, Christian. 2007. “Beyond National Models: Civic Integration Policies for Immigrants in Western Europe.” West European Politics 30 (1): 1–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kabir, Nahid A. 2012. Young British Muslims: Identity, Culture, Politics and the Media. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Kepel, Gilles. 2012. Banlieue de la République: Société, Politique et Religion à Clichy-sous-Bois et Montermeil. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
King, Eden, and Ahmad, Afra. 2010. “An Experimental Field Study of Interpersonal Discrimination toward Muslim Job Applicants.” Personnel Psychology 63 (4): 881–906.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krosnick, Jon, and Alwin, Duane. 1989. “Aging and Susceptibility to Attitude Change.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 57 (3): 416–425.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kunst, Jonas, Tajamal, Hajra, Sam, David, and Ulleberg, Pål. 2012. “Coping with Islamophobia: The Effects of Religious Stigma on Muslim Minorities’ Identity Formation.” International Journal of Intercultural Relations 36 (4): 518–532.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laurence, Jonathan, and Vaisse, Justin. 2006. Integrating Islam: Political and Religious Challenges in Contemporary France. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institute Press.Google Scholar
Levy, Dorainne J., Heissel, Jennifer A., Richeson, Jennifer A., and Adam, Emma K.. 2016. “Psychological and Biological Responses to Race-Based Social Stress as Pathways to Disparities in Educational Outcomes.” American Psychologist 71 (6): 455–473.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lorcerie, Françoise. 2012. “Y a-t-il des Élèves Musulmans?” Diversité: Ville École Intégration 168: 64–73.Google Scholar
Mattei, Paola, and Aguilar, Andrew S.. 2016. Secular Institutions, Islam and Education Policy: France and the US in Comparative Perspective. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maurin, Eric, and Navarette, Nicolas. 2019. Behind the Veil: The Effect of Banning the Islamic Veil in Schools. IZA discussion paper 12645. URL: https://www.parisschoolofeconomics.eu/docs/maurin-eric/maurin_navarrete_dp12645.pdfGoogle Scholar
Meyersson, Erik. 2014. “Islamic Rule and the Empowerment of the Poor and Pious.” Econometrica 82 (1): 229–269.Google Scholar
Minnesota Population Center. 2019. Integrated Public Use Microdata Series, International: Version 7.0 [computer file]. Minneapolis, MN: IPUMS (Integrated Public Use Microdata Series). URL: http://doi.org/10.18128/D020.V70CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nagra, Baljit. 2011. “‘Our Faith Was Also Hijacked by Those People’: Reclaiming Muslim Identity in Canada in a Post-9/11 Era.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 37 (3): 425–441.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Noh, Samuel, and Kaspar, Violet. 2003. “Perceived Discrimination and Depression: Moderating Effects of Coping, Acculturation, and Ethnic Support.” American Journal of Public Health 93 (2): 232–238.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Open Society Foundations. 2018. Restrictions on Muslim Women’s Dress in the 28 EU Member States: Current Law, Recent Legal Developments, and the State of Play. Technical report. URL: https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/reports/restrictions-muslim-women-s-dress-28-eu-member-statesGoogle Scholar
Open Society Institute. 2007. Muslims in the EU: Cities Report. Technical report. URL: https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/reports/muslims-europe-report-11-eu-citiesGoogle Scholar
Oskooii, Kassra. 2016. “How Discrimination Impacts Sociopolitical Behavior: A Multidimensional Perspective.” Political Psychology 37 (5): 613–640.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oskooii, Kassra. 2018. “Perceived Discrimination and Political Behavior.” British Journal of Political Science: 1–26. Published online 10 July 2018.Google Scholar
Padela, Aasim, and Heisler, Michele. 2010. “The Association of Perceived Abuse and Discrimination after September 11, 2001, With Psychological Distress, Level of Happiness, and Health Status Among Arab Americans.” American Journal of Public Health 100 (2): 284–291.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Park, Jaihyun, Malachi, Eva, Sternin, Orit, and Tevet, Roni. 2009. “Subtle Bias Against Muslim Job Applicants in Personnel Decisions.” Journal of Applied Social Psychology 39 (9): 2174–2190.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Patel, David. 2012. “Concealing to Reveal: The Informational Role of Islamic Dress.” Rationality and Society 24 (3): 295–323.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peek, Lori. 2005. “Becoming Muslim: The Development of a Religious Identity.” Sociology of Religion 66 (3): 215–242.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piscatoi, James. 1990. “The Rusdhie Affair and the Politics of Ambiguity.” Journal of International Affairs 66 (4): 767–789.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Portes, Alejandro, and Rumbaut, Rubén. 2001. Legacies: The Story of the Immigrant Second Generation. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Rumbaut, Rubén. 2005. Sites of Belonging: Acculturation, Discrimination, and Ethnic Identity among Children of Immigrants. In Discovering Successful Pathways in Children’s Development: Mixed Methods in the Study of Childhood and Family Life, ed. Weiner, Thomas S.. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 111–164.Google Scholar
Rumbaut, Rubén. 2008. “Reaping what you Sow: Immigration, Youth, and Reactive Ethnicity.” Applied Development Science 12 (2): 108–111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schildkraut, Deborah. 2005. “The Rise and Fall of Political Engagement among Latinos: The Role of Identity and Perceptions of Discrimination.” Political Behavior 27 (3): 285–312.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scott, Joan Wallach. 2009. The Politics of the Veil. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silverstein, Paul. 2004. “Headscarves and the French Tricolor.” Middle Eastern Research Online 13(4). URL: https://merip.org/2004/01/headscarves-and-the-french-tricolor/Google Scholar
Sniderman, Paul, Hagendoorn, Louk, and Prior, Markus. 2004. “Predisposing Factors and Situational Triggers: Exclusionary Reactions to Immigrant Minorities.” American Political Science Review 98 (01): 35–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soper, Christopher, and Fetzer, Joel. 2003. “Explaining the Accommodation of Muslim Religious Practices in France, Britain, and Germany.” French Politics 1 (1): 39–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stasi, Bernard. 2003. Report to the President of the Republic. Technical report Commission of Reflection on the Application of the Principle of Laicism in the Republic. URL: https://www.vie-publique.fr/sites/default/files/rapport/pdf/034000725.pdfGoogle Scholar
Steele, Claude, and Aronson, Joshua. 1995. “Stereotype Threat and the Intellectual Test Performance of African Americans.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 69 (5): 797–811.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Turner, John, and Tajfel, Henri. 1986. “The Social Identity Theory of Intergroup Behavior.” Psychology of Intergroup Relations: 7–24.Google Scholar
Verkuyten, Maykel, and Yildiz, Ali Aslan. 2007. “National (Dis)identification and Ethnic and Religious Identity: A Study Among Turkish-Dutch Muslims.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 33 (10): 1448–1462.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Voas, David, and Fleischmann, Fenella. 2012. “Islam Moves West: Religious Change in the First and Second Generations.” Annual Review of Sociology 38 (1): 525–545.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Westfall, Aubrey, Russell, Özge Çelik, Welborne, Bozena, and Tobin, Sarah. 2017. “Islamic Headcovering and Political Engagement: The Power of Social Networks.” Politics and Religion 10 (1): 3–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, Kipling, and Sommer, Kristin. 1997. “Social Ostracism by Coworkers: Does Rejection Lead to Loafing or Compensation?” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 23 (7): 693–706.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Winter, Bronwyn. 2009. Hijab and the Republic: Uncovering the French Headscarf Debate. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press.Google Scholar
Wright, Matthew, and Bloemraad, Irene. 2012. “Is there a Trade-off Between Multiculturalism and Socio-political Integration? Policy Regimes and Immigrant Incorporation in Comparative Perspective.” Perspectives on Politics 10 (1): 77–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yazdiha, Hajar. 2019. “Exclusion through Acculturation? Comparing First-and Second-Generation European Muslims’ Perceptions of Discrimination across Four National Contexts.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 42 (5): 782–800.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ysseldyk, Renate, Matheson, Kimberly, and Anisman, Hymie. 2010. “Religiosity as Identity: Toward an Understanding of Religion from a Social Identity Perspective.” Personality and Social Psychology Review 14 (1): 60–71.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Supplementary material: Link

Abdelgadir and Fouka Dataset

Dataset

https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/KSSFDI
Link
Supplementary material: PDF

Abdelgadir and Fouka supplementary material

Online Appendix

Download Abdelgadir and Fouka supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 472.7 KB
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.