POLICY BRIEF VEIL. Policy assessment and Policy recommendations. Values, Equality and Differences in Liberal Democracies

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1 POLICY BRIEF VEIL Values, Equality and Differences in Liberal Democracies Debates about Female Muslim Headscarves in Europe Policy assessment and Policy recommendations

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3 VEIL aims at... The VEIL-project explains the differences and similarities in policy-making and regulation across Europe. The project will explicate how the framing of the issue of Muslim headscarves, the values, norms and principles embedded in the debates structures the policy making processes. The aim is to show how constructions of gender at the intersection with ethnicity, nationality and religion are part of negotiation processes over values and norms in European democracies. Nationality GENDER Ethnicity Religion Methodology VEIL explores the topic with a policy oriented comparative social science and gender-sensitive approach. VEIL applies a gender-critical frame analysis of policy documents on Muslim headscarves to encode values and norms, which underlie the policy debates in : Austria Denmark France Germany Greece Netherlands Turkey UK This Policy Brief has been elaborated under the EU-funded project GEMMA ( which aims improve the flow of communication between researchers, policy-makers and civil society organisations in the field of Gender and Migration research. GEMMA policy briefs synthesize research findings in Gender & Migration in a language closer to policy makers and civil society organisations at European and national level. GEMMA is a project funded by the European Commission, Directorate General Research Unit L Science, economy and Society. VEIL is a project funded by the 6th Framework Programme of research & Development Directorate General Research, Unit L Science, Economy and Society. GEMMA consortium analysed VEIL for its interesting results for Policy makers and citizens. Coordinator Consortium University of Vienna (AT) Department of Political Science, Faculty of Social Sciences Birgit SAUER - birgit.sauer@univie.ac.at; Sieglinde ROSENBERGER - sieglinde.rosenberger@univie.ac.at Aalborg University (DK) University Paris 8 (FR) Freie Universität Berlin (DE) Panteion University (GR) Free University Amsterdam (NL) Middle East Technical University (TR) Lancaster University (GB) Duration Website For more information on this policy brief gemmateam@gemmaproject.eu

4 VEIL POLICY BRIEF Research findings The Veil-project has generated major findings relevant for studies on migration, gender equality, and religion and politics. We can summarize it by this plan : THE VEIL-PROJECT Studies on migration Gender equality Religion Politics We found several modes of regulating Muslim head- and body-covering in the countries investigated. The modes of regulation differ in different political and societal sites (public institutions, education, private sector); they also differ with respect to the type of covering. Some countries have established modes of regulation with prohibitive consequences, in other countries non-restrictive propositions are at work; some of them could be qualified as tolerant regulations, others as non-regulations. In general, we conclude: - In the last decade more and more restrictive measures and public debates calling for restrictions have emerged in the 8 countries. - Debates focusing on restrictions refer increasingly to forms of face covering and full body covering. Put it differently: debates on full veils (niquab, burqua) have superseded the headscarf (hijab) especially in countries with tolerant climate towards the headscarf, such as the Netherlands and UK. The modes of regulating Muslim head-and bodycovering In general, we conclude: - In the last decade more and more restrictive measures and public debates calling for restrictions have emerged in the 8 countries. Prohibitive Non-restrictive - Debates focusing on restrictions refer increasingly to forms of face covering and full body covering. Put it Which factors can explain different consequences regulations of the wearing of the headscarf? Tolerant regulations Non-regulations Public institution Education Private sector

5 The project results indicate that the historically established relation between religion and state is a major factor in determining the regulation of Muslim head- and body-covering. The given citizenship-model and existing anti-discrimination machineries play only marginal roles in arguing for or against head- and body-covering regulation. Beside the church-state-relation, the frames deployed in public debates over the wearing of head- and bodycoverings are of great importance for policy-making. Policy documents in the eight countries plus the European Union refer mainly to three values : the right to religious freedom, protection or violation of gender equality, and secularity. It is worth to note that these values have been employed in debates both in order to argue for or against the prohibition of the wearing of the head scarf in public institutions. Again, references to gender equality presented as a modern value help to construct the argumentation for and against restrictions. However, framing headand body-covering as an issue of anti-discrimination is rarely found in the debates. With respect to "discursive" Europeanization through the use of common values and frames the project gives evidence that the headscarf debate do rather contribute to the re-construction of national identities than to a discursive European value space. In some countries, even universal values and norms are being portrayed as national values deriving from national cultures and heritages. Policy recommendations The recommendations focus on major scholarly results of the project and on suggestions how these results could be applied for governing inclusive and participatory decision making: Awareness of the multidimensional intersections of discrimination in relation to headscarf regulations by focusing on multidimensional strategies for creating equal opportunity structures - Discrimination at the labour-market in the context of tolerant as well as restrictive headscarfregulations - Unequal participation opportunities of headscarf wearing women in the context of tolerant regulation Create equal opportunities for participation by focusing on context-sensitive anti-discrimination machinery - Enforce and enhance anti-discrimination machinery - Creation of new intersectional anti-discrimination machinery on national as well as on EU-level Create equal opportunities for participation by focusing on innovative anti-discrimination measures - Monitoring societal consequences of implemented restrictive headscarf regulations - Specify the margin of appreciation of the anti-discrimination directives Create equal opportunities through participation at negotiation processes in political and administrative bodies of decision making - Inclusive representative bodies as prerequisite for decision-making processes Create equal opportunities through participation in public deliberation - Recognizing that values and norms are continuously re-constructed in negotiation processes - Giving Muslim women a voice Elaborate research programs that focus on the governance of intersectional differences and plurality

6 VEIL POLICY BRIEF Fiche of GEMMA project Acronym and Project Full title Funding scheme Coordinator Duration EU funding Website Short description GEMMA - Enhancing evidence based policy-making in Gender & Migration Coordination and Support Action APRE Agency for the Promotion of European Research -Dr. Diassina Di Maggio dimaggio@apre.it 1 st April st July ,00 Mio GEMMA is a dissemination project which will contribute to strengthen the dialogue between researchers, policymakers and civil society organizations in the field of Gender and Migration. The main activities foreseen are: Valorisation and dissemination of EU-funded research projects in the field of Gender and Migration to Policy-makers and Civil Society Organizations in the five member states and languages of the GEMMA project Opportunities of dialogue through targeted workshops aimed at strengthening communication and networking between Researchers, Policy-makers and Civil Society; GEMMA consortium Recommendation at the national level to enhance interaction and collaboration between the different actors in the field of Gender and Migration Agency for the Promotion of European Research APRE (Italy) - Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales EHESS (France) - Social Policy Research Center, Middlesex University SPRC (United Kingdom) The Hungarian Science and Technology Foundation Tetalap (Hungary) - Relationship to other EC and National projects Center for Social Innovation ZSI (Austria) - GEMMA will produce thematic policy briefs containing results and recommendations from the following projects: FEMIPOL Integration of Female immigrants in labour market and society. FEMAGE Needs for Female Immigrants and their Integration in Ageing Society. GRINE - Gender Relations in Europe at the turn of the Millenium: women as subjects in migration and marriage ETHNOGENERATION the Characteristics of the Second Generation in Families of Ethnic Entrepreneurs : intergenerational and gender aspects of quality of processes SERVANT (Thematic network) The Socio-Economic Role of Domestic Service as a Factor of European Society IMISCOE (thematic network) includes the C8 cluster covering gender, generation and age. LIMITS: Immigrants and Ethnic Minorities in European Cities PROMINSTAT Promoting comparative quantitative research on immigration and integration THESIM: Towards Harmonised European Statistics on International Migration FEMCIT ( ) Gendered Citizenship in Multicultural Europe: the impact of contemporary women's movement QUING ( ) Quality in Gender Equality Policies VEIL - Values, Equality and Differences in Liberal Democracies. Debates about Female Muslim Headscarves in Europe. Evaluation of Migration and Ethnicity in the 4th and 5th Programme (MigPro) REOH - Researching equal opportunities for internationally recruited nurses and other healthcare professionals. Civic Stratification, Gender and Family Migration Policies in Europe Contesting Multiculturalism - Gender Equality, Cultural Diversity and Sexual Autonomy in the EU Female Migration Vision - "Initiatives to promote gender equality between women and men, including activities concerning migrant women" Rôles et perspectives des femmes relais en France Supporting the integration of migrants into the labour market by training of the relevant social workers