The USA has so far failed to accept Iraqi refugees, most of whom have ended up in other countries in the Middle East, especially their neighbors like Syria and Jordan. By now, the Jordanians may have become a minority of the population in Jordan, outnumbered by registered refugees and other displaced persons, especially the Iraqis and the Palestinians (who already constituted nearly half of the population in 2002 even according to the Jordanian government). Refugees from Iraq, just like refugees from Palestine, will make the politics of the Middle East more volatile than before in the near future.
But that is not a question that the Pew Research Center considers in this survey, whose main point is comparison between American and other Muslims, especially European Muslims.
The biggest difference between Muslims in the USA and Muslims in Europe is that the latter are a lot poorer than the former. See page 3 of "Muslim Americans: Middle Class and Mostly Mainstream" (Pew Research Center, 22 May 2007, <http://pewresearch.org/assets/pdf/muslim-americans.pdf>).
Percent low-income compared with general public U.S. +2 Brit +22 Fra +18 Ger +18 Spa +23
See, also, "Income Disparities in Advanced Democracies" on p. 19.
There currently is struggle over the changes in US immigration policy envisioned in the compromise Senate bill: most importantly, from the current system of family unification and employer sponsorship to a point-based merit system that rewards English proficiency, educational credentials, and so on. Aside from immigrants from Mexico and other poorer countries in South America and the Caribbeans, though, immigrants from many countries -- especially from Africa, West Asia, and South Asia -- already are better educated than the native-born in the USA, for those who grow up in such regions without education have difficulty finding a way to come and stay here. In contrast, many European countries earlier accepted, and are still coping with, poorer Muslim immigrants from their former colonial possessions. North Africa and West Asia may be thought of as Europe's Mexico.
While American Muslims, especially immigrants, are less economically excluded than European Muslims, the former still hold views that are economically on the Left, while being culturally conservative, much like Blacks:
Muslim Americans hold liberal political views on questions
about the size and scope of government. At the same time,
however, they are socially conservative and supportive of
a strong role for government in protecting morality. When
asked to choose, 70% express a preference for a larger
government providing more services; just 21% prefer a
smaller government providing fewer services. The general
public in the U.S. is divided on this question. A comparably
large percentage (73%) says that the government should
do more to help the needy even if it means going deeper
into debt; just 17% say the government cannot afford to do
more for poor people.
But Muslim Americans are not consistently liberal on all
political questions. A solid majority (61%) says that homosexuality
is a way of life that should be discouraged by society. Just 27%
say homosexuality should be accepted, compared with 51% of
the general public. Similarly, 59% of Muslim Americans believe
that the government should do more to protect morality in society,
while 29% worry that government is getting too involved in
promoting morality. Among the general public, 51% worries
about too much government involvement in protecting morality.
(pp. 7-8)
American Muslims are like Blacks on foreign policy, too: see "Criticism of U.S. Foreign Policy" on p. 5.
The tendency to combine anti-imperialism, economic populism, and cultural conservatism seen among American Muslims, who are probably among the best educated and most comfortable Muslims in the world, no doubt is more pronounced among Muslims in the global South.
On 5/22/07, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> Well yeah. And the ones that come here do so because they want to.
Self-selection is certainly a factor, but with the exception of undocumented immigrants and natural-born citizens, the choice is ultimately the US government's: the immigration authorities do check your political and criminal backgrounds among other things, and would-be Muslim immigrants today are placed under closer scrutiny than others, as several high-profile cases of visa denials, detentions, deportations, etc. hint. -- Yoshie