Muslim integration in Scotland

Ipsos Scotland was commissioned by the British Council Scotland to undertake research into the attitudes of Scots towards Muslims in Scotland and into Muslim Scots' experiences of integration. A mixed method approach was adopted, which consisted of a telephone survey and a series of focus groups. The research examined Muslim and non-Muslim perceptions of one another and of the extent of Muslim integration in Scotland. The research also looked at potential barriers to integration and ways in which these may be overcome.

Click here to view the full research report on the British Council's website.

Technical details The research consisted of two stages: a quantitative stage (a telephone survey) and a qualitative stage (a series of focus groups). Quantitative research Several questions were included in the February 2010 wave of the Ipsos Scottish Public Opinion Monitor. The telephone survey was designed to be representative of the Scottish adult population. Random digit dialling and quotas based on population characteristics (sex, age, working status and housing tenure) are used to ensure representativeness. Fieldwork was conducted amongst 1,006 respondents between 18th February 2010 and 21st February 2010. The survey was representative of the Scottish population as a whole and so was essentially a survey of non-Muslims (there are likely to have been fewer than ten Muslim respondents in the sample). Some of the questions were designed to be comparable with questions from other surveys, including the Pew Survey (2008), the Gallup Coexist Study (June 2008) and the Scottish Social Attitudes Survey (2006), referred to as SSAS. Qualitative research Seven focus groups were conducted in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee between 9th March 2010 and 23rd March 2010. To encourage participants to be open about the issues in question, all focus groups were either Muslim only or non-Muslim only groups. Muslim groups comprised of Muslims who were born in Scotland, and those that were born elsewhere but had lived in Scotland for varying periods of time. Non-Muslims groups were made-up of non-Muslims who were White Scottish and Christian or had no religion. Efforts were made to recruit non-Muslim participants from areas of Scotland with a relatively high Muslim population to ensure they had some contact with the Muslim community and to enable discussion about Muslim integration in Scotland. The selected specific areas for recruitment reflected this; Govan/Pollockshields (Glasgow), Tay Bridges (Dundee) and around the Leith Walk area (Edinburgh).

160